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Research Article Open Access
Kundu and Sundara Rajan, Int J Econ Manag Sci 2017, 6:6
DOI: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Review Article OMICS International
International Journal of Economics &
Management Sciences
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ISSN: 2162-6359
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
Word of Mouth: A Literature Review
Supratim Kundu1 and CR Sundara Rajan2*
Business School, VIT University, Vellore, India
Keywords: Word of mouth (WOM); Referral; Reviews; Ratings
Introduction
Word of mouth (WOM) or consumer-to-consumer interaction has
been the center of discussion among the research fraternity for a few
decades now. Researchers have already shown the growing inuence
of WOM and it has been recognized by the marketers to be a highly
credible form of marketing information [1]. As evident from the BCG
report [2], referrals and recommendations from friends, colleagues or
other consumers can go beyond everything else. As per McKinsey [3],
WOM is more inuential in the developing markets of the world.
e underlying belief is that word of mouth communication
can signicantly inuence consumer’s purchase decision. With the
advent of eWOM, online consumer reviews can serve as a pillar to
overall WOM. e study by Godes and Mayzlin [4] had found positive
relationship between TV show viewership and WOM. Similarly Liu [5]
suggested that online movie reviews can signicantly explain box-oce
revenue. Organizations are taking WOM seriously as it can aect the
businesses both positively and negatively [6].
Word-of-mouth have been found to impact several factors like
consumer choice [7,8] service switching [9], purchase decision
[10], perception about the product/services [11] with brand choice
facilitation for the consumers. At times, it is more eective than the
traditional marketing tools of personal selling and various types of
advertising [12,13]. In particular, customers pay more attention to
WOM among the other various modes of marketing as it is perceived
to be credible and custom-tailored and generated by people who are
perceived as having no self-interest in pushing a product [14]. eWOM
can include online comments or opinions [15,16], blogging [17]
product information [18] reviews emails etc. [19,20].
e impact generated by WOM, has made it important for today’s
marketing researchers to remain updated about its theory, power, eect
and understanding. With the high involvement of today’s consumer
over the internet, WOM is gradually becoming a need for the marketers
and it has positioned itself as a topic which the researchers and
marketers can’t aord to ignore. Overall, it is a necessity to understand
where the current research stands on WOM and where it is heading. In
this article, we aim to provide a detailed understanding of the following
objectives:
a) Summarize the current existing work on WOM by various
researchers
b) Highlight the existing gaps in the research literature of WOM
c) Providing clue to researchers for further studies in the area of
WOM.
We have produced the existing work on WOM by various
researchers covering a span of 14 years from 2002 till 2016. is will
provide a fair idea about the direction in which way the research
on WOM is heading. Few models which were proposed by earlier
researchers have been shown here for better understanding.
Literature Review
Martensen and Grønholdt [21] studied how consumer emotion
and choice got aected by word-of-mouth with reference to the service
industry. is study aimed to extent the theory of reasoned action
(TRA) model by including positive and negative WOM and emotion.
It also investigated the mediating role of emotion for WOM and social
norm. e model tested was as below Figure 1.
For the study interviews were conducted for 509 respondents
*Corresponding author: Rajasekaran Sundara Rajan, Business School, VIT
University, Vellore, India, Tel: 9994694596; E-mail: trksundararajan@gmail.com,
crsundararajan@vit.ac.in
Received September 07, 2017; Accepted October 03, 2017; Published October
04, 2017
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review.
Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Copyright: © 2017 Kundu S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited.
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand, summarize and highlight the current research work in the
area of word-of-mouth (WOM) along with the existing gaps in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach: This study is a qualitative analysis of 20 research articles from peer-reviewed
sources covering a span of 14 years from 2002 till 2016 addressing WOM, its antecedents, the effects and its role
in the overall larger context.
Findings: WOM strongly impacts consumer behavioral attitudes. Tie strength, stickiness, loyalty, monetary
inuence can moderate the WOM inuence. However it remains to be seen the how various personality traits gets
affected.
Practical implications: The ndings of this review may help potential marketers to understand WOM and its
intricacies and follow the best approach to maximize the WOM effect.
