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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 9, No.2
Publication Date: February 25, 2021
DOI: 10.14738/abr.92.9677.
Ngatno, & Apriatni, E. P. (2021). The Moderating Effect of the Status of Using a Product on the Relationship between Brand
Experience and Word of Mouth Recommendations. Archives of Business Research, 9(2). 41-59.
The Moderating Effect of the Status of Using a Product on the
Relationship between Brand Experience and Word of Mouth
Recommendations
Ngatno
Departmen of Business Administration
Diponegoro University
Apriatni, Endang P.
Departmen of Business Administration
Diponegoro University
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of the
status of using the product on the relationship between brand
experience, satisfaction, loyalty and brand recommendation.
Structural equation modeling (SEM) with multi groups was used for
data analysis. The results of this study indicate that there is a strong
relationship between brand experience, satisfaction, loyalty and
brand recommendation. The effect of brand experience and brand
satisfaction on WOM recommendations was higher in the new user
group than in the established user group. While the effect of brand
loyalty on WOM recommendations was higher for established users
than for new users. The effect of brand experience on brand satisfaction
was greater for established users than for new users. While the effect of
brand experience on brand loyalty was greater in the new-user group, it
was not significant. Finally, the effect of brand satisfaction on brand loyalty
was greater for established users than for new users.
Keywords: brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand loyalty, word of
mouth, status of using a product.
INTRODUCTION
Word of mouth (WOM) recommendation is a source of information that can be used by consumers in
determining product choices. The experience of consumers in using the brand of a product will be
distributed to other consumers so that it affects attitudes in determining brand choices. Delivering a
great customer experience is very important for any business. A positive customer experience provides
exceptional benefits in the form of improved customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and better word
of mouth marketing (Klaus and Maklan 2013). WOM recommendations have an important role,
especially for consumers because it is a very useful source of communication for consumers
(Derbaix and Vanhamme 2003). In essence, WOM recommendations are a process of
interpersonal communication between sender and receiver that can influence the attitudes and
behavior of the recipient (Merton 1968). Zhang and Dellarocas (2006) asserted that WOM
recommendations could ultimately replace traditional advertising. Other researchers suggest that
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Ngatno, & Apriatni, E. P. (2021). The Moderating Effect of the Status of Using a Product on the Relationship between Brand Experience and Word of
Mouth Recommendations. Archives of Business Research, 9(2). 41-59.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.92.9677. 42
information from a personal referral source is stronger in influencing behavior, trust, and
attitude towards the company.
Marketing research into WOM recommendations has tried to answer three questions 1) What are
the consequences of WOM recommendations and their influence on consumer behaviour? 2)
What are the antecedents that motivate consumers to engage in WOM recommendations? (Khan
& Rahman, 2015). 3) What strengthens or weakens the relationship between the antecedents and
WOM recommendations? (Khan and Rahman 2015). Previous studies have focused on the
consequences of communicators investigating "what happened to communicators after the WOM
event?" Other studies have focused on the antecedents of communicators investigating the issue
of "what makes people talk?" between variables stronger or weaker? In studying WOM
recommendations can not only be studied as an independent variable, but must be studied
comprehensively by investigating the antecedents, the mediator, and the moderator (Wien and
Olsen 2012).
Some authors have claimed that a WOM recommendation is an antecedent of consumer behavior
(Daugherty and Hoffman 2014), purchasing decisions (Voyer and Ranaweera 2015), brand equity
(Virvilaite, Tumasonyte, and Sliburyte 2015), customer satisfaction (Shi et al. 2016), consumer
judgment (Jeong and Koo 2015), and new product adoption (López and Sicilia 2013). However,
research examining WOM recommendations as a result variable is still limited. A number of
studies have shown that several antecedent variables influence WOM recommendations. Chung
and Tsai (2009) showed that this binding force effect only applies to WOM providers who focus
on prevention but not to WOM providers who focus on promotion. Sweeney, Soutar, and
Mazzarol (2008) showed that the potential of WOM recommendations to affect perception or
action depending on the relationship between sender and receiver, message content, delivery
method and situation factors. Ismail and Spinelli (2012) revealed that direct brand love was a
determinant of WOM recommendations, while the direct brand image was insignificant. Several
variables can affect WOM recommendations, including product quality, customer satisfaction,
customer loyalty, consumer trust, and perceived value (De Matos and Rossi, 2008). Jill Sweeney,
Soutar, and Mazzarol (2014) showed that relative expertise, perceptual homo-philia, WOM
recommendation strength, previous experience, and perceived brand equity had a positive
impact on positive WOM recommendations. Although a number of studies that focussed on brand
experience have shown the positive influence of several variables on WOM recommendations,
there have been few studies of brand experience as an antecedent of WOM.
When studying consumer behaviour, the causal relationship between variables needs to consider
moderating variables, because the strength of this relationship is likely to apply to one group but
not to other groups. In recent years, the use of moderating variables has increased in the
management literature, including the marketing literature, especially in predicting consumer
behaviour. Some variables that can moderate the relationship include individual characteristics
that cannot be controlled such as age, income, gender, and education (De Matos and Rossi, 2008),
and situational characteristics such as perceived risk, shopping experience and length of
relationship, continuance commitment, and brand-connection (Ranaweera & Menon, 2013;
Sicilia, Delgado-Ballester, and Palazon, 2016).