“I Love It” Versus “I Recommend It”: The Impact of Implicit and Explicit Endorsement Styles on Electronic Word-of-Mouth Persuasiveness

J. Liao (), S. He, W. Feng and R. Filieri ()
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R. Filieri: Audencia Business School

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Abstract: Consumers usually endorse tourism products differently when sharing positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). This research examines the relative persuasiveness of two endorsement styles, that is, explicit endorsement (e.g., ‘‘I recommend it'') and implicit endorsement (e.g., ‘‘I love it''). Drawing on the persuasion knowledge model, we propose that explicit endorsements are less persuasive than implicit endorsements because the former trigger stronger persuasion knowledge. We further argue that source trustworthiness mitigates the persuasion effect difference between the two endorsement styles. This article assesses these hypotheses across different sources (anonymous reviewers, friends, influencers), channels (online community, social commerce platform, social networking app), and products (hotels, restaurants) using secondary data analysis and two experiments. Three studies provide support for our hypotheses. By revealing the relationship between endorsement styles and eWOM persuasiveness, this article provides important implications for implementing effective product endorsement.

Keywords: endorsement styles; electronic word-of-mouth; persuasion; source trustworthiness; persuasion knowledge; linguistic effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt and nep-ure
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04500383v2
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Published in Journal of Travel Research, 2024, 63 (4), ⟨10.1177/00472875231175083⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04500383

DOI: 10.1177/00472875231175083

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