Merchandising/Marketing/Retailing: Branding

The Role of Reward and Gender in Inducing Consumers' Willingness to Post Reviews

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Abstract

To date, many fashion retailers offer monetary rewards to motivate consumers to engage in e-WOM activities. Despite its popularity, research on the effectiveness of this marketing practice is limited. Drawn from the persuasion knowledge model, we argue that the practice could backfire. Consumers may perceive reward-based review invitations as typical promotion campaigns and therefore reduce their intention to post reviews. Specifically, we proposed a serial psychological responses toward the reward-based e-WOM marketing and the role of gender in the psychological process. A single factor between-subjects experiment using scenarios was conducted and participants were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups. The results confirmed a negative indirect effect of reward on consumers' willingness to post reviews through higher deception and a resulting lower ethicality. Albeit no interaction effect of reward and gender, female consumers are suggested to process reward-based e-WOM marketing through two underlying mechanisms but males do not.

How to Cite:

Huang, R. & Ha, S., (2017) “The Role of Reward and Gender in Inducing Consumers' Willingness to Post Reviews”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 74(1).