Negative Word Of Mouth Research Articles

Consumer reactions to unsustainable luxury: a cross-country analysis

PurposeThis paper investigates why and when messages regarding unsustainable luxury products lead to negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) through a focus on the role of guilt, need to warn others and consumers' cultural orientation.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments test whether messages describing unsustainable versus sustainable luxury manufacturing processes elicit guilt and a need to warn others and whether and how the need to warn others affects consumers' NWOM depending on their cultural orientation.FindingsConsumers experience guilt in response to messages emphasizing the unsustainable (vs sustainable) nature of luxury products. In turn, guilt triggers a need to warn other consumers, which leads to NWOM about the luxury company. Furthermore, the results suggest that two dimensions of Hofstede's model of national culture – namely individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity – moderate the effect of the need to warn others on NWOM.Practical implicationsLuxury managers should design appropriate strategies to cope with consumers' different reactions to information regarding luxury brands' unsustainability. Managers should be aware that the risk of NWOM diffusion may be higher in countries characterized by a collectivistic and feminine orientation rather than an individualistic and masculine orientation.Originality/valueConsumer reaction to unsustainable luxury, especially across different cultural groups, is a neglected area of investigation. This work contributes to this novel area of research by investigating NWOM stemming from unsustainable luxury manufacturing practices in different cultural contexts.

Positive and negative word of mouth (WOM) are not necessarily opposites: A reappraisal using the dual factor theory

Prior research has not systematically investigated the enablers and inhibitors in conjunction to measure consumer behavior toward mobile wallets (m-wallets), focusing either on the adoption or the resistance perspective only. Similarly, antecedents and consequences of the dichotomous nature of word of mouth for m-wallets have also remained obscure so far. The present research proposes to address this void in the accumulated learnings by examining both enablers and inhibitors of mobile wallets (m-wallets) as antecedents of valence of word of mouth (positive and negative; PWOM and NWOM, respectively). Grounded in Dual Factor Theory, this study aims to explore consumers’ continued use intentions resulting from the WOM valence. The findings reveal that enablers (perceived information quality, perceived ability, and perceived benefit) drive PWOM, while the inhibitors (perceived cost, perceived risk, and perceived uncertainty) spur NWOM. Furthermore, the results show that only PWOM drives the continuance intentions of m-wallet users. Therefore, the study proves that the antecedents of PWOM are different from those of NWOM.

To err is human: Tolerate humans instead of machines in service failure

Full automation and self-service technologies have become popular in service marketing. However, customers often face multiple issues when dealing with self-service technologies. This paper examines the effect of service-failure type (employee failure vs. self-service technology failure) on customers' negative responses (dissatisfaction, forgiveness, willingness to switch between employee and self-service technology, and negative word of mouth). Through four experiments with Amazon Mechanical Turk workers and undergraduate students, this research finds that customers have more negative responses for a self-service technology failure than for an employee failure. This is because they get angrier with machines' mistakes than with those of humans. Moreover, empathy alleviates anger and customers’ negative responses in employee failure, but not in self-service technology failure. This research offers service providers new insights by scrutinizing the flip side of complete automation in service marketing.

Impact of Negative Word of Mouth on Firm Value

With the development of information and communication technology and spread of smart devices, online information exchange has become a daily routine. Accordingly, the management and utilization of online word of mouth (WOM) has become an important issue for companies. Numerous studies have examined the impact of online WOM on firm performance. This study analyzes the impact of negative word of mouth (NWOM) on firm value, considering the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity and research and development (R&D) investment. Using a hierarchical linear model, we find that 1) NWOM has a negative impact on firm value, 2) CSR activities do not significantly influence this impact, and 3) R&D investment reduces this negative impact. This study contributes by demonstrating the effect of NWOM on firm value, examining the influence of CSR activities and R&D investment on the impact of NWOM, and confirming that the hierarchical linear model can be applied effectively to panel data in empirical studies. As a practical implication, companies must prevent and manage NWOM, whose impact, when caused by an unavoidable incident, can be alleviated by proactively announcing that the company is striving for competitiveness, for instance, by investing in R&D.

