Empirical studies investigating the antecedents of positive word of mouth (WOM) typically focus on the direct effects of consumers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with previous purchasing experiences. The authors develop and test a more comprehensive model of the antecedents of positive WOM (both intentions and behaviors), including consumer identification and commitment. Specifically, they hypothesize and test commitment as a mediator and moderator of satisfaction on positive WOM and commitment as a mediator of identification on WOM. Using data obtained from customers of a retailer offering both products and services, they find support for all hypothesized relationships withWOMintentions and/orWOMbehaviors as the dependent variable. The authors conclude with a discussion of their findings and implications for both marketing theory and practice.
Aaker, David A.1991. Managing Brand Equity. New York: Free Press.
2.
Aaker, Jennifer. 1999. “The Malleable Self: The Role of Self-Expression in Persuasion.” Journal of Marketing Research36 (February): 45-57.
3.
Ahluwalia, Rohini, Robert E.Burnkrant, and H. Rao Unnava. 2000. “Consumer Response to Negative Publicity: The Moderating Role of Commitment.” Journal of Marketing Research37 (May): 203-214.
4.
Anderson, Eugene W.1998. “Customer Satisfaction and Word of Mouth.” Journal of Service Research1 (August): 5-17.
5.
Anderson, Eugene W. and Mary W. Sullivan. 1993. “The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms.” Marketing Science12 (Spring): 125-143.
6.
Arndt, Johan. 1967. “The Role of Product-Related Conversation in the Diffusion of a New Product.” Journal of Marketing Research4 (August): 291-295.
7.
Arnett, Dennis B., Steve D. German, and Shelby D. Hunt. 2003. “The Identity Salience Model of Relationship Marketing Success: The Case of Nonprofit Marketing.” Journal of Marketing67 (April): 89-105.
8.
Ashforth, Blake E. and Fred Mael. 1989. “Social Identity Theory and the Organization.” Academy of Management Review14 (1): 20-39.
9.
Ashforth, Blake E. and Alan M. Saks. 1996. “Socialization Tactics: Longitudinal Effects on Newcomer Adjustment.” Academy of Management Journal39 (1): 149-178.
10.
Baron, Reuben M. and David A. Kenny. 1986. “The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology51 (December): 1173-1182.
11.
Bass, Frank. 1969. “A New Product Growth Model for Consumer Durables.” Management Science15 (January): 215-227.
12.
Bendapudi, Neeli and Leonard L. Berry. 1997. “Customers’ Motivations for Maintaining Relationships With Service Providers.” Journal of Retailing73 (1): 15-37.
13.
Bergami, Massimo and Richard P. Bagozzi. 2000. “Self-Categorization, Affective Commitment and Group Self-Esteem as Distinct Aspects of Social Identity in the Organization.” British Journal of Social Psychology39 (4): 555-577.
14.
Bettencourt, Lance A.1997 “CustomerVoluntary Performance: Customers as Partners in Service Delivery.” Journal of Retailing73 (3): 383-406.
15.
Bhattacharya, C. B., Hayagreeva Rao, and Mary Ann Glynn. 1995. “Understanding the Bond of Identification: An Investigation of Its Correlates Among Art Museum Members.” Journal of Marketing59 (October): 46-57.
16.
Bhattacharya, C. B., Hayagreeva Rao and Sankar Sen. 2003. “Consumer-Company Identification: A Framework for Understanding Consumers’RelationshipsWith Companies.” Journal of Marketing67 (April): 76-88.
17.
Blodgett, Jeffrey G., Donald H. Granbois, and RockneyG. Walters. 1993. “The Effects of Perceived Justice on Complainants’Negative Wordof-Mouth Behavior and Repatronage Intentions.” Journal of Retailing69 (Winter): 399-428.
18.
Bolton, Ruth N. and Katherine N. Lemon. 1999. “A Dynamic Model of Customers’ Usage of Services: Usage as an Antecedent and Consequence of Satisfaction.” Journal of Marketing Research36 (May): 171-186.
19.
Bone, Paula Fitzgerald. 1995. “Word-of-Mouth Effects on Short-Term and Long-Term Product Judgments.” Journal of Business Research32 (March): 213-223.
20.
Brown, Jacqueline Johnson and Peter H. Reingen. 1987. “Social Ties and Word-of-Mouth Referral Behavior.” Journal of Consumer Research14 (December): 350-362.
