Location, Location, Location: The Relative Roles of Virtual Location, Online Word-of-Mouth
(eWOM) and Advertising in the New-Product Adoption Process
Fiona Sussan, George Mason University
Stephen Gould, Baruch College
Suri Weisfeld-Spolter, Baruch College
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
It is no secret that the emergence of cyberspace has changed
marketing communications (Rogers and Allbritton 1995; Silk et al.
2001). More prominently, the Internet has changed from face-to-
face social based interpersonal communications to one of com-
puter-based social networking (Wellman 2001). Cyberspace al-
lows consumers to “gather” in virtual communities and exchange
opinions that lead to an “information democracy” in which the
information is tilted toward the consumer instead of being manipu-
lated by marketers (Armstrong and Hagel 1993; Bargh and McKenna
2004; Rheingold 1993l; Sawhney and Kotler 2001). In other words,
cyberspace allows the opportunity for the voices of consumers to
possibly drown that of the marketers.
In spite of the advocacy and the reality of the proliferation of
online word-of-mouth, (eWOM) with 33% of all adult Americans
having participated in it in one way or another
(www.pewinternet.org), researchers mainly remain silent about
this phenomenon in relation to advertising within the new-product
adoption process. Traditionally, marketing and interpersonal com-
munications were separated by time and place with mass media
transmission first, followed by word-of-mouth interpersonal com-
munications through face-to-face social contacts (Two-Step Flow
by Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955; New-product Diffusion Process by
Rogers 1962). The quality of the Internet merging both mass media
and interpersonal communications into one changed that (Deighton
1997). Consumers can now access both marketing and interper-
sonal communications at the same time and at the same space on
multiple websites. The question then becomes, how does this new
combination affect the persuasion process within new-product
adoption? Are the combined advertising and word-of-mouth mes-
sages effective in all websites?
Previous persuasion research has elicited that when there is an
incongruity between the source (the messenger) and the message
(content) in advertising, the persuasion effect could be negative
instead of positive as originally intended (Slater and Rouner 1996).
In this paper, we argue further that even when the source and
message are congruous, their incongruity with the location could
lead to a lesser or even an opposite persuasion effect than intended.
In other words, this paper speculates that when a firm includes
positive eWOM in its own website to facilitate its marketing
communication messages, similar to that of mass-media based
advertising using “fellow consumers” word-of-mouth endorse-
ment, the persuasive effectiveness may diminish. This is because
consumers would most likely perceive the positive eWOM as a
deliberate part of manipulated marketing communications, a phe-
nomenon especially not welcome under the Internet-based new
“information democracy” previously mentioned (Sawhney and
Kotler 2001). This paper extends this argument to suggest that the
inclusion of positive eWOM in a firm’s website may in fact
undermine the firm’s own marketing messages.
In order to make eWOM a part of an effective persuasive
communication within the new-product adoption process, we sug-
gest allocating it within a 3rd-party independent website that has no
affiliation with the advertising firm. While the independency of the
source enabling a more persuasive effect is not new, in this paper we
649
are extending the independency requirement to the “location”
which hosts both the source and the message. We hypothesize that
the independency of the location will maximize the persuasive
effectiveness of the message.
Further, we hypothesize that simply advertising on a 3rd-party
independent website would not necessarily increase its persuasive
effectiveness when compared to that of the firms’ own websites.
This is due to the fact that persuasion knowledge model posits that
consumers can detect advertising messages and can identify an
agent trying to influence them and will activate their persuasion
knowledge accordingly. In this sense, consumers do not vary their
attitudes toward the advertising message in either website.
This paper aims to measure the perceived persuasiveness of
the combination of advertising and word-of-mouth communica-
tions in two types of websites (firm-sponsored versus 3rd-party
independent-sponsored websites) toward the new product adoption
process to include consumers’ interest and likelihood to adopt a new
product. A fictitious movie with its advertising and word-of-mouth
information were given to four groups of subjects to measure their
response on website location effect, word-of-mouth effect and
quantitative information effect.
A 2 (firm-sponsored vs. 3rd-party sponsored independent
website) x 2 (advertisement only vs. advertisement plus eWOM)
between-subject design was used in this experiment. The product
used was a new movie DVD. The independent variables consisted
of website location and eWOM. Involvement and likelihood to
adopt a new product were the two dependent variables. A total of
ninety subjects were recruited from a participation pool at a large
Northeastern university. The subjects received course credit for
participation. All subjects were assigned randomly to the treatment
conditions.
After conducting an ANOVA, we found empirical support for
positive online word-of-mouth having an additive effect to adver-
tising in 3rd-party sponsored websites but not in firm-sponsored
websites. The results also supported the interaction effect between
website location and eWOM messages, with eWOM added to
advertising in a 3rd-party website having a larger additive effect on
consumers involvement and likelihood to adopt a new product than
in a firm-sponsored website. The results also supported the hypoth-
esis that consumers do not differ in their involvement or likelihood
to adopt a new product when exposed to only the advertisement,
regardless of where it is placed.
In particular, the findings of this study bring forth new evi-
dence that positive word-of-mouth does not have an additive effect
on advertising when they are placed within the company’s own
website. This new evidence adds empirical support to the body of
literature that has prophesized that the new virtual space will change
the landscape of marketing and interpersonal communications to
become a hybrid of mass interpersonal communications that em-
powers the consumer (Deighton 1997; Sawhney and Kotler 2001).
