The Effect of Message Valence on e-WoM Spread: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effect of e-WoM message on the intentionlevel of consumers to spread the word to other consumers in the presence of amoderated mediation interaction effect between risk perception and uncertaintyavoidance levels of consumers. An experimental design was implemented, and themanipulated experimental condition was e-WoM message represented in two levels,negative and positive. The results indicate that, compared to negative ones, positive eWoM messages lead to higher intention to share the message with other consumers.However, in the presence of perceived risk, the positive direct effect of positive messagesturns into a negative indirect effect when perceived risk mediates this relationship.Moreover, this negative indirect effect stabilizes with the uncertainty avoidancemoderated relationship between e-WoM message and perceived risk. In the light ofthese findings, a two levels e-WoM communication strategy was proposed to maximizethe benefits of positive customer feedbacks: Construction of a strong pool of positive eWoM messages generated by existing satisfied customers and the use of negativeframing in the marketing communication messages targeted to prospect customers.