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The asymmetric impact of other-blame regret versus self-blame regret on negative word of mouth: Empirical evidence from China

Ruijuan Wu (Department of Business Management, School of Management, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, China)
Cheng Lu Wang (Department of Marketing and Quantitative Analysis, College of Business, University of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut, USA)

European Journal of Marketing

ISSN: 0309-0566

Article publication date: 14 November 2017

1343

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to distinguish two regret conditions, other-blame regret (O-regret) and self-blame regret (S-regret), and investigate the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between regret and negative word of mouth (NWOM).

Design/methodology/approach

Four experiments and one survey study test hypotheses regarding how O-regret and S-regret influence NWOM through mediating mechanism of anger and sadness and how the impact of regret on NWOM is moderated by boundary conditions.

Findings

The results show that consumers who experience O-regret transmit more NWOM than those who experience S-regret. Anger is a dominant emotion when consumers experience O-regret and mediates the impact of regret on NWOM, and sadness is a dominant emotion when consumers experience S-regret and mediates the impact of regret on NWOM. In addition, purchased price (full vs discount price), regret context (private vs public context) and return policy (strict vs lenient policy) are found to moderate the effect of regret on NWOM.

Research limitations/implications

This study was conducted in China, which has a unique business environment that may differ from other countries. Therefore, this research opens a new avenue to further examine such a phenomenon in countries where a more lenient return policy is a standard business practice. Cross-nation studies comparing how different return policies and other business environment conditions are warranted in future research.

Practical implications

The study provides several insights for marketers considering the management of NWOM by understanding consumer O-regret and S-regret in either online or offline retailing situations.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the extant literature by distinguishing different outcome regrets. The theoretical conceptualization and empirical findings shed further lights on the relationship between regret and other negative emotions and how O-regret and S-regret lead to different impacts on NWOM through different paths of mediation mechanism.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71672124; 71302004) and the China Scholarship Council.

Citation

Wu, R. and Wang, C.L. (2017), "The asymmetric impact of other-blame regret versus self-blame regret on negative word of mouth: Empirical evidence from China", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51 No. 11/12, pp. 1799-1816. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-06-2015-0322

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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