• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.188-198
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• 2010

This study attempts to examine the influence that negative WOM (NWOM) has in an online context. It specifically focuses on the impact of the service failure description and the perceived intention of the communication provider on consumer evaluations of firm competence, attitude toward the firm, positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions. Studies of communication persuasiveness focus on "who says what; to whom; in which channel; with what effect (Chiu 2007)." In this research study, we examine electronic web posting, particularly focusing on two aspects of "what": the level of service failure communicated and perceived intention of the individual posting. It stands to reason electronic NWOM that appears to be trying to damage a product’s or firm's reputation will be viewed as more biased and will thus be considered as less credible. According to attribution theory, people search for the causes of events especially those that are negative and unexpected (Weiner 2006). Hennig-Thurau and Walsh (2003) state "since the reader has only limited knowledge and trust of the author of an online articulation the quality of the contribution could be expected to serve as a potent moderator of the articulation-behavior relationship. We therefore posit the following hypotheses: H1. Subjects exposed to electronic NWOM describing a high level of service failure will provide lower scores on measures of (a) firm competence, (b) attitude toward the firm, (c) positive word of mouth, and (d) behavioral intention than will subjects exposed to electronic NWOM describing a low level of service failure. H2. Subjects exposed to electronic NWOM with a warning intent will provide lower scores on measures of (a) firm competence, (b) attitude toward the firm, (c) positive word of mouth, and (d) behavioral intention than will subjects exposed to electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. H3. Level of service failure in electronic NWOM will interact with the perceived intention of the electronic NWOM, such that there will be a decrease in mean response on measures of (a) firm competence, (b) attitude toward the firm, (c) positive word of mouth, and (d) behavioral intention from electronic NWOM with a warning intent to a vengeful intent. The main study involved a2 (service failure severity) x2 (NWOM with warning versus vengeful intent) factorial experiment. Stimuli were presented to subjects online using a mock online web posting. The scenario described a service failure associated with non-acceptance of a gift card in a brick-and-mortar retail establishment. A national sample was recruited through an online research firm. A total of 113 subjects participated in the study. A total of 104 surveys were analyzed. The scenario was perceived to be realistic with 92.3% giving the scenario a greater than average response. Manipulations were satisfactory. Measures were pre-tested and validated. Items were analyzed and found reliable and valid. MANOVA results found the multivariate interaction was not significant, allowing our interpretation to proceed to the main effects. Significant main effects were found for post intent and service failure severity. The post intent main effect was attributable to attitude toward the firm, positive word of mouth and behavioral intention. The service failure severity main effect was attributable to all four dependent variables: firm competence, attitude toward the firm, positive word of mouth and behavioral intention. Specifically, firm competence for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower than electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Attitude toward the firm for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower than electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Positive word of mouth for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower than electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Behavioral intention for electronic NWOM describing high severity of service failure was lower for electronic NWOM describing low severity of service failure. Therefore, H1a, H1b, H1c and H1d were all supported. In addition, attitude toward the firm for electronic NWOM with a warning intent was lower than electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. Positive word of mouth for electronic NWOM with a warning intent was lower than electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. Behavioral intention for electronic NWOM with a warning intent was lower than electronic NWOM with a vengeful intent. Thus, H2b, H2c and H2d were supported. However, H2a was not supported though results were in the hypothesized direction. Otherwise, there was no significant multivariate service failure severity by post intent interaction, nor was there a significant univariate service failure severity by post intent interaction for any of the three hypothesized variables. Thus, H3 was not supported for any of the four hypothesized variables. This study has research and managerial implications. The findings of this study support prior research that service failure severity impacts consumer perceptions, attitude, positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions (Weun et al. 2004). Of further relevance, this response is evidenced in the online context, suggesting the need for firms to engage in serious focused service recovery efforts. With respect to perceived intention of electronic NWOM, the findings support prior research suggesting reader's attributions of the intentions of a source influence the strength of its impact on perceptions, attitude, positive word of mouth and behavioral intentions. The implication for managers suggests while consumers do find online communications to be credible and influential, not all communications are weighted the same. A benefit of electronic WOM, even when it may be potentially damaging, is it can be monitored for potential problems and additionally offers the possibility of redress.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.143-164
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• 2010

