Toward Understanding Consumer Processing of Negative Online Word-of-Mouth Communication: The Roles of Opinion Consensus and Organizational Response Strategies

Although many hospitality organizations strive to handle negative word of mouth (NWOM) online, limited research has attempted to understand the influence of NWOM on potential consumers’ buying behaviors in order to suggest the appropriate organizational response strategies to NWOM communication. In an attempt to bridge this gap, the authors identified the roles of consensus in NWOM communication and how organizational responses to NWOM affect the ways in which potential consumers evaluate service organizations—by making attributional judgments and forming attitude. The results show that consensus in online NWOM communication plays a pivotal role in influencing how potential consumers incorporate NWOM into their evaluations about the organization. Additionally, these NWOM consensus effects are contingent on organizational response strategies. Finally, the authors discuss theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research.