Why Unhappy Customers Are Unlikely to Share Their Opinions with Brands

Abstract

For brands to thrive, they must understand consumer sentiment; if consumers’ likelihood of sharing their opinion is a function of their attitude toward a brand, then brands’ perception of consumer sentiment may be systematically biased. While research in consumer-to-consumer sharing (i.e., word of mouth) suggests that those with extreme attitude are more likely to share than those with neutral attitude (a U-shaped relationship), the relationship between consumers’ attitude toward a brand and their propensity to share with a brand is unknown. In contrast to the U-shaped pattern observed in word of mouth, the authors find a hockey stick–shaped relationship between attitude and sharing with brands (“__/”). Those with positive attitude (vs. neutral attitude) are more likely to share their opinion, but those with negative attitude do not show a similar increase in sharing. The authors show that this pattern emerges because, among consumers with positive (vs. neutral) attitude toward a brand, reciprocity norms drive increased sharing, but among consumers with negative (vs. neutral) attitude, competing mechanisms drive behavior: the desire to vent increases sharing, but at the same time an aversion to criticize others directly deters sharing. The authors test these ideas using a series of studies, including a field study.

Multifunctional risk in the adoption of innovative technological products

“…The responses were scored on a numerical five‐point scale to understand the respondents' preferences as expressed in an answer or set of answers, represented by the numbers 1 to 5 (expressing the intensity of the scale at the ends of this), where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest intensity, according to the context of each question outlined in Appendix (Hydock et al, 2020; Sheehan & Dommer, 2020). The web survey platform SurveyMonkey was used, as it allows the construction of online questionnaires with better dissemination and helps to ensure complete responses.…”

Service recovery efforts' influence on consumers' desire to reciprocate and forgiveness: the mediating role of perceived justice

“…We measured perceived justice with nine items adopted from (Cai and Qu, 2018), desire to reciprocate with three items adopted from (Hydock et al, 2020), and consumer forgiveness with four items adopted from (Hur and Jang, 2019) and employee recovery efforts with three items were adopted from (Mohr and Bitner, 1995). All the constructs were measured with seven-point Likert scale.…”

“…Previous researchers claimed that the volume of service failures in developing markets is higher than in developed markets, while much of the literature is based on developed countries (Borah et al, 2019). Additionally, it is noted that emotional regulations and forgiveness are shaped by culture (Ho and Fung, 2011) and activation of the desire to reciprocate also depends on the context (Hydock et al, 2020). Fourth, this study extends the application of resource exchange theory in the hospitality industry in developing markets in south Asia by suggesting a fair and proximal exchange of resources leads to successful service recovery.…”

“…, 2019). Additionally, it is noted that emotional regulations and forgiveness are shaped by culture (Ho and Fung, 2011) and activation of the desire to reciprocate also depends on the context (Hydock et al. , 2020).…”

Fostering sustainable relationships in Pakistani cellular service industry through CSR and brand love

“…Upon experiencing brand love, customers aim to convince other potential customers to engage with the brand (Bairrada et al, 2018;Ismail and Spinelli, 2012;Roy et al, 2013;Warren et al, 2019). When customers talk positively about a brand with other potential customers, the motivation is to do a favor for the recipient of this information (Hydock et al, 2020). The customer can be said to acting as a de facto representative for the brand when they are promoting it to others, thereby identifying with the brand (Baena, 2018;Vernuccio et al, 2015).…”