Word of mouth: understanding and managing referral marketing

Marketing practitioners and theorists routinely cite the power of the personal referral on customer behaviour. However, relatively few companies have tried to harness the power of word of mouth (WOM). Scholars have been pondering WOM over 2400 years, although modern marketing research into WOM started only relatively recently, in the post-war 1940s. WOM can be characterized by valence, focus, timing, solicitation and degree of management intervention. Most recent WOM research has been conducted from a customer-to-customer perspective, even though WOM is found in other contexts such as influence, employee and recruitment markets. Marketing research into WOM has attempted to answer two questions. What are the antecedents of WOM? What are the consequences of WOM? This paper integrates that research into a contingency model and attempts to identify researchable gaps in our knowledge.

[1]  P. Lazarsfeld,et al.  The people's choice. , 1945 .

[2]  S. Asch.  Opinions and Social Pressure , 1955, Nature.

[3]  O. J. Harvey,et al.  Assimilation and contrast effects in reactions to communication and attitude change. , 1957, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[4]  L. Festinger,et al.  A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , 2017 .

[5]  P. Kotler,et al.  Marketing management : analysis, planning, and control , 1973 .

[6]  E. Rogers,et al.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1964 .

[7]  Consumer behavior and the behavioral sciences : theories and applications , 1966 .

[8]  J. Arndt.  Role of Product-Related Conversations in the Diffusion of a New Product , 1967 .

[9]  Simpson Hm.  Satisfaction and dissatisfaction of student life. , 1968 .

[10]  James F. Engel,et al.  Word-of-mouth Communication by the Innovator , 1969 .

[11]  George S. Day,et al.  Attitude change, media and word of mouth. , 1971 .

[12]  A. Hirschman,et al.  Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States , 1971 .

[13]  池内 一,et al.  S.K.Arora and H.D.Lasswell, Political Communication:The public language of political elites in India and the United States, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969. , 1971 .

[14]  P. Kotler.  Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control , 1972 .

[15]  Richard A. Connor,et al.  Marketing Professional Services , 1977 .

[16]  Stephen W. Littlejohn.  Theories of Human Communication , 1978 .

[17]  C. Fornell,et al.  Economic Constraints on Consumer Complaining Behavior , 1980 .

[18]  Ralph L. Day,et al.  Refining concepts and measures of consumer satisfaction and complaining behavior : papers from the Fourth Annual Conference on Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, October 3-5, 1979 , 1980 .

[19]  Alice M. Tybout,et al.  Using Information Processing Theory to Design Marketing Strategies , 1981 .

[20]  R. B. Woodruff,et al.  Modeling Consumer Satisfaction Processes Using Experience-Based Norms: , 1983 .

[21]  Marsha L. Richins.  Negative Word-of-Mouth by Dissatisfied Consumers: A Pilot Study , 1983 .

[22]  Marsha L. Richins,et al.  Cross-cultural differences in consumer attitudes and their implications for complaint management , 1985 .

[23]  Linda L. Price,et al.  The market maven: A diffuser of marketplace information. , 1987 .

[24]  Susan A. Lynn.  Identifying buying influences for a professional service: Implications for marketing efforts , 1987 .

[25]  Marsha L. Richins.  A Multivariate Analysis of Responses to Dissatisfaction , 1987 .

[26]  W. Glynn Mangold.  Use of commercial sources of information in the purchase of professional services: What the literature tells us , 1987 .

[27]  John L. Graham,et al.  A Field Study of Causal Inferences and Consumer Reaction: The View from the Airport , 1987 .

[28]  James R. Stock,et al.  The industrial purchase decision for professional services , 1987 .

[29]  R. Westbrook.  Product/Consumption-Based Affective Responses and Postpurchase Processes , 1987 .

[30]  Marsha L. Richins.  A multivariate analysis of responses to dissatisfaction , 1987 .

[31]  Evaluating promotional strategy effectiveness for a health care organization , 1988 .

[32]  Jagdip Singh.  Consumer Complaint Intentions and Behavior: Definitional and Taxonomical Issues , 1988 .

[33]  Service opinion leadership: A management tool for service providers and product marketers alike , 1988 .

[34]  Claes Fornell,et al.  A Model for Customer Complaint Management , 1988 .

[35]  Claire P. Bolfing.  How do Customers Express Dissatisfaction and What can Service Marketers do About it , 1989 .

[36]  J. E. Swan,et al.  Postpurchase communications by consumers , 1989 .

[37]  Jagdip Singh.  Voice, exit, and negative word-of-mouth behaviors: An investigation across three service categories , 1990 .

[38]  Vijay Mahajan,et al.  New Product Diffusion Models in Marketing: A Review and Directions for Research: , 1990 .

[39]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  Exploring the Effects of Consumers′ Dissatisfaction Level on Complaint Behaviours , 1991 .

[40]  J D Johnson,et al.  Cancer information: women's source and content preferences. , 1991, Journal of health care marketing.

[41]  H. Markus,et al.  Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. , 1991 .

[42]  K. B. Murray.  A Test of Services Marketing Theory: Consumer Information Acquisition Activities , 1991 .

[43]  P. Herr,et al.  Effects of Word-of-Mouth and Product-Attribute Information on Persuasion: An Accessibility-Diagnosticity Perspective , 1991 .

[44]  Cynthia M. Webster.  Influences Upon Consumer Expectations of Services , 1991 .

[45]  Robert L. Desatnick,et al.  Managing to keep the customer , 1992 .

[46]  Arch G. Woodside,et al.  Buying and marketing CPA services , 1992 .

[47]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service , 1993 .

[48]  D. E. Headley,et al.  Measuring service quality and its relationship to future consumer behavior. , 1993, Journal of health care marketing.

[49]  Barbara Stern.  A revised communication model for advertising: Multiple dimensions of the source, the message , 1994 .

[50]  Cathy Goodwin,et al.  Beyond Smiling: Social Support and Service Quality , 1994 .

[51]  K. File,et al.  Word-of-Mouth Effects in Professional Services Buyer Behaviour , 1994 .

[52]  A. Ahuvia,et al.  Social support in the service sector: The antecedents, processes, and outcomes of social support in an introductory service , 1995 .

[53]  M Johnson,et al.  Word-of-mouth communication: causes and consequences. , 1995, Journal of health care marketing.

[54]  Mary C. Gilly,et al.  Dyadic perceptions in personal source information search , 1995 .

[55]  John F. Tanner,et al.  Buyer perceptions of the purchase process and its effect on customer satisfaction , 1996 .

[56]  K. Jones,et al.  Employee performance cues in a hotel service environment: Influence on perceived service quality, value, and word-of-mouth intentions , 1996 .

[57]  H. Watkins,et al.  Collectivism, Individualism and In-Group Membership: , 1996 .

[58]  G. Hutton.  Net gain: Expanding markets through virtual communities , 1998 .