Negative Emotions and Coping Behaviors of Passenger in the Airline Industry, Vietnam

In Vietnam, the airline service sector plays an important economic role. However, it is a complicated industry that is open to failures. Negative emotions are an essential variable for the airline service industry because they can trigger a variety of coping behaviors that affect consumer loyalty as well as the image and reputation of the airline service providers. However, negative emotions and the accompanying coping behaviors are often investigated partially or as separate issues, thus leading to an incomplete understanding. This study is conducted to fill this gap by proposing and testing the causal relationship between negative emotions (anger, frustration, regret) and coping behaviors (complaint, negative word-of-mouth (WOM), and switching intention) in the context of the airline industry. Eight research hypotheses are tested. Using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on a sample of 587 passengers in Vietnam, the empirical results show that anger and frustration influence complaints, negative WOM, and switching intention, while regret leads to switching intention and negative WOM. Thus, the research has important academic and practical implications. The empirical outcome could be of major importance for airline companies in planning to provide new services and achieve high performance in the long run.

The 4th V? The effect of word of mouth volatility on product performance

• WOM volatility may directly affect product performance, but the direction is an empirical question. • WOM volatility interacts with all three main characteristics of WOM: volume, valence, and variance. • Under volatile WOM volume, the positive WOM effects due to volume and valence and the negative WOM effects due to variance will be attenuated. This study investigates how word-of-mouth (WOM) volatility, a new WOM variable that measures the fluctuation over time in the WOM volume, affects product performance. Two conflicting forces of WOM volatility (i.e., positive effects on awareness and negative effects on preference and credibility) leave as an empirical question. We also investigate the moderating effects of WOM volatility on the relationship between existing WOM variables (i.e., volume, valence, and variance) and product performance. Cross-sectional regression analysis was conducted, using online WOM data in Korea movie industry. The results show that WOM volatility negatively affects the product performance only when consumers rely more on WOM information. Highly volatile WOMs weaken the positive effects of WOM volume and valence and the negative effects of WOM variance. This study suggested WOM volatility as a new characteristic of WOM. This study examined WOM volatility interacts with existing WOM variables. Managerial and academic implications are discussed.

Managing the aftermath: Scapegoating as crisis communication strategy

AbstractShould firms struggling with a brand crisis use scapegoating, the assignment of blame to another entity? Across three studies, we offer evidence of the value of scapegoating. We show that when firms use scapegoating, they reduce consumers' attributions of a firm's crisis responsibility, controllability, and stability. Compared to other strategies, including no response, denial, apology, and justification, scapegoating is most effective at reducing these attributions. However, attributions of crisis controllability seem more influential in reducing a firm's crisis responsibility. Scapegoating also increases consumers' word‐of‐mouth (WOM) intentions more than the no response strategy, but not more than denial, apology, and justification. The effect of scapegoating, however, depends on the scapegoat type. Whereas using an underdog scapegoat such as a regular company employee or a small partner firm can backfire and result in negative WOM intentions, the use of topdog scapegoats seems to have more positive effects. When firms use topdog scapegoats, such as the top management of a large firm, negative WOM intentions likely decrease. This type of effect seems to occur due to a reduction in the firm's crisis responsibility that scapegoating engenders.

Consumer guilt and green banking services

AbstractBanks offer loans to support many projects; however, some of these projects may not give adequate consideration to the environment. Little is known regarding the extent to which banking customers experience guilt when discovering that their bank supports projects that disregard the environment. An experiment with 313 participants was conducted, and the results showed that customers do experience guilt when discovering that their bank supports projects that do not give adequate consideration to the environment. This study found that guilt drives perceived consumer effectiveness and negative word‐of‐mouth regarding banking projects that neglect environmental considerations but not attitudes towards green banking. Negative word of mouth, but not the attitude towards green banking, mediates the effect of perceived consumer effectiveness on the intention to use green banking services. Negative word‐of‐mouth, rather than attitudes towards green banking and its perceived consumer effectiveness, drives the intention to use green banking services. These findings imply that banks need to encourage their customers to perceive that they are eco‐friendly to avoid a significant loss of customers.

