How eWord of Mouth valences affect price perceptions

Abstract

The influence of electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) on consumers’ perceptions of price, allowing for consumers having different price acceptability levels, was examined through nine online experiments. Three valences of eWOM were systematically examined: positive, negative, and inconsistent, that is, both positive and negative present in the word-of-mouth communication. When contemplating making a purchase of an item, consumers have ranges of prices that would be acceptable. It was found that eWOM was more influential on consumers’ price perceptions than the advertised price for all price acceptability levels. However, the price perception of an item was found to be less acceptable when eWOM was inconsistent compared to when eWOM was absent or was positive. Inconsistent eWOM had a negative effect on price perceptions but not as great as that when negative eWOM was present and this was consistently found to apply for all price acceptability levels. The market context for the experiments was that of a tourism service, a Group Package Tour in Japan. We present the study’s implications for practitioners in this type of market, as well as the contribution to the research literature on word-of-mouth influence on consumer response to prices.