Capturing dynamics in the value for brand recommendations from word-of-mouth conversations

Anita Luo, Andrew Baker and Naveen Donthu

Journal of Business Research, 2019, vol. 104, issue C, 247-260

Abstract: Although there is an extensive literature on word of mouth (WOM), a longitudinal investigation into the dynamics of WOM conversations (rather than online reviews) on brand recommendation behavior is limited. To address this issue, the authors capture the dynamics in regard to the value of brand recommendation in a Bayesian State Space model. Such value is carried over time, with the current value as a function of the previous value, driven by advertising and branding effort (State Space model) with a heterogeneous coefficient (Bayesian). We find that past value for brand recommendation, along with advertising and brand attributes, such as visibility, excitement, differentiation, competency, and quality, influence the value of recommendations. We also incorporate heterogeneity and account for missing observations to include less talked-about brands. The results indicate that over 41% of brands experience a positive transition in the value of brand recommendations over time. Our investigation provides important managerial insights into which types of WOM influence consumer brand recommendations, while also providing nuanced insights for brand managers by identifying which types of brands and products are associated with higher carryover coefficients for the value in brand recommendations.

Keywords: Word of mouth; Bayesian estimation; State space model; Branding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319304321
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:104:y:2019:i:c:p:247-260

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.015

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().