Past research on word-of-mouth has presented inconsistent evidence as to whether consumers are more inclined to share positive or negative information about products and services. Some findings suggest that consumers are more inclined to engage in positive word-of-mouth, whereas others suggest that consumers are more inclined to engage in negative word-of-mouth. The present research offers a theoretical perspective that provides one means to resolve these seemingly contradictory findings. Specifically, the present work compares the generation of word-of-mouth (i.e., consumers sharing information about their own experiences) to the transmission of word-mouth (i.e., consumers passing-on information about experiences they heard occurred to others). The authors suggest that a basic human motive to self-enhance leads consumers to generate positive word-of-mouth (i.e., share information about their own positive consumption experiences), but transmit negative word-of-mouth (i.e., pass-on information they heard about other’s negative consumption experiences). The authors present evidence for self-enhancement motives playing out in opposite ways at word-of-mouth generation compared to word-of-mouth transmission across four experiments

Several scholars have proposed personalization models based on product variety breadth and the intensity of customer–firm interaction with a focus on marketing strategies ranging from basic product versioning to customerization and reverse marketing. However, some studies have shown that the explosion of product variety may generate information overload. Moreover, customers are highly heterogeneous in willingness and ability to interact with firms in personalization processes. This often results in consumer confusion and wasteful investments. To address this problem, we propose a conceptual framework of e-customer profiling for interactive personalization by distinguishing content (that is, expected customer benefits) and process (that is, expected degree of interaction) issues.The framework focuses on four general dimensions suggested by previous research as significant drivers of online customer heterogeneity: VALUE, KNOWLEDGE, ORIENTATION, and RELATIONSHIP QUALITY. We also present a preliminary test of the framework and derive directions for customer relationship management and future research.

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