An Examination Into The Determinants Of Positive And Negative Electronic Word-Of-Mouth Communication

The Internet has empowered consumers. More and more marketers attempt to harness the power of word-of-mouth communication in the online environment. In this paper, we attempt to explore the underlying motives for consumers engaging in both positive and negative eWOM communication. The findings reported here indicate that consumers engage in positive eWOM mostly for altruistic, self-enhancement, reciprocity, and sense of belonging. In contrast, consumers engage in negative eWOM for altruistic and venting negative feeling. The results of this exploratory study showed that though eWOM behaviour is the same, the underlying motives are very different. Thus, we recommend future research should clearly specify whether they are investigating PeWOM or NeWOM, and researchers should continue to identify corresponding theories to explain the two different eWOM phenomena