Research On The Influence Of The Negative Internet Word-of-mouth On Consumers’ Brand Switching Intention

The development and popularization of the Internet have changed the way that consumer access,share and disseminate information,the network platform has become an important channel for consumers to obtain product-related information.The popularity of the web-based Word-of-Mouth has grown rapidly,and the impact on consumers’ product cognition,attitude,brand selection and purchasing decisions has become increasingly significant.The negative IWOM not only reduces consumers’ recognition and trust of related products,but also further leads to consumers’ brand switching behavior,that is,consumers will stop using or stop buying the product and buy alternative products instead,which will not only lead to a decline in consumers’ loyalty to the brand,it also has a direct impact on the profitability and business performance of the enterprise,causing huge losses to the enterprise.Under the influence of negative IWOM,consumers’ brand switching behavior can be predicted through their intention to switch brand.The intention to switch brand reflects the possibility that consumers will stop using or abandon purchasing the brand under the influence of negative IWOM and instead purchase other alternative brand.Therefore,this paper mainly studies the impact of negative IWOM on consumers’ intention to switch brand.At present,scholars mainly study the influence of negative Internet word-of-mouth from three aspects: negative IWOM information characteristics,sender characteristics and receiver characteristics.Among them,the research on the information characteristics of negative IWOM is the most,while the research on the characteristics of sender and receiver is relatively rare.Moreover,scholars often study the direct influence of negative IWOM on consumers’ intention to switch brands,while ignoring the research from the perspective of consumers’ psychological perception.In this paper,on the basis of the existing relevant research results,the author starts from the three aspects of negative IWOM information characteristics,sender characteristics and receiver characteristics according to the theory of information dissemination process and the S-O-R model of consumer behavior.Introducing the psychological variable of consumer perceived risk as the mediator variable,this paper explores the impact of the intensity and quantity of negative IWOM information,sender professionalism,sender-recipient relationship intensity,receiver professionalism and recipient product involvement on brand switching intention,and the mediating role of perceived risk in the model.In addition,the regulatory variable of brand image is introduced to explore its role in regulating the impact of negative IWOM on consumers’ perceived risk.The conclusions of this paper are as follows :(1)The information intensity,quantity,sender professionalism and receiver product involvement degree of negative IWOM have a direct positive impact on brand switching intention,and receiver professionalism has a direct negative impact on brand switching intention.However,the relationship strength between sender and receiver has no effect on brand switching intention.(2)Some elements of negative IWOM indirectly influence brand switching intention through consumers’ perceived risk,that is,the perceived risk only plays a partial role in mediating the influence of negative IWOM information intensity,quantity,sender professionalism and recipient product involvement on brand switching intention,but has no mediating effect on the influence of relationship between sender and recipient and recipient professionalism on brand switching intention.(3)The influence of negative IWOM on consumers’ perceived risk is regulated by brand image.Brand image has a significant regulatory effect on the impact of negative IWOM information intensity,quantity and sender professionalism on perceived risk,and has no regulatory effect on the impact of recipient product involvement of negative IWOM on consumers’ perceived risk.In addition,the brand image also regulates the mediating role of perceived risk in the three variables of negative IWOM which are information intensity,quantity,and sender professionalism,and the brand switching intention,that is,there is a mediating effect of regulation.