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This research examined the relation between self-relevance and word-of-mouth (WOM). The results of two studies suggest consumers are more likely to provide WOM for products that are relevant to self-concept than for more utilitarian products. There was also some indication that WOM was biased, in the sense that consumers exaggerated the benefits of self-relevant products compared to utilitarian products. Finally, self-relevance had a greater impact on WOM in individualist cultures than collectivist cultures, consistent with differences in the way self-concept is typically construed by these groups. Implications for marketing strategies concerning WOM are discussed. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006Word of-mouth, Motivation, Self-concept, Culture,

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of tie strength on word-of-mouth (WOM) amount and how regulatory focus moderates these effects. Design/methodology/approach -Two studies were conducted with undergraduates of a top Asian university with sample sizes of 106 and 100 using experimental setups. Findings -Replicating findings from existing research, a greater amount of WOM was shared between strong ties compared to weak ties. However, the main finding was that this tie strength effect only held for a prevention-focused WOM giver but not for a promotion-focused WOM giver. The latter was found instead giving a similar amount of WOM to strong and weak ties.Research limitations/implications -The two experiments required subjects to write out their WOM. This may be a limitation since WOM is usually spoken instead of written. Future research can compare spoken and written WOM to evaluate the robustness of the current findings. Practical implications -Findings from this paper can help companies solicit more WOM through priming the appropriate regulatory focus when consumers communicate with others that are of different social ties. Originality/value -The current paper contributes to existing WOM literature by investigating the moderating effect of regulatory focus on the relationship between tie strength and WOM amount.

Purpose -This study seeks to investigate how attitude towards and purchase intention of a product will be affected by involvement level and presentation order of positive and negative word-of-mouth (WOM) information when presented in a single-message single-source context. Design/methodology/approach -Two studies were conducted with undergraduates of a top Asian university with sample sizes of 221 and 253 using experimental setups. Findings -It was found that subjects tend to base their evaluations more on later information than earlier information regardless of involvement level. This recency effect was consistently found across the product categories of tourist destination and restaurant in both studies.Research limitations/implications -The main limitation is that the manipulation of involvement level might not have been strong enough. Despite obtaining differences between high and low involvement levels in the pretest for both products, the difference was found again in only the restaurant category in the manipulation check of both studies. Future research can increase the gap between high and low involvement levels using non-laboratory settings to ensure effective involvement level manipulation. Practical implications -Findings of this paper can help companies to position messages in their favour when both positive and negative information needs to be presented. Originality/value -There has been a lot of marketing research on WOM but none has focused on covering positive and negative WOM coming from the same source despite it being a commonality in reality. This paper fills this gap with an investigation into the effects of single-message single-source mixed WOM on product attitude and purchase intention.