Social media sentiment polarization and its impact on product adoption

Ping Zhao (), Zhenfeng Ma (), Tripat Gill () and Chatura Ranaweera ()
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Ping Zhao: Wilfrid Laurier University
Zhenfeng Ma: Wilfrid Laurier University
Tripat Gill: Wilfrid Laurier University
Chatura Ranaweera: Wilfrid Laurier University

Marketing Letters, 2023, vol. 34, issue 3, No 11, 497-512

Abstract: Abstract Prior marketing research on eWOM has focused on the effect of overall sentiment (valence) of online conversation on product or brand performance, whereas little research has examined the impact of sentiment polarization, that is, the degree to which positive and negative sentiments are simultaneously strong. Through a combination of experimental study and quantitative modeling of archival social media data, the present study examined the impact of eWOM polarization on consumer new product adoption. Our experimental study shows that eWOM polarization increased consumer attitudinal ambivalence, which in turn decreased new product adoption intention. In our quantitative modeling study, we developed a measure for quantifying eWOM polarization on social media, and estimated its impact on sales of video game consoles. The result replicated the negative impact of eWOM polarization and further showed that the negative impact is more pronounced at the early (vs. later) stage of product life cycle.

Keywords: Electronic word of mouth; Sentiment polarization; Ambivalence; New product adoption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11002-023-09664-9

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