TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of experience congruity on repurchase intention
T2 - The moderating role of public commitment
AU - Choi, Sungwoo
AU - Mattila, Anna S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding:The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for research, authorship, or publication of this article: the authors thank the Marriott Foundation for the funding of this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 INFORMS.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - There is scant research examining the impact of posting reviews on the reviewer. To bridge that gap, we investigate the impact of other consumer online reviews (congruent versus incongruent) on the focal consumer's repurchase intention, and propose that public commitment (posting a review) moderates the relationship. Our findings indicate that, when posting a review about their positive experience, consumers show similar levels of embarrassment regardless of whether other consumer reviews are congruent or incongruent with their own experience. Conversely, when the consumer doesn't write a review, other consumers' incongruent reviews induce feelings of embarrassment, thus diminishing attitude certainty and consequent repurchase intention. Additionally, reviewers felt marginally less embarrassed than nonreviewers when they were exposed to other consumers' incongruent reviews. Conversely, nonreviewers felt less embarrassment than reviewers when exposed to other consumers' congruent reviews. However, such an effect is mitigated when the focal consumer's experience is negative. The study findings demonstrate that embarrassment and attitude certainty are the underlying mechanisms explaining the effects.
AB - There is scant research examining the impact of posting reviews on the reviewer. To bridge that gap, we investigate the impact of other consumer online reviews (congruent versus incongruent) on the focal consumer's repurchase intention, and propose that public commitment (posting a review) moderates the relationship. Our findings indicate that, when posting a review about their positive experience, consumers show similar levels of embarrassment regardless of whether other consumer reviews are congruent or incongruent with their own experience. Conversely, when the consumer doesn't write a review, other consumers' incongruent reviews induce feelings of embarrassment, thus diminishing attitude certainty and consequent repurchase intention. Additionally, reviewers felt marginally less embarrassed than nonreviewers when they were exposed to other consumers' incongruent reviews. Conversely, nonreviewers felt less embarrassment than reviewers when exposed to other consumers' congruent reviews. However, such an effect is mitigated when the focal consumer's experience is negative. The study findings demonstrate that embarrassment and attitude certainty are the underlying mechanisms explaining the effects.
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U2 - 10.1287/serv.2017.0203
DO - 10.1287/serv.2017.0203
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85048305784
SN - 2164-3962
VL - 10
SP - 124
EP - 138
JO - Service Science
JF - Service Science
IS - 2
ER -