Originality/value: Given the limited amount of the literature focused, this paper summarized the existing work
so that researchers and organizations can use this knowledge and focus on their WOM activities. It also highlights
the research opportunities for scholars interested in pursuing further studies in this area.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 2 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
in Denmark who were between the ages of 19-60 years and the data
were analyzed using the PLS SEM models as the model is suited for
exploratory research like this.
e ndings showed positive WOM signicantly inuenced the
behavioral attitude and intention and negative WOM only slightly
impacted the behavioral intention. However, NWOM (negative WOM)
strongly aected the behavioral attitudes via negative emotions. Social
norm impacted directly PNOM (positive WOM), NWOM, behavioral
attitude and behavioral intention. e interesting nding is the total
eect of positive WOM exceeded 2 times the eect of social norms on
behavioral attitude and intention. e results showed that emotion was
a mediator for both WOM and social norm. us this research includes
WOM and emotion in the TRA model.
e limitation for this paper was the study of one brand from
industry. Future research could concentrate on other industries. Also,
it would be interesting to look into the tie strength for the preferred
WOM sources or impact of other factors like involvement, expertise,
credibility and demographic homophily. New moderators like
awareness and complexity of the decision could also be included.
In the next paper, that we review the researchers Coulter and
Roggeveen [22] studied how consumers responded to WOM
communications in the online social network platforms. ey examined
how the source, channel and message content aect the consumer
response to WOM communication in the social media context. e
two most used online social media platform i.e. Facebook and Twitter
were used for the study. Data were collected using two surveys which
the participants to respond regarding a product page suggestion in
those two social media sites.
Results showed that consistent with other WOM investigations,
source credibility (expertise) signicantly determines the eectiveness
of a persuasive communication. e product page appeared to be the
most important driver to motive customers for online WOM. us
the marketers were suggested to maintain a strong product page.
Unlike the oine world, over the internet the source closeness does
not always impact consumer’s choice to get more info on the products.
e important nding was if the consumers were able to communicate
with the source directly, then the impact of the closeness diminished.
However, the opposite was also true. us for the marketers, they
could follow the followers of their followers to have a bi-directional
conversation. Regarding credibility, as the credibility of the product
page increased, the consumers were more likely to seek more info about
the product. e study also revealed relationship between member
number and product page viewing. e more the number of likes (in
Facebook) or the number of followers (in Twitter) the more chances
were that the consumers will seek product info as the credibility goes up.
Regarding network closeness, the study found that more the number of
friend/followers joined or recommended the product page, the more
likely the customer was willing to get more info on the product. is
was because the network closeness is a function of normative inuence.
As a limitation, this study focused on only a type of product. Future
research could consider the other product categories. e authors
predicted that perceived risk associated with the product or product
types may impact the results. Again, for a wider social media studies,
the authors recommended future studies to consider the various other
social media channels.
e next paper we study is from the researchers Mazzarol et al.
[23] where they investigate the various complexities of WOM. e
aim of this research was to understand WOM and also to study the
triggers that motivate people to engage in WOM and the conditions
that enhances the chance of WOM happening. e authors also tried
to develop a conceptual model of consumer’s experiences of producing
WOM.
e study was done using focus groups as focus group has
always been regarded as a suitable technique for clinical, exploratory
interaction kind of studies. Six such focus groups were chosen with
nine respondents each on average aged 18-64 years with diverse
backgrounds and the sample consisted of 50% male and female
participants.
e study had found three key WOM components - valence, the
richness of the message content and the strength or power of the
advocacy. Intensity and vividness also emerged as important themes.
Richness focused on the language used like evocative phrases etc. or
the degree of story-telling. e theme strength focused on the manner
(passionate or assertive etc.) or intention of the communication, rather
than the content and it enhances the communication process in WOM.
Apart from these triggers, there were conditions like the intention to
act as an advocate or the closeness between the giver and the receiver
facilitated the communication.
For the marketers, the study showed WOM process was more
complex than previously researched. e success depended on the
intensity of the conveyance and the richness of the description among
many other factors. e research however was limited by its qualitative
studies. Future research might carry out the quantitative studies for
the antecedents. Further research could also be done to measure the
various WOM facets that were discussed.
Voyer and Ranaweera [24] investigated the impact of WOM on the
service purchase decisions. is paper studied the interaction between
the tie strength and the service purchase decision and how it impacted
the WOM inuence. e outcome risk and the psychological risks were
tested for their impact on the involvement for the purchase decision.
e model proposed by the authors looks as Figure 2.
A pre-test study was conducted with the undergraduate students to
Negative
WOM
Positive
WOM
Positive
emotion
s
Negative
emotions
Social
Norm
Behavioral
attitude
Behavioral
intention
Figure 1: Mediating role of emotion for WOM and social norm.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 3 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
ensure that the questions are understood. Post this, the newly posted
military personnel were chosen for the actual study as WOM plays
an important role for information and recommendation among the
personnel. Both exploratory and conrmatory factor analyses were
carried out for the results. en SEM was used for the analysis.
e result showed that both the involvement and the tie strength
positively aected the WOM inuence. Also, as a negative moderation
eect, the tie strength diminished the eect of involvement on WOM.