Although word-of-mouth (WOM) has been regarded as one of the very important topics in consumer research, its effects on other aspects of consumer behavior have been scarcely investigated in the context of health-care service industry. The WOM literature also suggests that it is essential for medical care service organizations in fierce competition to adopt WOM communication as a competitive weapon so as to be able to stay ahead of competition. The goal of this research was set to empirically study various relationships between antecedent variables, WOM acceptance, and purchase of medical care services. Specifically, drawing on the WOM literature, eight antecedents to WOM acceptance were selected first. Based on the relevant literature, seven sets of hypotheses on the relationships among antecedents to WOM, WOM acceptance, purchase intention and purchase of medical services were developed. Data were collected via an on-line survey. A total of 571 out of 600 responses turned out to be usable. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows: First, 6 out of 8 antecedent variables to WOM acceptance were found to be positively affect WOM acceptance. However, the effects of (1) "newness of technology" pertaining to medical care service characteristics and (2) "involvement in health", one of receiver characteristics, were found to be insignificant. Second, most moderating effects on the relationship between purchase and purchase intention of medical care services were found to be insignificant with one exception. That is, elapse of time was found to be a marginally significant moderator on the relationship between purchase and purchase intention of medical care services. Third, it was found that the higher the WOM acceptance, the higher the purchase intention of medical care services. Finally, the effect of WOM acceptance was found to be particularly strong when WOM contents were perceived as useful and positive. Overall, it seems essential for hospitals to actively adopt WOM communication as a competitive marketing tool if they plan to improve their business performance. In this respect, the current study may serve to improve the business performance of hospitals by way of providing theoretical and empirical evidence on the effects of WOM communication variables on WOM acceptance and medical care service purchase.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.61-84
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• 2005

Previous studies indicate that information and communication technology (ICT) adoption is affected by innovation influence such as usefulness, ease of use and self-efficacy. Most of these studies, how-ever, bypassed imitation influence such as subjective norms, word-of-mouth, and advertising, specifically, interactive innovation having critical mass in technology acceptance research. Thus, this study focuses to investigate imitation influence in individual adoption of mobile communication technology. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the causal relationships between initial acceptance and the intention to use in terms of a holistic approach. The results of this study show that there is an imitation influence including word-of-mouth and subjective norms, from the prior adopters to potential adopters, and mass advertising through TV or news-paper commercials in the ICT diffusion process. In addition, this imitation influence also stimulates innovation influence such as perceived usefulness. Finally, this study provides a set of guidelines to mobile communication equipment manufacturers and ICT vendors in developing effective strategies for technology diffusion.

• Journal of Sport and Applied Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Purpose: This study sought to investigate the critical features of Word of mouth (WOM) advertising and their impact on sport consumer behavior. Research design, data, and methodology: Target population of the study consisted of all sports consumer of the Federation of Special Patients and Organ Transplantation, Tehran (Iran), who had indirectly watched the World Organ Transplant Competition documentary at least once on others' advice. For this purpose, 360 sports consumers of the federation were purposefully selected and they were asked to complete the standard WOM advertising questionnaire of Asda and Ko. Pearson correlation coefficient test and modeling of structural equations were performed using Spss24 and Smart PLS software at an error level of 0.05 used to analyze the data. Results: The findings show that there is a significant relationship between experience and expertise, trust and validity, content richness, and the power of message transmission through WOM advertising and its predictability. Finally, interpersonal relationships and work involvement also had a moderating role in this regard. Conclusions: The general conclusion is that the components of WOM advertising as well as involvement and homophily with the mediating role directly as one of the presuppositions for persuasion. The sports consumer was promoting WOM.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.433-440
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• 2021