21.
Brown, Tom J. and Peter A. Dacin. 1997. “The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses.” Journal of Marketing61 (January): 68-84.
22.
Christopher, Martin, Adrian Payne, and David Ballantyne. 1991. Relationship Marketing. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.
23.
Cook, R.Dennis and SandfordWeisberg. 1982. Residuals and Influence in Regression. New York: Chapman and Hall.
24.
Crosby, Lawrence A., Kenneth R. Evans, and Deborah Cowles. 1990. “Relationship Quality in Services Selling: An Interpersonal Influence Perspective.” Journal of Marketing54 (July): 68-81.
25.
Deal, Marianna and Pete Abel. 2001. “Grass Roots: The Exponential Power of One.” Brandweek, February 26, 30-30.
26.
Duhan, Dale F., Scott D. Johnson, James B. Wilcox, and Gilbert D. Harrell. 1997. “Influences on Consumer Use ofWord-of-Mouth Recommendation Sources.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science25 (Fall): 283-295.
27.
Dutton, Jane E., Janet M. Dukerich, and Celia V. Harquail. 1994. “ Organizational Images and Member Identification.” Administrative Sciences Quarterly39 (June): 239-263.
28.
Dwyer, F. Robert, Paul H. Schurr, and Sejo Oh.1987. “Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships.” Journal of Marketing51 (April): 11-27.
29.
Feick, Lawrence F. and Linda L. Price. 1987. “The Market Maven: ADiffuser of Marketplace Information.” Journal of Marketing51 (January): 83-97.
30.
Fishbein, Martin and Icek Ajzen. 1975. Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
31.
Fournier, Susan. 1998. “Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research.” Journal of Consumer Research24 (March): 343-373.
32.
Frenzen, Jonathan and Kent Nakamoto. 1993. “Structure, Cooperation, and the Flowof Market Information.” Journal of Consumer Research20 (December): 360-375.
33.
Ganzach, Yoav. 1998. “Intelligence and Job Satisfaction.” Academy of Management Journal41 (5): 526-539.
34.
Garbarino, Ellen and Mark S. Johnson. 1999. “The Different Roles of Satisfaction, Trust, and Commitment in Customer Relationships.” Journal of Marketing63 (April): 70-87.
35.
Gelb, Betsy and Madeline Johnson. 1995.“Word-of-MouthCommunication: Causes and Consequences.” Journal of Health Care Marketing15 (Fall): 54-58.
36.
Gilly, Mary C., John L. Graham, Mary FinleyWolfinbarger, and Laura J. Yale. 1998. “A Dyadic Study of Interpersonal Information Search.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science26 (Spring): 83-100.
37.
Gruen, Thomas W., John O. Summers, and Frank Acito. 2000. “ Relationship Marketing Activities, Commitment, and Membership Behaviors in Professional Associations.” Journal of Marketing64 (July): 34-49.
38.
Harrison-Walker, L. Jean. 2001. “The Measurement of Word-of-Mouth Communication and an Investigation of Service Quality and Customer Commitment as Potential Antecedents.” Journal of Service Research4 (August): 60-75.
39.
Heckman, Robert and Audrey Guskey. 1998. “The Relationship Between Alumni and University: Toward a Theory of Discretionary Collaborative Behavior.” Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice6 (Spring): 97-112.
40.
Herr, Paul M., Frank R. Kardes, and John Kim. 1991. “Effects ofWordof-Mouth and Product-Attribute Information on Persuasion: An Accessibility-Diagnosticity Perspective.” Journal of Consumer Research17 (March): 454-462.
41.
Heskett, James L., Thomas O. Jones, GaryW. Loveman, W. Earl Sasser Jr., and Leonard A. Schlesinger. 1994. “Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work.” Harvard Business Review72 (March-April): 164-174.
42.
Higie, Robin A., Lawrence F. Feick, and Linda L. Price. 1987. “Types and Amount ofWord-of-Mouth Communications About Retailers.” Journal of Retailing63 (Fall): 260-278.
43.
John, Joby. 1994. “Referent Opinion and Health Care Satisfaction.” Journal of Health Care Marketing14 (Summer): 24-30.
44.
Jones, Thomas O. andW. Earl Sasser Jr.1995. “Why Satisfied Customers Defect.” Harvard Business Review73 (November-December): 88-89.
45.