Also with the WOM inuence increased with the increase in the
involvement. e same was also true for the tie strength. is study
also shows that the consumers level of involvement in the WOM
was impacted more the tangible and substantive elements of risks
(like potential psychological or social harms), rather than that of the
intangible ones.
us, for the managers, they should focus on creating strong tie
strength within their consumer base. is research was limited by its
scope within the military community. Future researchers might wish to
conduct the research among cross-cultural communities. e response
rate was 36% and the authors had also not tested for potential biases.
is study could also include various types of emotions that can trigger
WOM like anger or excitement etc. in the future.
Choudhury [25] explored the impact of various dimensions of
service quality on WOM. e study aimed to link the constructs of
service quality and WOM at the dimension level. e study focused
on the retail banking industry and thus the data were collected from
6 major banks. e authors had contacted 3600 customers and have
received 864 complete usable questionnaires. Customer perceived
service quality was measured using the modied SERVQUAL
instrument. e questionnaire contained two sections to measure the
customer expectation and customer perception. Few items from the
original SERVQUAL scale were dropped or modied to make it suitable
for this study. From the factor analysis, four factors were identied for
service quality: attitude, competence, tangibles and convenience. e
analysis was done using the multiple regression analysis to nd out the
eect of the factors o service quality on WOM.
e factor attitude got the highest proportion followed by service
factor competence, tangibles and convenience. Within the retail
banking, the variable attitude was dened by promptness of the
service or the promptness or courteous behavior of the sta. e factor
competence was dened by the banks’ ability to fulll its promises. e
factor tangibles checked the materials or physical facilities associated
with the bank whereas the convenience factor checked the location of
the branches or the ATM network.
is study had been limited by the banking industry. ere is a
provision to check the same in other retail industry as well. Also further
investigations may include multiple measures in the WOM construct.
Researchers Roy et al. [26] investigated the mediating impact of
stickiness and loyalty on the WOM promotion focusing on the retail
websites. ey aimed to develop and test a model to test the relationship
between the dimensions of e-services cape, website quality, stickiness,
loyalty and WOM. e proposed model looks like in Figure 3.
To test the model, 660 questionnaires were distributed among the
graduate and undergraduate students. e scales for the measurements
were 7 point likert scales. Factor analysis and ANOVA were used
for the data analysis portions. e authors found that WOM is
impacted dierently by stickiness and loyalty. Stickiness represents
a psychological attachment whereas loyalty represents a concern for
the purchase. At the same time, stickiness also impacts the loyalty for
the consumers. e results support the signicant impact of aesthetics
and website interaction on WOM. Also the system quality and service
quality found to have signicant indirect eect on WOM. For the
managers in the industry, the website should motivate consumer to
visit frequently and they should be engaged in the website. is can
be achieved by improving aesthetics and interactions as found in the
study. Interactivity had been found to have a direct impact on stickiness
and indirect impact on loyalty. System quality (like website reliability,
availability and usability) also found to an important factor for loyalty.
is research had some limitations like the usage of cross-sectional
research design. Future research might check the longitudinal research
design. Also the result can vary for gender specic instances. For
example males might feel comfortable shopping on male product
specic websites. Also the factors like customer age, personality along
with gender could be looked into the future studies to check the
relations.
Ferguson et al. [27] had studied customer sociability and total
e-ServiceScape
(Aesthecs,
Interacvity,
Navigability)
Web-site
Quality (System,
informaon and
service quality)
Sckiness
Loyalty
Word of
Mouth
Figure 3: Impact of stickiness and loyalty on the WOM promotion focusing on
the retail websites.
Outcome
Risk
Psychological
Risk
Involvement
WOM
Influence
Tie
Strength
Figure 2: Voyer and Ranaweera proposed model.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 4 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
service experience as the antecedents of positive WOM. ey tried to
answer the question if the socially active consumers engaged in more
positive WOM. Here the authors studied the association of positive
WOM intention in the hospital context with both the sociability and
the perception of service taken into account for the patients. e
proposed model was as follows in Figure 4.