This study aims at testing word-of-mouth (WOM) by mediating positive and negative perceptions of purchase intention on low-cost carriers (LCC) flights in Indonesia. One of the communications mixes that airlines can carry out is WOM. WOM is a form of communication between passengers after using a flight. The formation of a positive perception of WOM is expected by airlines. If a positive perception of WOM has formed, a purchase intention will arise. The study population included LCC flight passengers in Indonesia, involving 387 respondents. For indicators and variables, validity and reliability tests were conducted using CFA, CR, and AVE tools. Sampling locations were Soekarno-Hatta and Kualanamu airports. Sample collection was obtained through purposive sampling, and the analytical tool used was structural equation modeling (SEM) with Lisrel. The results showed that WOM influenced purchase intention through positive and negative perceptions of WOM. It can be seen that a positive perception of WOM has a direct effect, while a negative perception of WOM has the opposite effect. In conclusion, the mediation of perceptions influences purchase intention, whether it in the same direction or the opposite ones. To conclude, WOM is an antecedent for it influences purchase intention.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.105-129
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• 2013

This study draws important factors in electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) and examines how these influence the building of customer loyalty. eWOM is viewed as social communication between customers and sellers, and thus the communicative action theory is applied. With the theory, we identify reviewer and seller as influential players on customers, and derive important factors such as correctness and veracity of reviews from the reviewers' action, and information compactness and adequacy from the seller's action. We propose these constructs as antecedents of customer loyalty and further hypothesize their curvilinear impacts as follows: the marginal impacts of veracity and correctness will decrease as veracity and correctness increase, and the marginal impacts of compactness and adequacy will increase as compactness and adequacy increase. The result indicates that only the seller's action has a curvilinear impact, whereas the reviewer has proportional positive impact on customer loyalty. This study indentifies important factors in eWOM from a critical social theory perspective and validates them using the positivistic approach. For practitioners, it discusses the important factors in eWOM with the identification of the individuals who are responsible for these factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.217-235
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• 2014

As a follow-up of the study on the marketing effect of undergraduates' work experience in university libraries(Choi 2012), this study aims to identify differences in the library loyalty of student employees by the managerial characteristics of student employees and analyzes the loyalty of the acquaintances of the student employees to identify the word-of-mouth marketing effect by behavioral loyalty of student employees. Based on the results from the analyses, we discuss the possibility of the management of student employees as a marketing activities in university libraries to the whole undergraduate student.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.13-22
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• 2022

Purpose: Brand hearsay refers to information that can be acquired from advertisement, media publicity, and word-of-mouth prior to experiencing products or services of brands. Previous information about brands obtained through brand hearsay affects consumer behavior in choosing brands. Moreover, brand hearsay is an effective communication method in promoting brands to consumers. Thus, bakery franchises need to improve strengths and differentiate characteristics of their brand, thereby attracting more consumers. Therefore, this study investigates relationships the effect of brand hearsay on consumers' brand attitude and brand loyalty in the context of franchised bakery brands. Research design, data, and methodology: A research model was proposed to examine structural relationships between brand hearsay (advertising, publicity, word-of-mouth), brand attitude, and brand loyalty. An online survey was conducted to consumers who had an experience of visiting a franchise bakery. A total of 513 responses were used for data analysis. SPSS 22.0 was used for analyzing general demographics, and SmartPLS 4.0 was used to test validity and reliability of the proposed model. Result: Among attributes of brand hearsay, advertisement and word-of-mouth had positively significant effects on brand attitude, but no significant effect was found between publicity and attitude. Advertisement had a positively significant impact on brand loyalty, while publicity had a negative effect on brand loyalty opposite to hypothesis. Moreover, brand attitude had a statistically significant effect on brand loyalty. Conclusions: In the context of franchise bakeries, brand hearsay contents may change consumers' attitude toward brands but does not increase brand loyalty. Though media publicity does not affect consumers' attitude toward brands, it may decrease brand loyalty when consumers are too exposed to it. In addition, it is necessary to enhance brand attitude to increase brand loyalty of customers. This study provides bakery franchisors and franchisees information about which type of brand hearsay (e.g., advertisement, word-of-mouth, media, publicity) is effective in enhancing brand attitudes and loyalty of consumers. Further studies may include other variables (e.g., trust) in addition to attitude and loyalty, or compare findings based on brand characteristics (e.g., low-to-medium/high prices, store size).

