Impact of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on perceived helpfulness in social media
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-04-2022-0259 |
| Published date | 05 October 2022 |
| Date | 05 October 2022 |
| Pages | 2657-2679 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Chunfeng Chen,Depeng Zhang |
Impact of emotional intensity
of negative word-of-mouth
on perceived helpfulness
in social media
Chunfeng Chen and Depeng Zhang
School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Abstract
Purpose –Negative word-of-mouth has a variety of negative effects on companies. Thus, how consumers
process and evaluate negative word-of-mouth is an important issue for companies. This research aims to
investigate the effect of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on consumers’perceived helpfulness.
Design/methodology/approach –The research model was developed based on attribution theory. A four-
study approach involving two field experiments and two online experiments was employed to examine the
proposed hypotheses.
Findings –The results show that the emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth negatively affects
altruistic motive attributions, while altruistic motive attributions positively affect perceived helpfulness and
plays a mediating role in the relationship between the emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth and
perceived helpfulness. Consumers’self-construalmoderates the effects of emotional intensity of negative word-
of-mouth on altruistic motive attributions and perceived helpfulness, with the negative effects of emotional
intensity of negative word-of-mouth on altruistic motive attributions and perceived helpfulness being weaker
for consumers with high interdependent self-construal than for those with high independent self-construal.
Originality/value –The findings not only have a significant theoretical contribution, deepening the
understanding of the effects of negative word-of-mouth but also have useful implications for practitioners to
improve the management of negative word-of-mouth.
Keywords Emotional intensity, Perceived helpfulness, Altruistic motive attributions, Self-construal
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With the development of social media, consumers have access to word-of-mouth (WOM) from
a wider variety of sources and in greater numbers (Allard et al., 2020;Liu et al., 2022). WOM
has changed consumers’information consumption patterns completely in the digital age and
is attracting increasing attention from both academics and practitioners (Xu et al., 2022;Yin
et al., 2021). Despite WOM’s various benefits, the overwhelming number of WOM in social
media may cause problems for consumers, such as information overload and hesitance in
purchase decision-making due to the conflicting opinions (Fan et al., 2021;Purnawirawan
et al., 2012). The large number and diverse motivations of WOM sharers make it difficult for
consumers to find the most helpful WOM when evaluating brands, products, or services
(Filieri et al., 2021;Xu et al., 2022). As a result, research to identify helpful WOM has attracted
significant interest.
The valance of WOM has received extensive attention in WOM helpfulness studies, and many
studies have indicated that negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) is more helpful than positive WOM
(Chakravarty et al.,2010;Craciunand Moore, 2019). This is because consumers place greater concern
on the risks involved in decision making, and NWOM conveys more risk-averse cues (Pan and Chiou,
2011;Sparks and Browning, 2011). By sharing negative consumption experiences through NWOM,
sharers can reduce the discontent associated with their negative emotions, such as anxiety and
Negative word-
of-mouth
2657
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71972055; 71672044).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 27 April 2022
Revised 8 August 2022
Accepted 3 September 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 122 No. 12, 2022
pp. 2657-2679
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-04-2022-0259
tension (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). The amount of information on social media is massive, and it
updates quickly, making emotional information more prominent because it is more likely to attract
others’attention and increase their empathy, as well as the adoption of the information (Oliveira et al.,
2022;Xu et al.,2022). Thus, emotional intensity has been noted as one of the key characteristics of
NWOM in social media, which plays an important role in the spread of NWOM and its effects (Liu
et al.,2021;Ransbotham et al., 2019). It is worth investigating whether and how consumers perceive
the helpfulness of NWOM in social media with different emotional intensity.
Additionally, previous research has empathized that consumers’self-construal, a personality
trait, plays an important role in consumer behaviors such as information adoption and purchase
decision (Hofmann et al., 2021;Kwon and Sung, 2012;Wong et al.,2022). As individuals with
different self-construal have different cognitions of social relationships and prosocial behavior
(Brewer and Gardner, 1996;Markus and Kitayama, 1991), this may lead to differences in their
understanding of the emotional intensity of NWOM, allowing for differences in the effects of
emotional intensity of NWOM. Hence, it is necessary to examine the role that self-construal plays in
the effects of emotional intensity of NWOM.
Overall, this research aims to investigate the effects of emotional intensity of NWOM on
consumers’perceived helpfulness of NWOM, while seeking to understand the moderating
effect of self-construal. This research attempts to answer the following questions:
(1) What are the effects of emotional intensity of NWOM on consumers’perceived
helpfulness?
(2) How does the emotional intensity of NWOM affect consumers’perceived helpfulness?
(3) Does consumers’self-construal play a role in the effects of emotional intensity of
NWOM and, if so, how?
Based on attribution theory, this research developed a research model to address the above
questions. Attribution theory asserts that individuals construe the cause of a particular event
or outcome with regard to certain factors in a particular way (Reimer and Benkenstein, 2018);
this theory has been used to explain how consumers assess WOM helpfulness (Chang et al.,
2015;Fan et al., 2021). Supported by previous research using attribution theory to explain
consumers’evaluation of WOM helpfulness, we found the theory to offer an appropriate
theoretical lens through which one could analyze the effects of emotional intensity of NWOM
on consumers’perceived helpfulness.
A four-study approach involving two field experiments and two online experiments was
adopted to test the research model and proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that the
emotional intensity of NWOM negatively affects altruistic motive attributions, while
altruistic motive attributions positively affect perceived helpfulness and mediate the
relationship between emotional intensity of NWOM and perceived helpfulness. Moreover,
consumers’self-construal moderates the relationship between emotional intensity of NWOM,
altruistic motive attributions, and perceived helpfulness.
The structure of this paper is as follows: Section 2 reviews the prior literature on perceived
helpfulness of WOM, emotional intensity of NWOM, and attribution theory. Section 3
discusses the research model and hypotheses. The analyses in Section 4 depict the empirical
results. Section 5 discusses the theoretical implications, practical implications, limitations,
and future research directions.
Literature review
Perceived helpfulness of word-of-mouth
Consumers’measurement of WOM helpfulness is one of the most important research topics in
the study of WOM effects (Allard et al., 2020;Filieri et al., 2018;Xu et al., 2022). Perceived
IMDS
122,12
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