Will I Share Positive Or Negative Word-Of-Mouth? An Analysis Of The Joint Effect Of Consumption Experience Valence And Choice Assortment On Sharing Behavior

This study examines the effect of an assortment’s perceived size at the time of a purchase and the valence of the consumption experience associated with this purchase on consumers’ likelihood to share their experience with others. We propose that consumers are more likely to share positive experiences but less likely to share negative ones as perceived assortment size grows. We suggest this effect stems from perceived assortment size interacting with customer experience to shape feelings of pride in opposite ways. While having chosen from a large (vs. small) assortment increases feelings of pride when the resulting experience is positive, having chosen from a large (vs. small) assortment decreases feelings of pride when the resulting experience is negative. Three experiments offer evidence for the effect and the underlying role of pride by testing the mediating role of consumers’ feelings of control associated with wider assortments and the moderating role of trait-level pride.