Managing negative word-of-mouth: the interplay between locus of causality and social presence

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to describe the results of four studies that examine the interaction effects between locus of causality and social presence on consumers’ emotional response to a service failure and how they subsequently cope with the negative emotional experiences through support-seeking or vindictive negative word-of-mouth (NWOM). Design/methodology/approach To evaluate the research hypotheses, one online content analysis study and three experiments were conducted. Findings The results of the four studies show that when locus of causality information is not available (Studies 1 and 2), consumers are more likely to engage in support-seeking NWOM when there is social presence (versus no social presence). When a service failure is externally/internally attributed, social presence leads to less/more vindictive NWOM (Studies 3 and 4). The results clarify the underlying affective processes (frustration, anger and embarrassment) that account for the unique interaction effects involving locus of causality and social presence on NWOM. Originality/value Despite promising progress in both social presence and service failure research, scholarly attempts aiming to draw the theoretical linkages between these two streams are relatively scarce, and it remains unknown regarding whether and how social presence influences NWOM in the event of service failure. Against this backdrop, this research examines the effects of social presence on consumer NWOM in service failure. The authors further contribute to both research streams by testing the effects of an important set of emotions as mediators, as well by exploring the conditions under which a particular emotion is more predictive of its corresponding outcomes. These findings offer important insights that help service managers effectively mitigate customer NWOM at the point of service delivery.

‘Crying over spilt milk?’ Effect of post‐consumption dissonance on coping behaviour for online purchases

“…Determining the causal locus of the failure provides them with the leverage to reduce the emotional stress through an appropriate coping response (Gbadamosi, 2009). Anger is triggered when an individual attributes decision dissatisfaction to a factor outside his/her self (He et al., 2020). Guilt leads to moral dilemmas which is the inconsistency between personal values and the ideal ones (Harmon‐Jones et al., 2017).…”

Impacts of crisis emotions on negative word-of-mouth and behavioural intention: evidence from a milk crisis

“…Secondly, the current study contributes to the existing literature on WOM communication (Azemi et al , 2020; He et al , 2019) and brand loyalty (Khamitov et al , 2019) by showing that customer repurchase intentions act as the underlying mechanism that crisis emotions ultimately turn into negative WOM communications. Drawing on the theory of social sharing of emotions, this research demonstrates that individuals communicate openly to others about catastrophes and unexpected incidents, as well as their emotional experiences (Rimé, 2009; Zhang et al , 2018).…”

“…Both positive and negative WOM significantly impact the purchase probability and attitudes of consumers towards a product (Alexandrov et al , 2013; Wallace et al , 2014). While positive WOM is a cognitive construct stimulated by rational evaluation (Sweeney et al , 2005), negative WOM is an affective construct largely driven by strong emotions (He et al , 2019; Lee and Suh, 2020). Individuals might have different motives to spread positive and negative WOM transmission (Chen, 2017).…”

Money for Nothing: The Impact of Compensation on Customers’ Bad-Mouthing in Service Recovery Encounters

“…Compensation as a recovery tactic has demonstrable positive effects on different marketing metrics, including customer satisfaction, repurchase behavior, and NWOM (Grewal et al, 2008;Harris et al, 2006;Smith et al, 1999). While we agree that NWOM is a critical measure that warrants attention in the context of failure and recovery, it is necessary to discern different types of WOM communication to avoid confusion and better understand consumer responses (He et al, 2019;Sweeney et al, 2020). In the service recovery context, NWOM is largely assumed to be generic in the sense that a single recovery encounter will color customers' entire perception of the company in question, prompting them to talk negatively about it (Blodgett et al, 1993;Casidy & Shin, 2015;Hocutt et al, 2006).…”

“…Customer bad-mouthing behavior is different from negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) in that bad-mouthing distinctively refers to customer communication of a specific service or product failure, whereas NWOM is a more generic description of all negative customer-to-customer communications (Swan & Oliver, 1989). As such, although these phenomena represent interrelated constructs, bad-mouthing adds nuance to the WOM literature, as called for by several scholars (He et al, 2019;Sweeney et al, 2020).…”