Data were collected from 500 patients twice once post the
hospitalization and aer they had returned to home. ANOVA was
used for the analysis. e results found that positive WOM is a social
behavior and there is a direct relationship between the intention for
positive WOM and sociability and this reects loyalty. Higher level of
agreeableness was linked to the intention for positive WOM. Patients
with social behaviors like liking of warm relations are more inclined
for positive WOM intention. Customer loyalty took into account
the entire service process from curing to caring. ey were not
disconnected. One interesting nding was patients with the highest
positive WOM intentions had lower score in the pain/discomfort score
at the surgery. Also the authors found that patient to patient interaction
could inuence the positive WOM intentions. For the managers, the
communication should be structured in a way that the information
exchange between the hospital and the patient realize its full potential
along with focus on the physical layout of the physical layout of the
facility which fosters customer to customer interaction.
e study was limited by the hospital sector. ere is a need to
expand this study to other sectors as well. Also the aspect of negative
WOM was not studied here. It would also be interesting to include
services cape and its tangible elements in the future studies.
Researchers Sweeney et al. in 2008 had studied from the receiver’s
end, the factors which inuenced the positive word of mouth. e
objective of the study were to nd the outcomes of WOM, the factors
that inuences the receiver to act on WOMs and it also aimed at
developing a model which relates to consume experience when they
receive the WOM.
e study used 6 focused groups of 54 participants from the
nancial sector in total where the discussion ran for 90 minutes for
each group on an average. e authors found that the factors which
inuence a receiver to act on WOM are a combination of interpersonal
skills and the nature of the WOM communication itself. e
antecedents that created the inuence on the receiver were of four types:
Personal (credibility, trust, expertise etc.), Interpersonal (strength or
homophily), Message Characteristics (vividness, strength, non-verbal
communication) and Situational (risk, complexity, multiple sources
etc.). us WOM was likely to be more eective when one of these four
factors happens. e study discovered some outcomes of WOM (which
measures how the receiver reacts). is included psychological features
like relief, condence, enthusiasm etc. apart from product evaluation
and purchase rate. For the negative WOM, empathy with the giver was
the psychological outcome. Also the image of the organization (apart
from the product evaluation) improved with the positive WOM. It also
found that the message content and the way the message is delivered
impacts the WOM. For e.g. WOM from enthusiastic giver creates
more impact. Story telling seemed to be more eective as it increases
the richness of the content. Body language and gesture also played an
important role to create the impact.
For managers, the study provides idea who wanted to systematically
generate positive WOM for the company. e chances for positive
WOM were higher when the consumers are satised with the product
or services. Also WOM creates the most impact when the receiver is
looking for the information. is study however, did not check the
receiver’s impact post the WOM generation. Future studies were
suggested to study the impact on receiver’s attitude and behavior.
Gruen et al. [28] had studied one specic aspect of eWOM
communication. ey studied the impact of consumer to consumer
(C2C) knowhow exchange on value perception and loyalty. e paper
also studied the antecedents of consumer know how exchange like
motivation, opportunity and ability. e paper proposed a model stating
that the perceived utilitarian value that the consumers receive and their
loyalty could be inuenced by exchange of C2C knowhow. is C2C
know how exchanges were facilitated by motivation, opportunity and
the ability to engage in knowhow exchange. e proposed model was
in Figure 5 as below:
616 complete responses for a questionnaire were received from the
users of an online soware product forum who engaged in threaded
discussions. e sample represented more than 12% of the population.
Motivation, ability, opportunity, C2C knowhow exchange was
Customer Sociability
Personality Traits
(Agreeableness,
Extraversion)
Personal Values (Other-
oriented, Self-oriented)
Total Service Experience
(Informaon, Pain &
Discomfort, Interacon,
Recovery Outcomes)
Customer Loyalty
Posive WOM Intenon
Figure 4: Customer sociability and total service experience as the antecedents
of positive WOM.
Movaon to
engage in C2C
exchange
Ability to
engage in C2C
exchange
Opportunity to
engage in C2C
exchange
C2C knowhow
exchange
Loyalty Intenon
(Repurchase)
Loyalty
Intenon
(Word of
Mouth)
Overall value the
firm is offering
Figure 5: Impact of consumer to consumer on value perception and loyalty.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 5 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
measured using adapted scales. e results found that C2C knowhow
exchange aects the value the rm is oering and the consumer’s future
intentions. It showed that eWOM communication was perceived to be
a reliable source of information. E-WOM also impacted the perceived
value that the rm is oering. e eect of C2C knowhow exchange
on future purchase intention was mediated by the overall value that
the rm was oering. Opportunity did not aect signicantly to the
information exchange which also points that opportunity may play a
minor role in internet communication.
is research was limited by the cross sectional study. Future study
was suggested to take a longitudinal approach. is study also did not
consider the eect of variables like perceived benet. Also complexity
of the product may play a moderating role in the rm’s value oering.
Wirtz and Chew [29] in their study investigated the impact of
incentive, satisfaction, deal proneness and tie strength on WOM
behavior in services context. ey felt the need to nd out how WOM
can be managed more eectively.
