Purpose

The objective of this study is to investigate the interaction effect between incentive type (financial and compassionate incentives) and the ethicality of merchant strategy on consumer willingness to post positive reviews, while also examining potential variations in consumer responses based on consumption experience, shopping frequency and social class.

Design/methodology/approach

Building upon construal level theory, we hypothesized the moderating influence of the ethicality of merchant strategy and examined the three-way interaction among consumers’ demographic characteristics (i.e. consumption experience, shopping frequency and social class), incentive type and the ethicality of merchant strategy. To empirically test our hypotheses, we conducted four experiments and employed ANOVA for data analysis.

Findings

The ethicality of merchant strategies moderates the association between incentive type and consumer willingness to post positive reviews, with compassionate incentives eliciting more pronounced moral judgments toward merchant strategies compared to financial incentives. The moderating effect of the ethicality of merchant strategy on the relationship between incentive type and consumer willingness to post positive reviews is particularly strong among consumers who have favorable consumption experiences, engage in frequent shopping and belong to lower social classes.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the existing literature on online reviews by examining the impact of compassionate incentives on consumer review behaviors, analyzing the ethicality of merchant strategies within the realm of online reviews and investigating variations in consumer responses to merchant strategies regarding consumption experience, shopping frequency and social class.

中文翻译：

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通过结合经济和富有同情心的激励措施来激发积极评价

目的

本研究的目的是调查激励类型（财务激励和同情激励）与商家策略的道德性之间的相互作用对消费者发表正面评论的意愿的影响，同时还根据消费体验、购物频率和消费偏好来研究消费者反应的潜在变化。社会阶层。

设计/方法论/途径

基于解释水平理论，我们假设了商业策略道德的调节影响，并检验了消费者人口特征（即消费体验、购物频率和社会阶层）、激励类型和商业策略道德之间的三向相互作用。为了实证检验我们的假设，我们进行了四次实验并采用方差分析进行数据分析。

发现

商家策略的道德性调节了激励类型与消费者发表正面评论的意愿之间的关联，与经济激励相比，富有同情心的激励会引发对商家策略更明显的道德判断。商家策略的道德性对激励类型与消费者发表正面评价的意愿之间的关系的调节作用在具有良好消费体验、频繁购物和属于较低社会阶层的消费者中尤其强烈。

原创性/价值

本研究通过考察富有同情心的激励对消费者评论行为的影响，分析在线评论领域内商家策略的道德性，并调查消费者对消费体验、购物频率和评论等商家策略的反应变化，为现有的在线评论文献做出了贡献。社会阶层。