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.75-86
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• 2017

Purpose - The online-to-offline (O2O) business model has brought considerable changes to the traditional Chinese business model. The main difference between O2O and pure online consumption is that O2O offers a richer experience and word-of-mouth. it is easier to trigger online word-of-mouth. However, few scholars have been concerned about the impact of experiential value on customer satisfaction and online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) in the study of O2O. This study takes the O2O business model in China's catering industry as its research object and uses structural equation modelling to analyze the impact of online and offline experiential values on customer satisfaction and e-WOM. Research design, data, and methodology - According to previous researches, consumer experiential value is mainly divided into return on investment (economy and efficiency), service excellence, playfulness and aesthetics. According to the characteristics of O2O in China's catering industry, this study divides the online experience value into efficiency and economy (return on investment). The offline part is divided into return on investment (economy and efficiency), service excellence, playfulness and aesthetics. Using a web-based survey, we collected 303 valid samples. Structural equation modelling was used to create the research model. Results - The results show that efficiency (online) and service excellence (offline) have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. Economics (online) and playfulness (offline) have a positive impact on customers' e-WOM. In addition, the higher the customer satisfaction, the greater the positive impact on the spread by word of mouth. However, aesthetic(offline) and return on investment(offline) have no significant impact to customer satisfaction and e-WOM. Conclusions - The study findings show that the key to boost customer satisfaction in the catering industry is to improve product quality and service. Although traditional competitive strategies such as online discount have been questioned by many scholars about their decreasing effectiveness, they are indispensable means to attract online traffic and trigger e-WOM. The traditional enterprises can reconstruct traditional business processes through the O2O model to effectively improve customer satisfaction and word of mouth by improving the experiential value of economy and efficiency. Additionally, it can be used as the natural advantages of online communication to induce customers to engage in word of mouth and attract more potential customers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.764-769
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• 2010

The aim of this study was to examine how customers perceive storytelling at a real local restaurant and to understand how consumption reflects their evaluation by understanding their values. Participants received information from a real local restaurant in the Gangneung area to examine the effects of storytelling and to evaluate their affective attitudes towards local restaurant stories, word-of-mouth intentions, and purchasing intentions using a seven-point Likert scale. A total of 310 consumers were used. A factor analysis was performed to identify consumption value characteristics and factor structure, which consisted economic value, emotional value, and epistemic value. To test whether local restaurant consumers could be classified into homogenous groups based on their consumption values, a three cluster solution was selected, and a Kmeans cluster analysis was performed. As a result, three groups were identified and labeled appropriate for their scores based on each of the consumption values; emotional value-oriented consumers to cluster 1, epistemic value-oriented consumers to cluster 2, and economic value-oriented consumers to cluster 3. An analysis of variance was used to examine the differences in the affective attitudes towards storytelling at the local restaurant, purchasing intentions, and word-of-mouth intentions across the three clusters. The epistemic value-oriented consumers had the highest score for all three variables. In contrast, economic value-oriented consumers had the lowest scores for the three variables. A regression analysis revealed that affective attitudes towards storytelling were significantly affected by these three consumption values. It also showed that positive affective attitudes towards storytelling were associated with higher purchasing intention and word-of-mouth. The significance of this study was to show how customers perceive storytelling at a real restaurant and reflect on their evaluation by understanding their consumption values. As a result, this study examined the potential power of storytelling as an effective marketing communication tool for local restaurants.