Effects of Managerial Response to E-WOM on Consumer Attitude

There is limited systematic research on managerial response strategies to online consumer complaints and negative e-WOM. In this paper, we synthesize equity theory, service recovery theory and observational learning theory to develop our theoretical model that explores the mechanism through which online consumer complaints influences consumer attitudes and the mechanisms through which managerial responses can alter these influences. We test our model using data from TripAdvisor.com—a leading travel review platform. Using advanced text analytics we extract and code the variables in our model from the reviews and the managerial responses to these reviews in Tripadvisor.com

Effects of service experience on customer responses to the hotel chain

This paper analyses customer experience in a hotel and its impact on the customer attitudes to both the individual hotel and the hotel chain. Specifically, the study focuses on the effects on emotions, satisfaction, attitude to hotel chain, intention to return, skepticism to negative information and WOM. In order to test the hypotheses, an empirical study was carried out in a sample of 300 individuals. Data was analysed through structural equation modelling, and results show that customer experiences in an individual hotel determine not only their responses to the hotel but also their responses to the hotel chain. Among all the considered outcomes, the stronger effects are found on WO

Talk up or criticize? Customer responses to WOM about competitors during social interactions

Popular metrics such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) highlights many benefits of word of mouth (WOM) to firms. Is WOM all it is claimed to be? Building on social identity theory, this research develops a conceptual model of WOM exchange in social settings and tests the model with customer surveys of three service sectors. The findings show that the effects of (1) positive and negative WOM (P/NWOM) received about competitors and (2) perceived presence of critical incidents (PPCIs) on P/NWOM given about own service provider are far from intuitive. Responses to PWOM received counter the suggestions in the NPS literature. The findings also indicate that the best firms can hope for when receiving NWOM about competitors is that their customers remain silent. It is recommended that firms communicate a message that is consistent with the nuanced views expressed by friends in social circles, rather than a uniformly superior positioning

IMC customer-based perception: strategic antecedents and consequences on post-purchase customer behaviour

Last decades Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) have been mainly analysed from a managerial perspective, overlooking the customer opinion. Thus, this research studies IMC customer-based perception, its strategic antecedents and consequences on post-purchase customer behaviour (satisfaction, word-of-mouth recommendations, and repurchase intention), from a multi-country perspective. The structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis are based on the customers´ survey data in Belarus and Spain. The results suggest that technology orientation positively affects IMC, and, customer orientation does not. IMC positively affects customer satisfaction, which in turn positively impacts on WOM and repurchase intention. WOM does not influence on repurchase intention. IMC directly affects WOM and repurchase intention in Spain and does not in Belarus, which is the significant country difference

WOM Or eWOM, Is There A Difference?: An Extension of the Social Communication Theory to Consumer Purchase Related Attitudes

While traditional word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have both been shown to highly impact consumer behavior, there is a deficit in our knowledge of how they compare to one another. My dissertation research addresses the lack of empirical studies that compare WOM promotion in the form of face-to-face interaction to eWOM promotion in the form of computer-mediated communication, especially using Web 2.0 technologies. This research tests the assumption that WOM is superior to eWOM and, if so, how to extend eWOM to improve its performance against WOM. Essay One introduces a proposed conceptual framework to differentiate WOM and eWOM based on Social Communication Theory. The overall conceptual model was derived from a qualitative research study that was used to explore and define the concepts, media types, and application of WOM and eWOM using a diverse panel of consumers. Essay Two describes an experiment that was conducted to empirically test whether WOM impacts important marketing outcomes differently than eWOM using an ecologically valid research procedure. Essay Two further explores mediation using social communication elements as the underlying explanatory mechanism for the relative impact of WOM and eWOM on consumers’ attitude toward a message, attitude toward a product, and purchase intention. The results revealed that WOM has a significantly higher impact than eWOM on consumer purchase-related attitudes. The posited social communication framework did mediate or explain the relative difference between WOM and eWOM on the outcomes variables. Essay Three investigates the robustness of the findings through a set of replication studies that test the effects across small and large sample sizes and across different methods of analysis. The results indicated that WOM showed a significant and consistently higher impact than eWOM across both replication studies. The third essay also examines factors that were influential in closing the relative gap between WOM and eWOM by introducing a third concept based on the Hyperpersonal Model of Communication Theory. This research is important as it seeks to understand how consumers communicate in this digital age and why there is an evolution of the sharing of product information that leads to key managerial, theoretical, and methodological implications

Can ubiquity moderate m-banking resource-related negative effects?

