An essay on intergenerational word of mouth and its impact on product perception

Abstract

How do consumers perceive a product if it is recommended by someone comparatively younger or older than them? Does receiving a product recommendation from the younger or older generation lead consumers to draw different inferences about the product? If so, why is there such a difference in inference based on the recommender’s age compared to the word of mouth (WOM) recipient? My dissertation explores the role of age in product-related WOM that is ubiquitous in today’s world. I find that WOM recipient’s perception of a recommended product is affected by the recommender’s age. Specifically, consumers perceive a product to be more utilitarian when that product is recommended by someone who is comparatively much older than them. In contrast when the recommender is young, the product is perceived to be more hedonic. This difference is driven by the lay belief that older people are comparatively more reason-oriented whereas younger people are feelings-driven. Experimental studies and linguistic analysis of a customer-review dataset are used to provide support for this conceptualization of Intergenerational WOM and its impact on product perception. Implications for product positioning, consumer WOM and stereotyping are also discussed.

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Supervisor	Anaimalai V MUTHUKRISHNAN (Supervisor) & Yuwei Jiang (Supervisor)