Positive WOM Valence Does Not Always Result in Favorite Outcomes: The Role of Perceived Conflict

摘要

This study examines how the valence of word-of-mouth(WOM)about a business partner relate to the perceived trust of the relationship and consumers'WOM posting intentions,especially investigates the moderating effects of conflict during the processes.The findings indicate that being exposed to positive WOM significantly decrease consumers'perceived trust with the focal firm when consumers believe they have a conflict with the firm.In this case,positive reviews leading to a reduced level of perceived relational trust,and therefore undermine consumers posting intentions.The level of trustworthiness improves dramatically for unknown consumers if the information's source is from a trusted website.Here we can see trust serves as an essential mediator(see figure 1).Thus,we hypothesize that relational trust mediates review valence and review posting intention.If a consumer's level of trust would be negatively affected by online reviews and furthermore becomes frustrated and cynical and do not want to participate in the process.In this case,there is a moderated mediation effect of perceived conflict on review valence and review posting intention.Thus,we hypothesize that there is valence X conflict effect on trust,such that compared to consumers who have a lower level of perceived conflict,the impact of valence will become more salient for consumers who have a high level of perceived conflict.Positive(Negative)review leads to decreased[increased)level of trust.