IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v81y2024ics096969892400290x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Actions are more than just words: Relationships between word-of-mouth, personal interaction, and product attachment

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Woo Bin
  • Kim, Changju
  • Go, I.
  • Fukuda, Reo
  • Imai, Marina

Abstract

While the impact of word-of-mouth (WOM) on receivers is widely recognized, less is known about how participation in WOM affects purchase behavior. To address this literature gap, this study aims to empirically investigate the connection between customers' positive WOM intentions and their actual consumption behavior by considering frontline employees' personal interactions with customers and customers' global product attachment. Using data from 521 Chinese consumers in a retail shopping mall, we employed a hierarchical multiple regression model to test our hypotheses. Our findings reveal that, while the direct effect of positive WOM on actual behavior is not significant, customers' active interactions with frontline employees enhances the influence of their positive WOM intention on both a) purchase amount and b) visit frequency. Furthermore, we suggest that customers with high (versus low) attachment to global products heighten the positive interaction effect of positive WOM intention and frontline employees’ personal interaction on purchase amounts only. Therefore, this study has implications for domestic and global retail companies to effectively manage customer WOM.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Woo Bin & Kim, Changju & Go, I. & Fukuda, Reo & Imai, Marina, 2024. "Actions are more than just words: Relationships between word-of-mouth, personal interaction, and product attachment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:81:y:2024:i:c:s096969892400290x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096969892400290X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103994?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:81:y:2024:i:c:s096969892400290x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.