The unrealized value of incentivized eWOM recommendations

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Publication Title

Marketing Letters

Volume

27

Issue

3

First page number:

411

Last page number:

421

Abstract

While companies have recognized the perceived economic benefits of encouraging and managing electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the benefits may be understated. Companies take into account the influence on the audience. But, what about any effects on the person who communicates the eWOM? We explore the impact that incentivized eWOM has on communicator attitude. Using the saying is believing effect as our theoretical foundation, we suggest that providing eWOM induces a change in the communicator’s attitude. By generating and providing a biased recommendation, the communicator will believe the biased recommendation. Furthermore, the communicator is likely to remember the biased recommendation and will use it to update their attitude. We examine how valence of recommendations (negative versus positive) and the number of opportunities to recommend affect the change in attitude. Our findings indicate that providing recommendations changes communicator’s attitude. Implications of the results are discussed. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Keywords

Incentivized eWOM; Managing/manipulating online reviews; Saying is believing effect

Language

English

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