WORD OF MOUTH OPPORTUNITY: WHY RECOMMENDATION LIKELIHOOD OVERESTIMATES POSITIVE WORD OF MOUTH

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners alike rely extensively on recommendation likelihood measures to understand customer loyalty and, more explicitly, expected positive word-of-mouth (PWOM). Yet previous research shows recommendation likelihood to be a flawed predictor of PWOM. We address this shortcoming by investigating the role that word-of-mouth (WOM) opportunity plays in the relationship between recommendation likelihood and PWOM. Results suggest that recommendation likelihood measures largely reflect overall satisfaction, and that WOM opportunity has a key moderating effect on the relationship between recommendation likelihood and PWOM. Importantly, WOM opportunity is poorly considered by consumers responding to recommendation likelihood questions, yet it has a major effect on PWOM. Implications for practitioners and academics using recommendation likelihood as a loyalty or PWOM measure are discussed.

Notes

1. The more common term for the widely used measure is recommendation intentions. However, theory of reasoned action research (Sheppard, Hartwick and Warshaw 1988) makes a clear distinction between measures of behavioral intentions and measures of behavioral likelihood. Since the scale is actually a measure of behavioral likelihood we employ the more accurate term “recommendation likelihood” in this work.