Consumer arrogance and word-of-mouth
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ORIGINAL EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Consumer arrogance and word-of-mouth Ayalla Ruvio 1 & Richard P. Bagozzi 2 & G. Tomas M. Hult 1 & Richard Spreng 1 Received: 22 June 2018 / Accepted: 5 April 2020 # Academy of Marketing Science 2020
Abstract We investigate the widespread yet under-researched social phenomenon of consumer arrogance—the propensity to broadcast one’s superiority over others in the consumption domain. Building on the theory of positive illusions, we examine how and under what conditions triggering people’s consumer arrogance prompts their positive and negative word-of-mouth communication. In a pilot study and five experiments, we establish that triggering people’s sense of consumer arrogance will increase their word-ofmouth inclinations and behaviors. We show that triggering consumers’ sense of arrogance will result in a greater propensity for word-of-mouth communication than triggering their sense of superiority or desire to brag independently. While most consumers engage in positive word-of-mouth, consumer arrogance fuels both positive and negative word-of-mouth communication. Furthermore, whereas the former stems from self-enhancement needs, negative word-of-mouth communication arises from the needs for both self-affirmation and self-enhancement, especially in a social context. Overall, the results highlight the uniqueness and strategic potential of consumer arrogance as a social phenomenon. Keywords Consumer arrogance . Word-of-mouth communication . Superiority
Introduction What does the future hold for marketers and advertisers? Some argue that the future of marketing will be largely adfree, with word-of-mouth (WOM) communication dominating commerce (e.g., Noureddine and ZeinEddine 2018). Indeed, 83% of consumers (Nielsen 2015) find WOM Gergana Nenkov served as Area Editor for this article. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-020-00725-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Ayalla Ruvio [email protected] Richard P. Bagozzi [email protected] G. Tomas M. Hult [email protected] Richard Spreng [email protected] 1
Michigan State University, 632 Bogue St, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
2
University of Michigan, 701 Tappan St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
communication to be the most trusted way for people to obtain product and service information. For that reason, many marketers in today’s media landscape employ “word-of-mouth marketing” and “word-of-mouth advertising,” leveraging the new reality where one person can affect large numbers of consumers through a variety of platforms. In addition to the trust that such WOM communication enjoys, consumers also increasingly seek advice and input about products and brands from others (e.g., Adjei et al. 2010; Berger 2014; Dubois et al. 2016; Duhan et al. 1997), who are typically more than willing to share it. With over 2.1 billion WOM recommendations that are shared each day by 83% of Americans (Baer and Lemin 2018), accounting for more than $7 trillion in annual co
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