Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of negative electronic word-of-mouth (N-eWOM) messages on attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavior control (PBC), and the intention to purchase sustainable dairy products. This study also investigates the moderating role of product sustainability claims to reduce the effect of N-eWOM on customers. It comprises two experiments on college students (n = 120; 90) who have at least two accounts on different social media platforms. We use both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The model was developed and tested on data collected from questionnaires. The results of Study 1 suggest that N-eWOM reduces purchase intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, and PBC. High N-eWOM reduces purchase intention more than the low N-eWOM. Study 2 found that with high N-eWOM, product sustainability claims (congruent or incongruent) moderate the effect of N-eWOM on attitudes, subjective norms, PBC, and purchase intention. Purchase intention is higher when a product sustainability claim is congruent. These novel findings contribute to our understanding of ways to mitigate the impact of N-eWOM by taking preventive actions, such as making product sustainability claims.
Highlights
Accepted: 14 February 2022Electronic word-of-mouth messages about product sustainability have gotten the attention of scholars, who have shown that information related to sustainability significantly influences consumers’ intention to purchase products [1]. eWOM is a positive or negative statement about a product available to society and institutions or the company that makes the product by someone who has used it [2]
To find out whether negative electronic word-of-mouth (N-eWOM) reduces attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavior control (PBC), and purchase intentions, participants accessed eWOM negative mock-up shows about products online through a smartphone application
To determine whether participants felt they received high or low N-eWOM, they responded to two statements (α = 0.918): “The number of negative reviews is large, more than 5 reviews” and “The number of negative comments online is small, less than
Summary
Accepted: 14 February 2022Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) messages about product sustainability have gotten the attention of scholars, who have shown that information related to sustainability significantly influences consumers’ intention to purchase products [1]. eWOM is a positive or negative statement about a product available to society and institutions or the company that makes the product by someone who has used it [2]. EWOM is a positive or negative statement about a product available to society and institutions or the company that makes the product by someone who has used it [2]. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) messages about product sustainability have gotten the attention of scholars, who have shown that information related to sustainability significantly influences consumers’ intention to purchase products [1]. It has a great influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions [3,4]. An information search is one stage in the theory of purchasing decision-making [9]
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