A 3 × 3 × 2 experimental design was used to understand the
impact of tie strength, incentive and satisfaction on WOM behavior.
Projective role playing technique was used in hypothetical situation
ensuring that the subjects were familiar with the research context.
rough convenience sampling, 250 questionnaires were distributed
and 223 were received. e research context was chosen for a mobile
phone service provider. e WOM constructs used were: likelihood
for WOM generation, favorability of the WOM, chances of making a
purchase recommendation. e result showed that incentive was the
most aecting the WOM. e likelihood, the favorability or valence
of WOM and the chances for recommendation all increased with the
increase incentives. Also customers who were high deal proneness, they
generated more WOM than those with low deal proneness irrespective
of the incentive oered. Incentives also decreased the chances of
generating negative WOM. Satised customers were more likely to
generate positive WOM and they were more likely to recommend
purchases. is shows marketers could proactively manage the WOM
generated. In line with previous ndings, this research also founded
that strong tie-strength impacted WOM positively. For managers, thus
designing of incentive scheme was vital and they could get the best
results devising incentives for satised customers.
e study however was limited by the use of monetary incentives.
Future research could check the eect of gi, credits and coupons as
incentives. Again, this research did not focus on how the WOM is
generated on the internet. In the online or the virtual context, the tie
strength may aect dierently.
Pongjit and Beise-Zee [30], investigated how the incentives for the
WOM can impact the brand attitude for the consumers. eir research
aimed to understand how monetary and non-monetary incentives
aect the various dimensions of brand image within various types of
relationship.
e study was conducted in ailand using student sample
consisting of 645 subjects whose age were between 18-25 years. e
experiment consisted of a 3 × 3 design where 3 levels of incentives
(monetary, non-monetary and no incentives) and 3 social relationship
types (authority, kinship and market based pricing) were checked.
ANOVA and regression analysis were done on the data.
e ndings showed that rewards for WOM harm the brand or its
trustworthiness. Financial rewards for recommendation creates more
negative impact on trust compared to non-nancial rewards. Incentives
were perceived to be norm-violators and thus it increased suspicion.
Also, relationship did not seem to aect the brand image which
supported the perception that brand evaluation was independent from
the norm violations. In line with past studies, this research also showed
the importance of credibility or source expertise on WOM generation.
High credible source were accepted as trustworthy recommenders. In
case of low source expertise, the eect of incentives seemed lower.
For the managers, incentives for WOM were not without risks. It
may backre and could aect the brand image. However, incentives
could generate new customers as well. us a ne balance needed to be
maintained. Again, WOM campaigns needed to be evaluated keeping
the brand image in mind. In case there was a negative brand image,
the WOM campaign should not be continued. Future studies could
nd how the negative brand attitude can be alleviated. Addressing
concerns might be one of the tools. However, this study was limited
by the symbolic reward of cash. e eect of charity or donations was
unknown in the present work. Again, incentives were studied only for
the recommender. It was unknown how the referred customer would
behave if he is incentivized as well. Also more research was suggested to
nd out the context in which the brand is not aected.
Lim and Chung [31] intended to nd out how the brand
familiarity aects the motivation for evaluating WOM for the brand.
e researchers believed that brand familiarity, rather than product
familiarity would aect the motivation to process WOM.
228 Undergraduate students from a major university in Singapore
were chosen for the study. Brand familiarity (familiar and unfamiliar)
and expertise (high and low) of the WOM sender were manipulated in
the experiments. ANCOVA was used for the analysis.
e focus of the research was peer-to-peer persuasion rather
than company sponsored WOM. e ndings demonstrated the
moderating eect of brand familiarity on WOM. e expertise of the
source was again proved and more so in cases of unfamiliar brand.
Even if the WOM was from a high trustworthy source, consumers
were unlikely to believe it in case it was for an unfamiliar brand. is
study also highlighted the importance of considering the consumers
brand attitude certainty in order to predict the attitude change. For the
marketers, the brand extension might be used to communicate strong
brand positioning. e promotion oers which inuenced the band
familiarity might also play a critical role. For the unfamiliar brands, the
source credibility was important to consider.
e product category (printer) which was used in the study required
some technical knowledge to evaluate. Other product categories could
be used for future research. It appeared that ease of use and technical
competency might play a role for the WOM recipient. e research
was limited by applying WOM only in oine word. ese days, most
of the WOM was being generated in online and in social media.
Future research might check the inuence of brand attitude in online
recommendations.