Can corporate social responsibility deter consumer dysfunctional behavior?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how and when a reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) can deter dysfunctional consumer behaviors (DCBs) such as shoplifting or negative word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to firm failures. The authors predict that congruency of the CSR activities and the basis for the firm failure (e.g. environmental protection, environmental harm) provides protection for firms while incongruency (e.g. environmental protection, social harm) does not. The authors base this prediction on the process of retroactive attribution and sense-making.Design/methodology/approachAcross two studies the research finds support that a reputation for CSR can deter consumer dysfunctional behavior. Study 1 uses an experimental design with a Mturk sample, and a behavioral outcome using an overpayment situation, to examine when consumers will act honestly and recognize overpayment. Study 2 uses secondary data, across three novel data sources (Google trends data, an existing data set of consumer perceptions of CSR and Factiva to uncover press coverage of negative firm events). Study 2 examines how CSR reputation impacts consumers’ participation in negative WOM in response to firm failures.FindingsStudy 1 finds support for CSR congruency as a protection mechanism against dysfunctional behavior in response to negative events. The authors find that dysfunctional behaviors in conditions of congruency, while incongruent and a control condition do not provide such protections. Study 2 supports these findings using Google trends data in the form of online negative WOM. The authors find that when firms are known for their social performance, negative events in the social domain result in significantly lower levels of negative WOM.Originality/valueThe current paper makes the novel prediction that consumers will use a current negative event (corporate social irresponsibility) to re-evaluate previous CSR. Thus, in contrast with prior research, the authors argue that a negative event is not affected by previous CSR but that previous CSR is affected by a negative event. Furthermore, the authors posit that the congruency between the transgression and previous CSR moderates consumer perceptions, such that incongruent CSR and transgression contexts lead to increased DCBs through consumers’ retroactive sense-making process.

The influence of subjective characteristics of social network sites on consumers' word-of-mouth sharing

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how subjective characteristics of social network sites (SNSs) affect consumers' positive and negative word-of-mouth (WOM) sharing.Design/methodology/approachThe data used for this study were obtained from an online survey with a sample size of 369 consumers. Structural equation modeling was performed to test hypotheses and examine the research questions.FindingsThe authors found that the perceived anonymity of an SNS is negatively correlated with its perceived interpersonal closeness of friends, and the number of friends in an SNS is positively correlated with its perceived interpersonal closeness of friends. With regard to positive WOM, the perceived anonymity of the SNS has a significant negative influence on consumers' WOM, and both perceived interpersonal closeness and the number of friends have a significant positive influence on consumers' WOM. But, in the case of negative WOM, only perceived interpersonal closeness of friends has a significant positive influence on consumers' WOM.Practical implicationsWhen attempting to promote positive WOM, marketers should choose consumers who possess the “right” subjective characteristics of SNSs (i.e. low anonymity, high interpersonal closeness of friends and a large number of friends). At the same time, marketers should monitor the emergence of consumers' negative WOM, especially those consumers who have a high level of interpersonal closeness of friends in SNSs, and respond to the content of negative WOM without delay.Originality/valueThis study investigates the influence that subjective characteristics of SNSs have on consumers' WOM sharing and therefore contributes to the literature on the antecedents of WOM generation and also contributes to the research that compares positive WOM with its negative counterpart.

The effects of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer animosity on perceived betrayal and negative word-of-mouth

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to survey whether consumer ethnocentrism and animosity will affect consumers' perceived betrayal and cause negative word-of-mouth (NWOM).Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a 2 (consumer ethnocentrism) × 3 (consumer animosity) between-subject experiment design to test the hypotheses. Comprised of 380 respondents, this study used ANOVA to examine the data.FindingsThe results showed that if a brand violates the perception of fairness, ethnocentrism and animosity will have a positive effect on perceived betrayal. In addition, low consumer animosity revealed a significant consumer ethnocentrism effect and low ethnocentrism revealed a significant animosity effect, while the relationship between perceived betrayal and word of mouth is negative.Originality/valueThe current research adds to the understanding about how the reaction to a domestic brand's marketing strategies that are viewed as unfair and hurt the domestic consumers' expectations.

The Impact of Social Motivations on Word-of-Mouth Generation by Japanese Consumers

The authors examine the role of three social motivations (social bonding, social comparison, and the sharing of social norm information) in generating word-of-mouth (WOM) among consumers in a culture (Japan) where many consumers have an interdependent construal of self. Based on existing discussions of East Asian cultures in general and Japanese culture in particular, the authors hypothesized that these social motivations would be positively associated with the generation of WOM among Japanese consumers. To test these hypotheses, the authors surveyed 618 Japanese mothers who had purchased products designed to protect the health, safety, or well-being of their children. The resulting data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that, among Japanese consumers, the generation of both positive and negative word-of-mouth is a function of the desire to share social information. In addition, positive WOM is positively related to the desire for social comparison, while negative WOM is positively related to the desire for social bonding. Finally, the desire for social bonding has positive and significant indirect relationships with both positive and negative WOM.

