Asymmetric conformity to positive and negative word-of-mouth

摘要：

　　The ubiquity of online ratings has facilitated word-of-mouth(WOM)transmission but researchers have yet to fully understand whether and how WOM valence interacts with reviewers” initial judgment to affect their manifested product evaluation.This paper aims to show that positive and negative WOM rating asymmetrically(vs.symmetrically)influences evaluation convergence,an automatic process to reconcile inconsistency between WOM valence and reviewers” initial judgment.We expect to show that the convergence towards WOM is subject to motivations of social conforming and uniqueness seeking,two conflicting goals which are moderated by WOM valence.Negative(vs.positive)WOM from in-group reviewers activates conforming(vs.uniqueness)motivation and enlarges(vs.lessens)evaluation convergence.Our initial study finds that this asymmetric conformity to positive and negative WOM does not apply to WOM from out-group reviewers.This paper aims to provide insight on differentiating the management of social(vs.non-social)rating platforms.

关键词： Word-of-mouth Social motivation Information Inconsistency Persuasion

作者: Henry Hang Shen Christy Ke Tu

作者单位: I(E)SEG School of Management NEOMA Business School

会议类型: 国内会议

会议名称: China Marketing International Conference 2017 (2017中国市场营销国际学术年会)

会议地点: 北京

会议语种:英文

页码: 100-124

在线出版日期: 2017-07-14（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）