Chung and Tsai [32] studied the impact of tie-strength on WOM
and how it was aected by the regulatory focuses. e theory of
regulatory focus said there were two distinct motivations: promotion
focused- where the individuals were sensitive to positive outcomes
and; prevention focused- where the individuals were sensitive towards
negative outcomes.
206 undergraduate university students were chosen as the sample.
e subjects were randomly assigned conditions (manipulation of tie
strength or manipulation of regulatory focus) and then were distributed
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 6 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
questionnaires. e ndings show regulatory focus to be an antecedent
for WOM. It seemed to moderate the relationship between tie-strength
and WOM. Factors like vigilance and carefulness were the characteristics
of preventive focused WOM giver. However, these factors were absent
for the promotion focused WOM giver. is eect of regulatory focus
suggested the varied eects of WOM when the consumer interacts with
various social groups. For managers, the companies might highlight
the disadvantages of not sharing a nice experience by highlighting how
consumers can miss the chance of strong tie with the consumer base.
is might be of particular interest in case of online WOM. Companies
could also encourage the promotion faced behavior to manage WOM.
e research was limited by its sample selection of predominantly
Asian students. It is known that culture seems to impact motivation.
us future studies might study the moderating eect of culture.
Another interesting area for future research could be the impact of tie
strength and regulatory focus on WOM valence. is may have high
inuence in the online context. Also the eect and results of weak vis-
à-vis strong tie strength could be looked upon.
Sweeney et al. [33] in their paper studied the inuence of various
factors enhancing WOM inuence. eir paper aimed to study the
eects of message, service product and interpersonal factors on positive
and negative WOM. ey also tried to nd out how WOM inuences
consumer’s willingness to use a service provider. e model proposed
looked like in Figure 6.
1000 subjects (50% females) were chosen for the study from
the members of an online consumer group where they get points to
participate in the survey. Data was collected in the form of questionnaire
which was tested previously on a small convenient sample. e
responses recorded were from a range of services like cafes, healthcare,
automotive, nance and other business services. e measurement
model was tested using conrmatory factor analysis.
e results pointed out that positive WOM impacts more
signicantly than the negative WOM. Both in cases of positive and
negative WOM, interpersonal factors (like homophily etc.) and
message strength impacts the perceived WOM inuence. It was also
found that in case of positive WOM, brand equity perception enhances
message inuence and decreases in case of negative WOM. Again,
previous experience with the service provider reduces the impact
of positive WOM, but that in case of negative WOM did not eect.
Supporting earlier works, a strong WOM from a very close source had
a high impact on the recipient. It was also found that brand equity had
a direct impact on the consumers’ willingness to use a service provider.
For the managers, interpersonal variables might be helpful in case
of positive WOM, but they surely helped in escalate the situation in
case of negative WOM. For the businesses, positive brand equity might
serve as a buer for negative WOM and it can increase the impact of
positive WOM. Along with the volume, the strength and source of the
WOM was crucial for the businesses.
e study was limited within the service sector. us the product
context and the product complexity remained to be seen for the same
objective. Future research could also concentrate on other antecedents
like the serendipity on message inuence. Also the strength of WOM
might vary with the risks associated with dierent kinds of services.
is research focused on one-to-one communication. us there is a
need to see how broadcast form of media (social media) impacts WOM.
A recent study by Shi et al. tried to nd out how WOM aect
customer satisfaction. In this article the researchers explored how
WOM impacted the mechanism of customer satisfaction. ey also
observed the moderating eect of WOM source and product type on
the relation. e proposed model looks like this seen in Figure 7.
e experiment was conducted with 160 college students whose
average age was 22 years with almost equal male and female students.
ey measured the perceived expectations, perceived product quality
and satisfaction. ese three factors were manipulated among the
subjects: WOM strength (positive or negative), WOM source and
product type. MANOVA was used for the analysis.
e results showed that WOM impact satisfaction via expectation.
Positive WOM creates higher expectations and there is a chance of
lower satisfaction. e same is reverse in case of negative WOM. Also
the researchers did not nd regulatory role of product type in the link
between WOM and perceived quality. e perceived quality was found
to have a strong inuence on satisfaction. Product type as a moderating
variable signicantly impacted the perceived quality and satisfaction.
It was same in case of both positive and negative WOM. Also the
Sender Receiver
Experse
Differenal
Homophily
Strength of
WOM
Previous
experience
Brand Equity
WOM
message
influence
Change in
willingness to
user service
provider
Figure 6: Consumer’s willingness to use a service provider.
Posive
WOM
Perceived
Quality
Expectaon
Sasfacon
Figure 7: WOM affect customer satisfaction.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
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Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
expectations did not change for the positive and negative WOM. For
the managers, spread of positive WOM could improve the brand image
and purchase intention. With higher expectations, the businesses must
be able to control the risk. Appropriate negative WOM could increase
the tolerance and made it easier to achieve customer satisfaction.
e study was limited by the use of WOM as binary variable.