I should have known better!: When firm-caused failure leads to self-image concerns and reduces negative word-of-mouth

Existing work suggests that consumers are most likely to share negative word-of-mouth (WOM) about a dissatisfying experience when they blame the firm. The current work, however, shows that consumers are sometimes reticent to share such WOM, because they believe it could cause them to appear incompetent. This occurs when consumers can generate counterfactuals in which they took some action(s) to avoid the dissatisfying outcome, a phenomenon we label retrospective purchase mutability (RPM). RPM causes consumers to accept some self-blame for dissatisfying outcomes, even those they perceive to be firm-caused, which leads them to believe that sharing information about the outcome could make them appear incompetent. The current work helps explain when firm-caused dissatisfying experiences lead to negative WOM and when they may not. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Evaluating people's concern about their health information privacy based on power-responsibility equilibrium model: A case of Taiwan.

To address the issue of rising expenditure of healthcare service and tofulfill the skyrocketing demand for quality healthcare, the electronic medical records (EMR) exchange has become a vital and indispensable solution for healthcare facilities in terms of being able to share medical information among healthcare providers. Hence, EMR exchange was expected to improve the quality of healthcare and reduce the cost of repetitive medical check-ups and unnecessary treatments. However, recent reports affirming EMR data leaks and compromises have ignited major worldwide privacy concerns over the security of the EMR systems. How to effectively diminish patients' concern for EMR privacy has thus become an important issue that healthcare institution managers/stakeholders have to address urgently. This study leverages the power-responsibility equilibrium perspective to investigate the antecedents and consequences of concerns for the EMR exchange. A survey using 391 responses collected from medical centers, regional and district hospitals in Taiwan was used to conduct this study. The results show that government regulations have apositive effect on hospital privacy policies. Furthermore, both government regulations and hospital privacy policy are negatively associated with concern for EMR information privacy. Additional reports gathered from this study also showed that concern for EMR information privacy could result in patients' protective responses including refusal to provide personal health information (PHI), removal of PHI, negative word of mouth, complaining directly to the hospital, or complaining indirectly to third-party organizations. These findings demonstrate the need for healthcare facilities to formulate robust privacy policies in order to alleviate patients' concern for EMR information privacy based on governmental regulations. This regulation is top-priority as the incapability of reducing patients' concern for EMR information privacy may lead to the collapse of the campaign for the full-adoption of EMR or possibly jeopardize the promotion and application of EMR among healthcare facilities.

Investor’s Intrinsic Motives and the Valence of Word-of-Mouth in Sequential Decision-Making

An escalation of commitment refers to an individual’s decision to engage in greater risk-taking following prior losses than gains. This behavior was found to be preeminent in situations framed as portfolio decisions. However, there is lack of evidence regarding the underlying mechanism behind an individual’s decision to engage in later high (or low) risk-taking in a loss (or gain) domain. A model was developed based on the connections between prospect theory, self-determination theory and word-of-mouth to provide underlying mechanisms that activate investors’ decisions to engage in later high (or low) risk-taking. We theorized that self- and/or social motives and negative word-of-mouth (NWoM) or positive word-of-mouth (PWoM) would double mediate the effect of prior low (high) risk-taking on later high (low) risk-taking in the loss (gain) domain. Results supported a double mediation effect and indicated that investors have different underlying self- and/or social motives, manifested in NWoM or PWoM, that activate later high (low) risk-taking in the loss (gain) domain. The findings have pertinent implications for advisors wishing to understand underlying self- and/or social motives in order to predict and manage client risk-attitude. The findings also help researchers and analysts to identify patterns in investor behavior that can predict market trends.

Negative word of mouth for a failed innovation from higher/lower equity brands: Moderating roles of opinion leadership and consumer testimonials

We investigate how higher versus lower-equity brands attract negative word of mouth (NWOM) from consumers when they fail in the marketplace. We find that the dynamics are conditional on the focal consumers’ desire for opinion leadership (OL) and the presence/absence of supporting testimonials for the focal brand. For example, among higher-OL consumers, higher-equity brands attract more (less) NWOM than lower-equity brands in the absence (presence) of testimonials. We show that the pattern emerges, in part, because these consumers wish to stand apart from others and be correct in their assessments when they spread NWOM, and such opportunities present themselves best when higher-equity brands, without supporting testimonials, fail in the marketplace. We discuss how the results can help brand managers insulate their brands from consumer backlash in the event of brand failures.

Perceived market orientation in the product return experience and its impact on post-purchase behavior

ABSTRACT This study examines the role of customer perceived justice in the product return process with a physical retailer. These experiences serve to form a perceived market orientation of the retailer – which has effects on retailer avoidance and negative WOM. The conceptual model is empirically tested using a main study of national panels for two U.S. retailers and a follow-up study with a national panel of customers of local retailers who had made memorable returns at a retailer’s physical location. Results illustrate that perceived justice during the return process impacts subsequent perceptions of the market orientation of the retailer.

