In this thesis, a theory of consumers' expertise and word-of-mouth (WOM) is developed and substantiated. It is proposed that when consumers attribute the outcome of a consumption experience to their expertise, they may use WOM as a signal of this expertise. Based on the simultaneous effects of self-enhancement and self-verification motives, it is predicted that satisfied experts generate the most WOM, and consumers prefer to talk about their “high expertise, high satisfaction” experiences.;This research was initiated with ten ZMET™ interviews that served to inspire the development of this theory, followed by three on-line experiments involving controlled, hypothetical consumption experiences. Study 1 provides directional evidence that satisfied experts generate more WOM versus dissatisfied experts and versus satisfied or dissatisfied novices. This pattern is replicated in Studies 2 and 3, where it is also demonstrated that this relationship holds only when the outcome of the consumption experience is attributable to the consumer's expertise because the product was chosen by the consumer or because the evaluative dimensions associated with the outcome are objective. Involvement, expectations, and cognitive dissonance are also explicitly tested and ruled out as potential alternative explanations. In Study 4, it is predicted that when consumers' expertise self-concepts are more salient, the effects found in the previous studies are intensified. Study 5 will demonstrate that individual consumers prefer to talk about their “high expertise, high satisfaction” experiences.;While people generally believe that dissatisfied consumers talk more than satisfied consumers (Goodman 1999), there is mounting evidence to support the contrary (cf. Godes and Mayzlin 2004). Here, it is demonstrated that satisfied consumers generate more WOM, but only when they are experts, and only when the outcome is attributable to their expertise. Second, while these results are consistent with the assumption that experts generate more WOM than novices (cf., Jacoby and Hoyer 1981), an important caveat is introduced: there is no significant difference between the WOM generated by dissatisfied experts and novices. Overall, this thesis provides compelling evidence that when consumers generate WOM, they are telling others not just about products and services, but also about themselves.
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机译：本文提出并证实了消费者专业知识和口碑（WOM）的理论。提出当消费者将消费经历的结果归因于他们的专业知识时，他们可以使用WOM作为该专业知识的信号。基于自我增强和自我验证动机的同时影响，可以预测，满意的专家产生最多的WOM，并且消费者更喜欢谈论他们的“高度专业，高满意度”体验。 ™访谈有效地激发了这一理论的发展，随后进行了三个在线实验，涉及受控的假设消费经验。研究1提供了方向性证据，表明满意的专家与不满意的专家以及满意或不满意的新手相比，可以产生更多的WOM。这种模式在研究2和3中得到了重复，其中还证明了只有当消费经验的结果归因于消费者的专业知识，因为消费者选择了产品或与结果相关的评估维度时，这种关系才成立。是客观的。参与，期望和认知失调也得到了明确测试，并被排除在潜在的替代解释之外。在研究4中，可以预测，当消费者的专业知识自我概念更加突出时，先前研究中发现的效果会增强。研究5将表明，个人消费者更喜欢谈论他们的“高专业知识，高满意度”体验。虽然人们普遍认为，不满意的消费者所讲的要多于满意的消费者（Goodman，1999年），但有越来越多的证据支持相反的观点（参见。 Godes and Mayzlin 2004）。在此证明，满意的消费者会产生更多的WOM，但前提是他们是专家，并且结果只能归因于他们的专业知识。其次，尽管这些结果与专家产生的WOM比新手多的假设相符（参见Jacoby和Hoyer 1981），但引入了一个重要的警告：不满意的专家和新手产生的WOM之间没有显着差异。总体而言，该论文提供了令人信服的证据，即当消费者生成WOM时，他们不仅在告诉他人有关产品和服务的信息，而且还告诉自己的信息。
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