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Each can help or hurt: Negative and positive word of mouth in social network brand communities

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Abstract

Marketers aim to increase active participation in their brand communities on social networking sites to achieve favorable brand outcomes. This paper is the first to analyze the moderating influence of community type (i.e., whether members primarily strive for social versus functional goals) on the effect of (a) negative word of mouth (nWOM) and (b) positive word of mouth (pWOM) on brand community outcomes. Specifically, we analyzed the effects on community members' perceived goal instrumentality of social network brand communities (i.e., whether the community increases the likelihood that personal goals will be achieved) and active participation in these brand communities. The results of a field study and three laboratory experiments reveal that nWOM evokes more negative consumer reactions in social-goal communities than in functional-goal communities. However, pWOM evokes more positive consumer reactions in social-goal communities than in functional-goal communities. Overall, the results have important managerial implications for effectively managing the occurrence of nWOM and pWOM in social network brand communities.

Section snippets

Theoretical background: The goal dependence of perception theory

Since the emergence of Web 2.0, scholars from several disciplines have investigated the reasons for consuming and producing user-generated content in online communities. Factors that were used to analyze these behaviors included, for example, personality traits, habits, social influence, values, or structural frameworks (e.g.Bishop, 2007; Leung, 2009; Preece, Nonnecke, & Andrews, 2004; Wise, Hamman, & Thorson, 2006; Ziegele et al., 2013). Particularly, in many studies, goals turned out to be a

Procedure

We conducted Study 1 to analyze H1, H4, i.e., the effect of (a) nWOM and (b) pWOM on community members' active participation in SNBCs using field data. Specifically, we collected field data from various Facebook SNBCs to conduct a quantitative content analysis. We chose the selected Facebook SNBCs from a SNBC popularity ranking based on the number of fans (i.e., community members) from the online analytics platform Socialbakers.com, which gathers and provides information and statistics on key

Procedure

To empirically assess H2, H3 we recruited N = 328 respondents (average age: 35.65 years, 40.24% male) through a German online panel. We randomly assigned each respondent to one condition in a 2 (nWOM occurrence: no versus yes) × 2 (community type: social versus functional goal) between-subject design (see below for a detailed description of the conditions).

Priming

Because the second factor of the experiment describes the community type (i.e., the predominant goals of SNBC members), we had to ensure that the

Procedure

To empirically assess H5, H6, we recruited N = 165 respondents (average age: 36.00 years, 46.10% male) through a German online panel. We randomly assigned each respondent to one condition in a 2 (pWOM occurrence: no versus yes) × 2 (community type: social versus functional goal) between-subject design.

Priming

We conducted the priming analogously to the unconscious goal priming described in Study 2 and again chose the priming techniques of the scrambled-sentence task and priming with pictures. Additionally,

Procedure

We conducted another experiment to provide a robustness check on our previous findings and to test pWOM and nWOM in one experimental setting. We recruited N = 136 respondents (average age: 42.34 years, 66.91% male) through a German online panel. Each respondent was randomly assigned to one condition in a 2 (WOM occurrence: nWOM versus pWOM) × 2 (community type: social versus functional goal) between-subject design.

Priming

Again, we conducted the priming almost analogously to the unconscious goal priming

Discussion

Marketers aim to increase active participation in their SNBCs to achieve favorable brand outcomes. However, user-generated content characterizes SNBCs, where nWOM and pWOM about the underlying brand is a frequently occurring phenomenon. Marketers need to know how and under what circumstances such nWOM and pWOM negatively or positively affects community members' perception of and active participation in their SNBCs so that they are able to effectively manage the occurrence of nWOM and pWOM in

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Marieke Blessin, Sarah Krey, Jacqueline Nelles, and Katharina Todoroska for their support in data collection.

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