Finally, this paper makes three important contributions. It
adds knowledge to current literature in (1) website strategic man-
agement in deciding where not to include word-of-mouth commu-
nications, (2) word-of-mouth communications in the interaction
effect of word-of-mouth and advertising in the online environment,
Advances in Consumer Research
Volume 33, © 2006
650 / Location, Location, Location
and (3) new-product adoption in shedding light as to why not all Slater, M.D. and D. Rouner (1996), “How Message Evaluation
positive word-of-mouth communications are effective. and Source Attributes May Influence Credibility Assessment
and Belief Change,” Journalism and Mass Communication
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 SPECIAL SESSION SUMMARY
An Examination of the Concept of Postmodern Home and the Role of Consumption in
Home-Making Practices
Fleura Bardhi, Northeastern University
Eric Arnould, University of Arizona
OVERVIEW AND CONTRIBUTIONS
Home is a fundamental construct in social sciences that
represents the emotional and meaningful relationship that consum-
ers form with place (Altman and Werner 1985). However, con-
sumer research on home is scarce (McCracken 1989; Sherry 2000).
Home has been studied mainly as a context for decision-making and
commercial exchange (e.g., Frenzen and Davis 1990; Grayson
1998). But previous work argues that home constitutes an important
place for self-development and family life (Claiborne and Ozanne
1990; Hill 1991; McCracken 1989; Venkantesh, et al. 2001). These
studies suggest that home is a symbolic and sacred object, and
allude to consumers’ use of possessions and consumption practices
to transform place into home environments. However, we lack
studies that focus on the role of the marketplace in home practices
as well as studies on the concept of home per se. Furthermore, this
session suggest that consumer researchers move beyond an out-
dated conceptualization of home as a fixed place, typically identi-
fied with the house or the homeland, and in which the consumers’
display a strong, affective, nostalgic, and permanent connection to
a place. By focusing on the concept of home, this session advances
our understanding of the ways that consumers relate to place in
postmodernity as well as the role that the marketplace plays in
consumers’ home related practices, such as indwelling and con-
structing a home.
Consistent with a current movement in social sciences that re-
examines the ways that consumers relate to place in postmodernity,
the three papers in this session investigate the ways that contempo-
rary life conditions have transformed the notion of home and argue
for an increasing role of the market in the social construction of
home. The first paper by Bardhi and Arnould investigates a mobile
notion of home among contemporary nomadic consumers. They
find that the home in postmodernity is not necessary defined in
terms of place, but in terms of relationships, possessions and spatial
patterns. Mobile professionals actively engage in practices that
transform public, commercial spaces into private and salient spaces
of home. The second paper by Rosenbaum focuses on aged infor-
mants’ consumption of a diner. This study demonstrates the social
role this consumptionscape plays in the lives of aged consumers—
becoming either an extension of their homes or a replacement
home. The study investigates how consumers and service providers
co-construct the consumption experience in this diner as a home
experience through their social relationships, the regularity of
consumption practices in the diner, and the domestic activities that
take place there. The third paper by Venkatesh is part of an ongoing
research project, “Family Portal Design.” This research shows how
the integrative use of technology in multiple aspects of domestic life
blurs the traditional boundaries between the home as private sphere
and society as public sphere. In the postmodern home, work and
domestic lives are interpenetrating, while home takes on nomadic
qualities and is no longer fixed to a place (see also Venkatesh et al.
2001). This study argues for a polysemous understanding of tech-
nology at home.
651
“Making a Home on the Road: A Mobile Concept of Home
among Transnational Mobile Professionals”
Fleura Bardhi and Eric Arnould
Global geographical mobility is a normal condition of
postmodernity. Seven hundred million people move daily across
borders while eighty million people reside outside their native
home country (Beck 2000). Many people live between and betwixt
several homes and others are in a continuous state of mobility
without a fixed place to call home (Featherstone 1995; Urry 2002).
How do these contemporary nomads construct a sense of home on
the road? What is the meaning of home for these mobile popula-
tions? How do they use possessions and commercial setting in the
process of home making? These research questions are addressed
in this study.
Home is one of the central social concepts that consumers
orient themselves in time and space as well as a highly symbolic and
often sacred object. However, consumer research on home is scarce
(Sherry 2000). Mobile consumers’ connections to home and the
influence of this relationship in consumer behavior have been
discussed in the acculturation literature. However, acculturation
studies have examined mainly sojourner consumer segments—
sedentary consumers for whom mobility is only a temporary
condition and they sustain the connection to a place they call home.
We also do not know much about the ways that mobile consumers
construct a home on the road (Thompson and Tambyah 1999). The
focus of existing studies has been on the ways that sojourners
sustain connection with existing homes while on the road. Finally,
consumer research has been informed by an implicit notion of home
as fixed to a place (homeland or dwelling).
This study addresses these issues by studying the notions of
home among consumers who willingly live nomadic lifestyles,
such as transnational mobile professionals (TMPs) (Featherstone
1995). TMPs are members of a mobile professional class that has
emerged worldwide with the development of the global economy.
This global consumer segment is characterized by cosmopolitan
orientation and voluntary nomadism, always on the road from one
global city to the other, without a clear anchoring of identity to place
or nationality (Featherstone 1995; Hannerz 1996). The data for this
study is comprised of 35 semi-structured, long interviews with
highly mobile global professionals. The informants were selected
on the bases of sampling criteria derived from the literature on
TMPs. The sample includes roving professionals, business travel-
ers, and expatriates located in different parts of the world. The
researchers traveled in the informants’ places of residency or work
to conduct the interviews, which lasted from 1 to 5 hours. N*Vivo
was used to code the data following a preliminary list of codes and
the recommended techniques of qualitative data analysis.
The study found that TMPs desire to have a home and engage
continuously in practices that enable them to maintain or recreate a
sense of home on the road. We find that TMPs define home in a
mobile sense, in three different ways. First, TMPs define home in
terms of order: home is found in places where certain spatial and
temporal patterns exist or are created. Second, TMPs define home
in terms of salient relationships. Findings show that TMPs experi-
Advances in Consumer Research
Volume 33, © 2006