Future study may concentrate on using WOM as continuous variable.
Also product needs to be looked deeply as how various product types
impacts WOM.
Jeong and Koo [34] had studied the eect the valence and objectivity
of the online review on the judgment of consumers and if eWOM had a
moderating impact on this. e authors tried to check the moderating
eect various online platforms like company operated community or
consumer operated. e proposed model is shown below Figure 8.
e experiment was a 4 × 2 design. e four parameters were:
subjective negative, objective negative, subjective positive and objective
positive online reviews whereas the two parameters were user generated
and company generated content/sites. e sample size consisted of
480 (47.5% males) from South Korea with 95% of them are in the age
group 20-40 years. ey were randomly assigned to one of the eight
conditions. Snowball sampling technique was used in the design.
e results found than objective negative online WOM were
given more importance than other WOM types in terms of message
usefulness. It also showed the combined eect of negativity or positivity
and objectivity or subjectivity was highly eective in impacting
consumer’s judgment for product messages. Hence the managers were
suggested to manage the negative WOM which are experience based as
they can do more harm. Also the product quality should be high and
other parameters (like delivery etc.) should be kept in mind. Managers
should aim to reduce the negative WOM both in consumer as well as
business generated communities. Future research was suggested to
diversify eWOM beyond the positivity or objectivity paradigm as this
was a comparatively new area. It seemed various product categories
might have a moderating eect on consumer’s judgment which was
not studied in this study. Again this research was carried out utilitarian
products. us the hedonic products behave in this context is unknown.
Lopez and Sicilia [35] in their research have investigated WOM
as a communication tool and they tried to nd out how WOM
communication impacts new product adoption. ey argued that the
WOM marketing campaign could be developed even before advertising
and thus WOM would play a crucial role in the new product adoption
strategy.
In one of the experiment, 171 university students were randomly
assigned to two conditions- one where they are exposed to the WOM
communication rst and in another where the subjects were exposed
to the advertisement rst. e same experiment was replicated using
a non-student sample too. Product awareness and product adoption
were measured. Product knowledge and perceived novelty were also
measured as additional variables. Chi square test was used for the
analysis.
e study conrmed that WOM had a profound impact in new
product adoption. us the companies should always starts product
campaign with WOM rst and then starts advertising. WOM impacted
consumer awareness and thus resulted in increased adoption. e
paper also showed that new product diusion in enhanced with WOM
before advertising launch. Also higher volume of WOM resulted in
faster adoption. For the managers, they could ask consumers opinion
on new product launch and then the campaign could be designed.
Managers could directly reach opinion leaders with demos which could
be a part of the seeding campaign. e hype generation around a new
product would be important for the businesses.
Future research could look for the role of information search or
WOM at a later stage of product adoption. Again this study was limited
by one type of product. Various product like experience or search
product might behave dierently. Also further research is required to
see how various communication tools or their combination works in
the diusion process.
Christodoulides et al. [36] in their research studied how cross-
cultural dierences impact the purchase intention for WOM among
the UK and Chinese consumers. e research design was 2 × 2 × 3.
2 parameters were: eWOM types - positive and negative; another
2 parameters: product type – experience vs. search and the last 3
parameters were purchase intention at 3 dierent times. Snowball
sampling techniques was used to contact 103 UK and 106 Chinese
consumers. Questionnaires were distributed and data were collected.
ANOVA was used for the data analysis.
e result showed that the UK consumers had less purchase
intention than their Chinese counterparts aer exposure to eWOM.
is could be as UK consumers were more susceptible to negativity
bias for the eWOM. On the other hand, Chinese consumers seem to
be highly inuenced by eWOM. e ndings conrmed that exposure
to positive and nagetaive WOM signicantly impacted the purchase
intention for both the nationals. Also the negativity bias was more
important in case of experience products than on search products.
Further the study showed the importance of valence if eWOM
communication. e purchase intention decreased when participants
were st exposed to positive comments and then negative comments.
Similarly the purchase intention increased when the participants were
exposed to the negative comments rst and then positive comments.
It showed that UK consumers gave more importance to the negative
comments whereas the Chinese respondents tended to value the most
recent communication regardless of the valence.
