The effect of negative online customer reviews on brand equity and purchase intention of consumer electronics in South Africa |
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| Authors: | Justin Beneke Simona de Sousa Marcelle Mbuyu Bradley Wickham |
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| Institution: | 1. Faculty of Business, Law &2. Sport, Winchester Business School, University of Winchester, UK;3. Faculty of Commerce, School of Management Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa |
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| Abstract: | This study investigated the effect that negative online customer reviews have on brand equity and purchase intention. This research examined the influence of negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on brand equity, as influenced by customer review quality, product involvement and source credibility. A 3 (high quality review versus low quality review versus no review) × 2 (high product involvement versus low product involvement) factorial experiment with 236 respondents was conducted. The results revealed that the presence of negative eWOM has a significant detrimental effect on brand equity and purchase intention. Furthermore, the effect of negative online customer reviews is more detrimental to the brand equity of a high involvement product than a low involvement product. The results also revealed that high quality reviews are more influential than low quality reviews with respect to brand equity, and the difference between the levels of eWOM source credibility has no significant effect on brand equity. |
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| Keywords: | electronic word of mouth negative reviews brand equity purchase intention product involvement review quality source credibility |
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