Word-of-mouth and forms of conversations: what people share

1Dottorato di Ricerca in Management (XXVII ciclo), LUISS Guido Carli, Roma, 2016. Relatori: Prof. Michele Costabile, Prof. Matteo De Angelis.openThis dissertation highlights the importance to understand how word-of-mouth is an aspect extremely important in the communication process among peers with the ability to modify and persuade differently consumers. A main property of word-of-mouth and that represents the pillar of this dissertation is the content of the communication and how consumers share their messages. The present dissertation is the first to examine different types of communication into interpersonal domain taking both the perspective of the sender and the receiver of the messages. Paper 1 discusses how the language abstraction is a valuable communicational sign in order to optimize interactions. Specifically, I study the effect of language abstractness in word-of-mouth communication on the recipients’ perceptions about message effectiveness and their purchase intentions. I hypothesize that the effect of language abstractness depends on the word-of-mouth recipient’s prior knowledge, and demonstrate that abstract (concrete) language is more effective than concrete (abstract) language for recipients with high (low) prior knowledge. Moreover, I predict that the higher (lower) effectiveness of abstract messages for consumers with high (low) prior knowledge is explained by consumers’ engagement in mental imagery processing. Two experiments conducted in different service settings provide support for our hypotheses. Paper 2 focuses on specific types of information which contain controversial arguments and where the process of sharing on virtual platforms can modify behaviors. Controversial topics are those topics on which people tend to take different, quite polarized opinions. While I acknowledge that people tend to hold extreme positions on controversial topics, I hypothesize that whether they share their extreme opinions with others importantly depends on the communication channel they use for sharing. Across three experiments, I show that opinion extremeness generally increases tendency to share, but, more importantly, I show this is more likely to occur when sharers use communication platforms that allow them to select specific, identified recipients, thus having more control on their audience. More specifically, I demonstrate that individuals are more likely to share the extreme versus moderate opinions about controversial topics via email, but such a difference no longer exists when sharing via post on social network pages. Paper 3 demonstrates how form of communications that contain gossip is surrounded by false myths. Popular beliefs encourage people in believing that negative gossips are shared more than positive gossip and thus I demonstrate the contrary. Through three experiments, I show that people are more likely to share a positive form of gossip in a network composed by the sender, the target of the gossip and the receiver. I hypothesize that individuals are more likely to share positive (negative) gossip in respect the target of the gossip (in-group versus out-group) and that the sender is more (less) likely to share gossip with whom has less (more) capacity to verify the truthfulness of the gossip’s content. This dissertation is of interest to marketers for two reasons. First, these findings may help firms to understand and interpret word-of-mouth. By analyzing the content of the messages companies would be able to adapt their communication strategies, implement more fruitful one-toone communications and deal, positively, with possible crisis management especially in virtual settings. Secondly, the effect of different types of communications can be used by marketers in order to achieve an higher number of consumers and encourage them in sharing voluntarily. Moreover, understanding the effect of word-of-mouth on receivers may support firms in improve communicational campaigns and increase the level of customer satisfaction in different stage of the marketing processes. Future research should examine what are the boundaries between word-ofmouth and electronic word-of-mouth and whether consumers differently depending to the context.openDottorato di Ricerca in ManagementTASSIELLO, VITOTassiello, Vit

'Alexa, order me a pizza!' : The mediating role of psychological power in the consumer-voice assistant interaction

This article investigates the consumer–voice assistant (VA) interaction in the context of food and beverage purchase choices and the role that psychological power plays in the consumer decision-making process. A series of experimental studies demonstrate that both involvement and the psychological condition of power meditate consumers' willingness to purchase. As a result, we find that consumers are more likely to purchase low involvement than high-involvement products through VA technology, particularly when experiencing high-power states. This study broadens our understanding of the role of VAs and their ability to shape the consumer decision-making process. With an explicit focus on power, this study illustrates how the success of voice commerce may largely rest on the promotion of low-involvement products that enable high-power psychological conditions which drive willingness to purchase.© 2021 The Authors. Psychology & Marketing published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

aiWOM: Artificial Intelligence Word-of-Mouth. Conceptualizing Consumer-to-AI Communication

The advent of innovative technologies with installed artificial intelligence (AI) has raised the need to understand evolutive consumers’ behaviours. The dyadic communicative experience between consumers and technological artifacts with programmed social humanoid features shed the light on the emergence of an adaptative form of word-of-mouth (WOM) and that we label as “AI word- of-mouth” (aiWOM). We argue that there is a need for defining and investigating aiWOM as an emerging phenomenon which derive but diverge from WOM. Our conceptualization suggests that the communication interaction between consumers and AI technologies produce new consumers’ behaviors and psychological reactions.© 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Integrating health leadership and management perspectives: the MESH framework for culturally informed food design thinking and well-being promotion