Online Reviews
(Objecve/Negave
Objecve/Posive
Subjecve/Negave
Subjecve/Posive)
Consumer Judgment
(Message usefulness,
Atude, Purchase
Intenon)
Website Types
(User generated
and Company
generated)
Figure 8: Effect the valence and objectivity of the online review on the
judgment of consumers.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 8 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
For managers, this study had thrown some light on the international
consumer base and how they could behave. e managers need to
engage the consumer via comments or blogs. However, this research
did not consider the role of previous knowledge in purchase intention.
Also future research could look into the personality traits and its
impact on purchase intention. Impact of varying eWOM intensity or
the number of reviews could also be an important factor for further
studies.
Huang et al. [37] explored the factor that can help generating a
ripple eect for WOM diusion in the online environment. e model
proposed in the research was this (Figure 9).
e study was carried out in China where the sample included
the postgraduate and undergraduate students. e sample size was
393 and a two-step survey was conducted. e rst step was a paper
and pencil one and the second was an online survey in a simulated
online discussion forum. Structural equation modeling was used for
the analysis.
Results showed that all four dimensions studied had a signicant
impact on the consumer’s acceptance. Among these dimensions,
quality was the most important. e WOM information itself was a
main driver for the ripple eect. e eect of the dimensions is same
for both positive and negative WOM. In the online context, people
acceptance of WOM content was not inuenced by the product
involvement. Managers thus should be able to create a long WOM ow
for the ripple eect. e message and communication should be easy
and convenient to transmit. Perceived quality should be the rst focus
followed by the perceived authenticity.
e study was limited by its geography, China. Also many factors
like frequency and source credibility of WOM were not tested. Also the
agent’s (WOM source) characteristics and behavior were not studied.
O’Reilly and Marx did their research to nd out how young tech
savvy consumers access the credibility of online WOM. ey also
focused on the consumer characteristics as the antecedents for online
eWOM.
University students were recruited for this study in USA and the
data were collected for a 12 month period via face-to-face interview.
One of the interesting nding of the study was the degree of technical
competency did not aect the condence for online shopping. e
outcome was if people needed it and wanted it, they would buy online.
Also there is a convenience factor and that motivated consumer to
purchase online although consumers generally prefer to try the things
in retail store for the look and feel. e study also pointed that the
chances of online comments are higher in case of bad or negative
experience. e main reasons the authors pointed for online WOM
were to enhance self-worth, to avoid risk and negativity bias. Also
consumers judged the credibility factor from the polarity, quantity,
logic of the posts. e source of the comments and previous experience
with the seller also matters.
For managers, it should be kept in mind that tech skills did not
play a vital role in online shopping. us the user experience could
be smoothened. ey might engage themselves with the audience via
blogs or posts. To achieve viral marketing, managers were suggested to
enhance the websites with rich information, trustworthy and balanced
consumer reviews and options for engaging in social interaction.
e study was limited by the gender. e entire subject in this study
was males. us it is unknown how in this context gender would play
a role in the attitude or belief expressed in the study. is research also
targeted the young consumers. Future research thus could explore a
wide range of online consumers.
Conclusion
Over the past few decades, there have been some paradigm
shis in the eld of marketing. One of the revolutionary one was
with the beginning of internet marketing. e review provided by
Schibrowsky et al. [38] proves that scholarly research in the area of
Internet Marketing is growing. Word of mouth is one such aspect
where the marketing professionals are focusing for some time. It is
creating observable eects in the online world with product reviews,
ratings, social media communications and the like. Although there
are numerous articles on social media in the form of whitepapers and
blogs, literature in the form of academic research is still in its infancy.
Practitioners and marketers seek to benet from the understanding of
how customers manage, create and share user-generated information
along with a broader knowledge of WOM’s overall role in the decision
making process [39,40].
eories from psychology and behavioral studies play a crucial
role in helping marketers designing the overall WOM campaign
to reach and establish a relation with the customers. is research
area is a strong and growing eld that has conceptual and empirical
opportunities for future scholarly research. According to us, the top
needed areas for further research in word of mouth are the following:
(1) Impact of WOM on various personality traits and how it aects
the purchase intention.
(2) e role of incentives, consumer judgment and inuence of
brand attitude on customers WOM generation process.
(3) How various product categories impacts the WOM generation.
(4) e role of demographic variables in WOM generation and
reaction.
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Quality
Authencity
Authority
Interesngness
Acceptance
towards WOM
informaon
Resending
Intenon
Figure 9: Huang proposed model.
Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
Page 9 of 9
Volume 6 • Issue 6 • 1000467Int J Econ Manag Sci, an open access journal
ISSN: 2162-6359
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Citation: Kundu S, Sundara Rajan CR (2017) Word of Mouth: A Literature
Review. Int J Econ Manag Sci 6: 467. doi: 10.4172/2162-6359.1000467
