Impact of product customization level on consumer's word-of-mouth behaviors and contents: a field study
通过分析中国零售商和亚马逊的订单与评论数据，发现产品定制化水平越高，消费者越愿意且更快发表口碑，但评价先正面后负面，且口碑有用性提升，长度无显著变化。
Purpose Customization, a marketing strategy through providing personalized products, might be a new solution to motivate consumer feedbacks in electronic commerce (e-commerce) websites. Taking the dual-value of customization (emotional involvement and uniqueness expression) as the theoretical basis, this study aims to investigate the impact of customization on consumer's word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors and contents by motivating: (1) more, (2) faster, (3) positive at first and then negative, (4) longer and (5) more helpful WOMs. Design/methodology/approach A field study was conducted with multi-sourced data: customer order data from a Chinese retailer and WOM data from Amazon.com. The two datasets were matched to filter out 463 online reviews among 6,892 customers who placed customized orders. Heckman's two-stage model, logistic regression, Ordinary least squares regression, Tobit regression, analysis of covariance and Lind–Mehlum U Test were used in the data analysis. Findings This study has found that (1) customization level motivates WOM behaviors including WOM posting and WOM speed, (2) an inverted U -shaped relationship exists between customization level and consumer rating and (3) customization level has a significantly positive impact on WOM helpfulness but not on WOM length. Originality/value This study advances theoretical development in the area of WOM motivators by proposing a new product-centric approach, customization, to stimulate voluntary WOMs. Empirical field research that analyzes consumer's real responses to customization is in scarcity. The dual-value of customized products is proposed as the underlying mechanism to explain the impact of customization level on consumer's WOM behaviors/contents. An interesting inverted U -shaped relationship is found between customization level and customer rating. This research provides nuanced practical guidance for websites, companies and consumers.