Motyka et al. (2017)
Theoretenal developmeoc
WOM: informal, person-to-person communicaton regarding a brand, product, organizaton or
service.
Traditonal WOM is limited by the size of the personss social network.. eWOM removes these barriers
and facilitates communicaton among billions of customers, at an astonishing speed.
Consumers appear more motvated to write reviews if they have had a partcularly good or bad
experience with a product. Sharing informaton about oneself is emotonally rewarding and people
tend to beter remember afect-laden events (wedding, death). We predict that sharing informaton
with stronger emotons, regardless of valence, is more rewarding and produces stronger review–
reward efects.
Whetog che nappetcet drive cnace rewnard naod rever e nallie chna ina
Rewnard : positve outcomes that motvate behaviour.
Allie che ina: the pleasure derived from a stmulus. This relates directly to the strength of the
associated drive state (the thing that drives you).
Alliesthesia cannot explain all consumer behaviour. When a person receives a small reward, such as a
product sample or writng a review, it essentally “whets the appettee by intensifying the original
drive state. This strengthening of motvaton prompts the consumer to get involved in additonal
consumpton (reverse alliesthesia), as it transposes the traditonal relatonship between drive state
and reward. Three characteristcs of rewards can facilitate reverse alliesthesia:
Go beyond the inital consumpton cue and spill over to motvaton to consume in a broader
array of domains;
The reward drive that triggers impulsive behaviour can be satssed by subsequent rewards,
regardless of whether they are related to the inital reward domain or not;
The brain fails to distnguish diferent types of rewards. Rewards act as a common neural
currency that actvates the same regions of the brain.
Cro -domnaio pillovert from hnariog emotoonal ioformnatoo co impul ive behnaviour
The type of informaton that is shared may determine the extent to which the sharing experience is
rewarding; sharing personal opinions and experiences is seen as more valuable than sharing facts.
Emotonal (vs. ratonal) online reviews consttute a form of social sharing (reviewers k.now their
opinions will be read by others). They should receive social rewards if they share emotonal
informaton in their online reviews but not if they form similar opinions privately without sharing
them. In line with reverse alliesthesia theory, these rewards may trigger a reward drive for the
reviewer that causes impulsive behaviour.
Rever e nallie che ina enau e impul ivic?
Impul ive behnaviour: behaviour that is not regulated and that results from an unplanned,
spontaneous impulse.
In the social context, people tend to be more impulsive when they shop with peers. Consumer
behaviour may become more impulsive when social cues are evok.ed by sharing a review.
Propo itoo 1: people engage in impulsive behaviour when they share emotonal reviews but not
when they form similar opinions privately.