Jöreskog, Karl G. and Dag Sörbom. 1996. LISREL 8: Structural Equation Modeling With the SIMPLIS Command Language. Chicago: Scientific Software International.
46.
Jöreskog, Karl G. and Dag Sörbom. 1999. LISREL 8.30. Chicago: Scientific Software International.
47.
Kelley, Scott W. and Mark A. Davis. 1994. “Antecedents to Customer Expectations for Service Recovery.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science22 (1): 52-61.
48.
Kelly, Erin. 2000. “This is One Virus You Want to Spread.” Fortune, November 27, 297-300.
49.
Krishnamurthy, Parthasarathy and Mita Sujan. 1999. “RetrospectionVersus Anticipation: The Role of theAdUnder Retrospective and Anticipatory Self-Referencing.” Journal of Consumer Research26 (June): 55-69.
50.
Kwak, Hyokjin, George M. Zinkhan, and Leyland F. Pitt. 2001. “Global and Cultural Perspectives on Web-Based Chatting: An Exploratory Study.” Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 4, Paula M. Tidwell and Thomas E. Muller, eds. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 243-250.
51.
Mael, Fred and Blake E. Ashforth. 1992. “Alumni and Their Alma Mater: A Partial Test of the Reformulated Model of Organizational Identification.” Journal of Organizational Behavior13 (March): 103-123.
52.
Mael, Fred and Lois E. Tetrick. 1992. “Identifying Organizational Identification.” Educationaland Psychological Measurement52 (4): 813-824.
53.
Mahajan, Vijay, Eitan Muller, and Frank M. Bass. 1990. “New Product Diffusion Models in Marketing: A Review and Directions for Research.” Journal of Marketing54 (January): 1-26.
54.
Mangold, W. Glynn, Fred Miller, and Gary R. Brockway. 1999. “Wordof-Mouth Communication in the Service Marketplace.” Journal of Services Marketing13 (1): 73-89.
55.
McClelland, Gary H. and Charles M. Judd. 1993. “Statistical Difficulties of Detecting Interactions and Moderator Effects.” Psychological Bulletin114 (2): 376-390.
56.
Mittal, Vikas andWagner A. Kamakura. 2001. “Satisfaction, Repurchase Intent, and Repurchase Behavior: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics.” Journal of Marketing Research38 (February): 131-142.
57.
Mittal, Vikas, Pankaj Kumar, and Michael Tsiros. 1999. “Attribute-Level Performance, Satisfaction, and Behavioral IntentionsOverTime: AConsumption-System Approach.” Journal of Marketing63 (April): 88-101.
58.
Money, R. Bruce, Mary C. Gilly, and John L. Graham. 1998. “ Explorations of National Culture and Word-of-Mouth Referral Behavior in the Purchase of Industrial Services in the United States and Japan.” Journal of Marketing62 (October): 76-87.
59.
Moorman, Christine, Gerald Zaltman, and Rohit Deshpande. 1992. “Relationships Between Providers and Users of Market Research: The Dynamics of TrustWithin and Between Organizations.” Journal of Marketing Research29 (August): 314-328.
60.
Morgan, Robert M. and Shelby D. Hunt. 1994. “The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing.” Journal of Marketing58 (July): 20-38.
61.
Murray, Keith B.1991. “ATest of Services Marketing Theory: Consumer Information Acquisition Activities.” Journal of Marketing55 (January): 10-25.
62.
Nijssen, Edwin, Jagdip Singh, Deepak Sirdeshmukh, and Hartmut Holzmueller. 2003. “Investigating Industry Context Effects in Consumer-Firm Relationships: Preliminary Results From a Dispositional Approach.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science31 (Winter): 46-60.
63.
Oliver, Richard L.1993. “Cognitive, Affective and Attribute Bases of the Satisfaction Response.” Journal of Consumer Research20 (December): 418-430.
64.
Oliver, Richard L.1997. Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
65.
Oliver, Richard L.1999. “Whence Consumer Loyalty?” Journal of Marketing63 (Special Issue): 33-44.
66.
Pitt, Leyland F., Pierre R. Berthon, Richard T. Watson, and George M. Zinkhan. 2002. “The Internet and the Birth of Real Consumer Power.” Business Horizons45 (July-August): 7-14.
67.
Pratt, Michael G.1998. “To Be or Not to Be? Central Questions in Organizational Identification.” In Identity in Organizations: Building Theory Through Conversations. Ed. D. A. Whetten and P. C. Godfrey. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 171-207.