Purpose This study examines the social and cultural life of food innovations to inform food design thinking. The authors explore this through wellness regulating functional foods, foods scientifically modified for health benefits based on medical and nutritional claims, as a materialisation of food innovation in the marketplace. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on affordance theory, where affordance relations enable potential for consumer food well-being regulation, the authors gathered in-depth interview data from diverse consumer groups across three illustrative exemplar functional foods. Findings The research reveals how consumers engage in meaningful actions with functional foods in the experiences of their everyday lives. Four analytical themes emerge for consumer wellness regulation through functional foods: morality judgements, emotional consequences, social embedding and historicality. Originality Analytical themes emerging from the findings are conceptualised as MESH, a useful acronym for the social and cultural life of food innovations within the design thinking arena. The MESH framework includes dichotomous cultural affordances that overlap and entangle different cultural themes weaving together consumers’ perceived possibilities for food well-being regulation. These cultural affordances reveal distinct paths that link consumer experiences and food design thinking

How handwriting reduces negative online ratings

This research investigates whether handwriting during the tourism experience reduces subsequent negative and extreme online rating scores. We portray that handwriting, due to a more deeply rooted elaboration of information, activates emotional empathy. Study 1, a field experiment in the hospitality context, suggests that handwriting reduces the extremeness of subsequent online rating scores. Study 2 compares handwritten vs. typed comments and complements the initial findings by clarifying the mediating role of emotional empathy on this relationship. We discuss the boundary conditions for the effect and offer practical implications on how to nudge tourists to reduce negative online rating scores. Hotel operators should use their enhanced emotional bonding with tourists when competing with peer-to-peer operators

Hi Alexa!: Robotic word-of-mouth and motives to talk with a conversational agent

The advent of smart speakers with embedded conversational agents (CAs) such as Alexa and Siri leads consumers to engage in a new form of word-of-mouth, which we label robotic word-of-mouth (rWOM). This research aims to define what rWOM is and conceptualize the motives that encourage consumers to engage in rWOM. We propose that rWOM can be driven by functional, psychological and cognitive motives

Efficacia delle raccomandazioni online relative ai servizi

Nell\u2019era della comunicazione globale, caratterizzata dal ruolo centrale del passaparola come strumento di marketing ad alta efficacia persuasiva le raccomandazioni (referral) online assumono particolare rilevanza come fonti d\u2019informazione pre-acquisto, soprattutto nell\u2019ambito dei servizi, per i quali la scelta da parte del consumatore \ue8 particolarmente complessa, essendo caratterizzata da alto livello d\u2019incertezza e rischio. Per la loro natura intangibile, infatti, i servizi sono valutabili dal consumatore solo dopo l\u2019acquisto e nel momento del loro reale utilizzo . La presente ricerca investiga come la struttura linguistica delle raccomandazioni online, sotto forma di video, relative ad un servizio, influenza l\u2019efficacia persuasiva delle stesse. Pi\uf9 specificatamente, lo studio si focalizza su una dimensione chiave del linguaggio \u2013 cio\ue8 il suo livello di astrattezza/concretezza \u2013 dimostrando che le raccomandazioni online relative ad un servizio sono pi\uf9 persuasive quando il linguaggio utilizzato dal mittente \ue8 astratto, invece che concreto, e quando il destinatario \ue8 caratterizzato da una alta conoscenza previa (prior knowledge) sul servizio oggetto della stessa raccomandazione. Inoltre, lo studio fa luce sul meccanismo sottostante tale effetto, dimostrando il ruolo di mediazione del processo di elaborazione delle immagini mentali (mental imagery processing). Lo studio offre rilevanti contributi di tipo teorico e pratico, con particolari implicazioni manageriali per i digital marketing manager delle aziende che operano nel settore dei servizi

Piattaforme digitali e rischio sociale nella condivisione di opinioni estreme

This research investigates the role of a previously unexplored dimension of electronic word-of-mouth (eWom) content \u2013 namely, the extremeness of people\u2019s opinions \u2013 in the context of conversations about controversial topics. Specifically, it examines the effect of opinion extremeness on eWom likelihood, advancing the idea that such an effect is moderated by the online communication channel that people use for sharing. In particular, the authors propose that online communication channels can be distinguished according to the level of social disapproval that users risk when sharing (referred to as social risk). The main hypothesis is that consumers are more likely to share more extreme opinions about controversial topics when using online platforms that present low social risk, while such a difference is less likely to appear on online platforms that present higher social risk. Three experimental studies \u2013 using email systems as an instance of risk-minimizing platforms and open posts on one\u2019s social network pages as an instance of risk-amplifying platforms \u2013 provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical account

Experiential goods and consumer misbehavior. The role of psychological ownership.

This study examines the presence and extent of misbehavior when consumers are offered the option of using postponed payment plans after purchasing experiential goods. It does so by looking at how the nature of the product, paired with payment type, affects its perceived psychological ownership that, in turn, influences consumers\u2019 misbehavior. Through three experimental studies, we measure the role played by the type of good (experiential vs. material) in explaining consumers\u2019 misbehavior. We also test the mediation role of psychological ownership. Results indicate that, when consuming experiential (vs. material) goods, consumers are more likely to misbehave, and this effect is greater in the case of postponed payment than immediate payment (i.e. cash). Findings show that psychological ownership also makes up part of the psychological mechanism behind consumers\u2019 misbehavior. To our knowledge, no previous research has investigated whether the intrinsic characteristics of goods (experiential vs. material) and the type of payment (immediate vs. postponed) explain consumers\u2019 misbehavior. On the managerial side, we propose guidance on how psychological ownership may be strengthened in the case of experiential goods