El objetivo de este estudio es explorar la influencia de los inconvenientes de la banca móvil relacionados con la falta de recursos en la satisfacción de los clientes, su disposición a recibir marketing móvil de permiso y la emisión de boca-oreja. Analizando una muestra de 1429 usuarios de banca móvil, determinamos que la satisfacción de los clientes influye en su disposición a recibir marketing móvil de permiso y emitir boca-oreja, mientras que la disposición a recibir marketing móvil de permiso tiene un efecto positivo sobre la emisión de boca-oreja. Siendo la ubicuidad un atributo distintivo de la banca móvil, observamos su papel moderador, identificando que hay clientes que consideran la ubicuidad como una característica importante de la banca móvil, mientras que otros no la consideran relevante. Este estudio propone recomendaciones para mejorar el uso de los servicios de la banca móvil, evitando o disminuyendo los efectos negativos de sus inconvenientes.The objective of this study is to explore the influence of m-banking resource-related inadequacies on clients’ satisfaction with the banking services, their permission-based mobile marketing tendencies and word-of-mouth emission actions. Analysing a sample of 1429 users of mobile banking services, we determined that clients’ satisfaction influences their willingness to receive permission-based mobile marketing and to emit word-of-mouth, while the willingness to receive permission-based mobile marketing has a positive effect on the word-of-mouth emission. In order not to overlook the ubiquity as a distinguishing attribute of m-banking services, we observe its moderating role, identifying clients who consider ubiquity as an important m-banking characteristic and others who do not consider it relevant. Hence, attending the opinion of actual m-banking clients, this study proposes suggestions for improving the use of m-banking services by avoiding or lessening the negative effects of m-banking resource-related inadequacies

Direct and indirect negatively valenced engagement behavior

Purpose: This study aims to show the impact of direct and indirect customers’ negatively valenced influencing behavior (NVIB) on other actors in online social networks. Design/methodology/approach: Four experiments were conducted in an online review setting that encompasses both restaurant and hotel reviews. The first study compares the impact of direct and indirect NVIB. The second, third and fourth studies measure this impact moderated by aggregate ratings, the volume of positive reviews and managerial responses. Findings: Drawing on recent literature of customer engagement behavior, online reviews and social influence theory, this paper provides the first empirical results of the impact of direct and indirect NVIB, revealing the significant difference in their impact and the moderating role of the aggregate ratings, number of positive reviews and managerial responses on the cause-effect relationship between direct and indirect NVIB and other actors’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward service providers. Research limitations/implications: TripAdvisor reviews were selected for the reason of appropriateness rather than representativeness, using two service providers, hotels and restaurants. Practical implications: This paper provides managers with new insights, which capture not only what customers say about service providers but also the impact of how they say it, suggesting that managers move beyond framing NVIB in generalized terms to considering the differences in the impact of its direct and indirect facets. Originality/value: This paper is the first to provide empirical results about the significant difference in the impact of direct and indirect NVIB on other actors’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward service providers, moderated by different heuristics, namely, ratings, volume of positive reviews and managerial responses

Management Response to Online WOM: Helpful or Detrimental?

Firms are shifting their social media emphasis from passive listening to active intervening. This paper investigates the performance implications of managerial response to online word of mouth (WOM). Using the longitudinal data of online reviews, managerial responses and financial performance for 730 hotels in a specific U.S. market from 2005 to 2011, we lay out an empirical strategy to examine the performance effects of managerial responses given different conditions of online WOM, while dealing with potential estimation challenges of endogenous managerial response and online WOM, serially correlated financial performance, and unobserved heterogeneity in hotels. Our findings suggest that managerial intervention should be strategic – whether and how to respond depends on the different levels of online WOM metrics