How word of mouth communication varies across service encounters

Abstract

Purpose – Word‐of‐mouth (WOM) communication, satisfaction and service quality are inextricably linked. However, despite much research, the shape of the satisfaction‐WOM relationship is not known. At present, three relationships are supported. This paper aims to develop and test a model of how the satisfaction‐WOM relationship varies depending on the type of service encounter, thus reconciling past conflicting findings.Design/methodology/approach – A number of service quality indicators are manipulated and a fully factorial 2×3 experiment is conducted to test the hypotheses on 281 respondents.Findings – All four hypotheses are supported; in certain types of service encounters high levels of satisfaction lead to greater WOM activity than low levels of satisfaction (positivity bias) and this relationship is reversed in a second type of service encounter (negativity bias).Research limitations/implications – This research shows that relationships between constructs are highly context dependent and can change d...