68.
Pritchard, Mark P., Mark E. Havitz, and Dennis R. Howard. 1999. “ Analyzing the Commitment-Loyalty Link in Service Contexts.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science27 (3): 333-348.
69.
Reichheld, Frederick F.2003. “The One Number You Need to Know.” Harvard Business Review81 (12): 46-54.
70.
Reynolds, Kristy E. and Sharon E. Beatty. 1999. “Customer Benefits and Company Consequences of Customer-Salesperson Relationships in Retailing.” Journal of Retailing75 (1): 11-32.
71.
Richins, Marsha L.1983. NegativeWord-of-Mouth by Dissatisfied Consumers: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Marketing47 (Winter): 68-78.
72.
Richins, Marsha L. and Teri Root-Shaffer. 1988. “The Role of Involvement and Opinion Leadership in Consumer Word-of-Mouth: An Implicit Model Made Explicit.” In Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 15. Ed. Michael J. Houston. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 32-36.
73.
Rosen, Emanuel. 2000. The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing. New York: Doubleday/Currency.
74.
Rust, Roland T. and Anthony J. Zahorik. 1993. “Customer Satisfaction, Customer Retention, and Market Share.” Journal of Retailing69 (Summer): 193-215.
75.
Satorra, Albert. 1992. “Asymptotic Robust Inferences in the Analysis of Mean and Covariance Structures.” Sociological Methodology22 (1): 249-278.
76.
Satorra, Albert and Peter M. Bentler. 2001. “A Scaled Difference Chi-Aquare Test Statistic for Moment Structure Analysis.” Psychometrika66 (December): 507-514.
77.
Sen, Sankar and C. B. Bhattacharya. 2001. “Does Doing Good Always Lead to Doing Better? Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility.” Journal of Marketing Research38 (May): 225-243.
78.
Sheth, Jagdish N. and Atul Parvatiyar. 1995. “Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: Antecedents and Consequences.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science23 (Fall): 255-271.
79.
Sirgy, M. Joseph, Dhruv Grewal, Tamara F. Mangleburg, Jae-ok Park, Kye-Sung Chon, C. B. Claiborne, J. S. Johar, and Harold Berkman. 1997. “Assessing the Predictive Validity of Two Methods of Measuring Self-Image Congruence.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science25 (Summer): 229-241.
80.
Sirgy, M. Joseph, Dhruv Grewal, Tamara F. Mangleburg, Jae-ok Park, Kye-Sung Chon, C. B. Claiborne, J. S. Johar and A. Coskun Samli. 1985. “A Path Analytic Model of Store Loyalty Involving Self-Concept, Store Image, Geographic Loyalty, and Socioeconomic Status.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science13 (Summer): 265-291.
81.
Sultan, Fareena, John U. Farley, and Donald R. Lehmann. 1990. “AMeta-Analysis of Applications of Diffusion Models.” Journal of Marketing Research27 (February): 70-77.
82.
Summers, John O.1972. “Media Exposure Patterns of Consumer Innovators.” Journal of Marketing36 (January): 43-49.
83.
Swan, John E. and Richard L. Oliver. 1989. “Postpurchase Communications by Consumers.” Journal of Retailing65 (Winter): 516-533.
84.
Verhoef, Peter C., Philip Hans Franses, and Janny C. Hoekstra. 2002. “The Effect of Relational Constructs on Customer Referrals and Number of Services Purchased From a Multiservice Provider: Does Age of Relationship Matter?” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science30 (Summer): 202-216.
85.
White, Susan S. and Benjamin Schneider. 2000. “Climbing the Commitment Ladder: The Role of Expectations Disconfirmation on Customers’ Behavioral Intentions.” Journal of Service Research2 (February): 240-253.
86.
Wiener, Yoash. 1982. “Commitment in Organizations: A Normative View.” Academy of Management Review7 (3): 418-428.
87.
Zeithaml, Valarie A., Leonard L. Berry, and A. Parasuraman. 1993. “The Nature and Determinants of Customer Expectations of Service.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science21 (Winter): 1-12.
88.
Zinkhan, George M., Hyokjin Kwak, Michelle Morrison, and Cara Okleshen Peters. 2003. “Web-Based Chatting: Consumer Communication in Cyberspace.” Journal of Consumer Psychology13 (1-2): 17-27.