Identification of Telecom Volatile Customers Using a Particle Swarm Optimized K-Means Clustering on Their Personality Traits Analysis

This research uses the telecom customers personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) to identify the volatile customers that always use the negative word of mouth (NWOM) in communications with others. Hence, a combination of text analysis and a personality analysis tool has been used to determine the customers personality factors from their chatting textual data, A particle swarm optimized k-means was used in the clustering process. The results provide an overview on how a chatbot conversation text represent the customer behavior. Optimizing the k-means cluster using partial swarm achieves a higher accuracy than using the traditional clustering technique.

The effect of disparaging humor and offensiveness in hijacked advertising: the moderating effect of ad hijacking recognition

PurposeWhat happens when an ad parody is created with subtle, professional changes to text and imagery, making it almost indistinguishable from the original corporate brand ad? This paper labels this limiting condition of ad parodies as hijacked advertising. Can viewers of such ads recognize whether the ad is hijacked or not? Also, what are the effects of using the dimensions of disparaging humor and offensiveness, commonly used in hijacked ads, on attitudes toward the brands in these ads and a propensity to engage in negative word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior? Results show that ad hijacking recognition moderates the effect of disparaging humor and offensiveness dimensions in hijacked ads on the dependent variables, with adverse attitudes toward the brand and increased intentions to engage in negative WOM behavior only when consumers can recognize that a hijacked ad is indeed hijacked. Further, the moderating effect of ad hijacking recognition on the dependent variables is attributable only to the dimension of offensiveness but not to disparaging humor. Finally, results show that attitudes toward the brand in the hijacked ads completely mediate the effect of offensiveness and the recognition that an ad is hijacked on intentions to engage in negative WOM behavior.Design/methodology/approachThis paper investigates these questions through an empirical examination using an original corporate brand ad, a hijacked version of the original ad using a disparaging humor dimension and another hijacked version of the original ad using the offensiveness dimension.FindingsResults show that ad hijacking recognition moderates the effect of disparaging humor and offensiveness dimensions in hijacked ads on the dependent variables, with adverse attitudes toward the brand and increased intentions to engage in negative WOM behavior only when consumers can recognize that a hijacked ad is indeed hijacked. Further, the moderating effect of ad hijacking recognition on the dependent variables was attributable only to the dimension of offensiveness but not to disparaging humor. Finally, results show that attitudes toward the brand in the hijacked ads completely mediates the effect of the recognition that an ad is hijacked and the dimension of offensiveness on intentions to engage in negative WOM behavior. The result, that a fairly high percentage of respondents attribute the original corporate brand as the source of the hijacked ads, points to a potentially damaging and out-of-control threat to marketers.Originality/valueThrough an empirical study, converging results around the effects of hijacking ads with disparaging humor and offensive dimensions on consumers’ attitudes toward the advertised brand and a propensity to engage in negative WOM behavior were gathered.

Development, present status and performance analysis of agriculture insurance schemes in India

PurposeAgriculture insurance is the panacea for the farming community. Many policy interventions were implemented for stimulating agriculture insurance access to farmers in India. However, access to agriculture insurance constantly remained one of the major challenges to Indian policy planners. The goal of the present paper is to explore current policy interventions in the area of agriculture insurance in India.Design/methodology/approachThe present paper reviews and analyzes the evidence literature through a content analysis method on development and performance analysis perspective of existing agriculture insurance schemes in India.FindingsAgriculture insurance is a significant risk management policy, but this is not easily reachable to the majority of farmers in India. The government of India introduces a novel agriculture scheme every decade, but every crop insurance scheme was inconsistent and ineffective owing to operational defects. Agriculture insurance in India is still developing in terms of coverage, scope, and exposure, but farmers' dissatisfaction about agriculture insurance turned out to be a negative word of mouth. Insurance illiteracy and farmers' preference for agriculture relief payments are the main reasons for limited access to agriculture insurance. The current crop insurance schemes are improperly operated because of implementation issues at the state level.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper will be useful for researchers and academicians to analyze the past and present status of crop insurance in India.Originality/valueThe paper is the unique work of the authors as it has attempted to present India's journey with agriculture insurance. An effort is made in the present study to provide a comprehensive and holistic developmental and performance analysis perspective of agriculture insurance in India.