| In this thesis, a theory of consumers' expertise and word-of-mouth (WOM) is developed and substantiated. It is proposed that when consumers attribute the outcome of a consumption experience to their expertise, they may use WOM as a signal of this expertise. Based on the simultaneous effects of self-enhancement and self-verification motives, it is predicted that satisfied experts generate the most WOM, and consumers prefer to talk about their “high expertise, high satisfaction” experiences.;This research was initiated with ten ZMET™ interviews that served to inspire the development of this theory, followed by three on-line experiments involving controlled, hypothetical consumption experiences. Study 1 provides directional evidence that satisfied experts generate more WOM versus dissatisfied experts and versus satisfied or dissatisfied novices. This pattern is replicated in Studies 2 and 3, where it is also demonstrated that this relationship holds only when the outcome of the consumption experience is attributable to the consumer's expertise because the product was chosen by the consumer or because the evaluative dimensions associated with the outcome are objective. Involvement, expectations, and cognitive dissonance are also explicitly tested and ruled out as potential alternative explanations. In Study 4, it is predicted that when consumers' expertise self-concepts are more salient, the effects found in the previous studies are intensified. Study 5 will demonstrate that individual consumers prefer to talk about their “high expertise, high satisfaction” experiences.;While people generally believe that dissatisfied consumers talk more than satisfied consumers (Goodman 1999), there is mounting evidence to support the contrary (cf. Godes and Mayzlin 2004). Here, it is demonstrated that satisfied consumers generate more WOM, but only when they are experts, and only when the outcome is attributable to their expertise. Second, while these results are consistent with the assumption that experts generate more WOM than novices (cf., Jacoby and Hoyer 1981), an important caveat is introduced: there is no significant difference between the WOM generated by dissatisfied experts and novices. Overall, this thesis provides compelling evidence that when consumers generate WOM, they are telling others not just about products and services, but also about themselves. |
