The effects of regulatory focus and tie strength on wordofmouth behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of tie strength on wordofmouth WOM amount and how regulatory focus moderates these effects. Designmethodologyapproach 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 preventionfocused WOM giver but not for a promotionfocused WOM giver. The latter was found instead giving a similar amount of WOM to strong and weak ties. Research limitationsimplications 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. Originalityvalue 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.