eWOM on Travel Agency Selection:

Specialized versus Private Label

Enrique Bigné, Eva-Marı́a Caplliure, and Marı́a-José Miquel
University of Valencia

ABSTRACT

In the travel industry, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) elicits a major influence on consumers’
decision making. Travel retailers are facing the new challenges derived from the different nature of
their competitors—big hypermarkets, for instance, are extending their brands to travel
services—and the challenges derived from online comments that consumers have access to. With a
sample of 263 tourists, and using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis data analysis, this
paper shows how the selection between a specialized travel agency and a private label (PL) agency is
influenced by five factors: the usefulness attached to online reviews by users and the valence of those
online reviews, attitude and experience with PL, and the individual’s value consciousness. The
contribution of this paper not only comes from the novelty of considering PL in the context of travel
agencies, but also from using a relatively novel data analysis approach useful for analyzing
management issues. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is playing an in-
creasing role as an information source that affects con-
sumers’ attitudes and choices. Companies are becom-
ing more conscious about the need of paying attention
to the digital part of their businesses in order to
aim higher revenues and more profitability (McKinsey,
2015). With this in mind, general retailers (GR) are us-
ing social media as a tool to reinforce their relationships
with their customers (Rapp, Beitelspacher, Grewal, &
Hughes, 2013). Consequently, there has recently been
a bundle of meta-analysis papers studying the effect
of eWOM on sales (You, Vadakkepatt, & Joshi, 2015).
Along with these studies, we can also find more specific
meta-analysis papers focused on the effects of online
reviews on retail sales (Floyd, Freling, Alhoqail, Cho,
& Freling, 2014), which also analyze the effects of the
role of valence in online reviews on perceived useful-
ness and attitudes toward the product (Purnawirawan,
Eisend, De Pelsmacker, & Dens, 2015).
Tourism has experienced a dynamic change due to
two main factors: the shift into online services and a
more extensive use of the online comments. In this sce-
nario, specialized travel retailers (STR; online and of-
fline travel agencies) are competing with private label
(PL1 ) entrants and new online players that are power-
fully emerging into two main areas: online aggregators,
such as Kayak, and online review platforms, such as
TripAdvisor.
1
PLMA (2015) defines PL products as those that encompass all mer-
chandise sold under a retailer’s brand.
Retailing is then facing new challenges arisen from
online selling and PL extension. PLs brand extension is
at present one of the growth strategies used by GRs—
especially hypermarkets—who are trying to take profit
of PL equity by increasing the number of product cat-
egories in which their PL is present. GRs extend their
PL to a new category presuming that customers who
have experience and are loyal to their parent brand
will also buy their extended brand (Miquel, Caplliure,
& Adame, 2014; Reast, 2005). In this regard, some GRs
are expanding their PL strategy to travel services, such
as Carrefour or Sears. While there is a large amount of
academic research on the determinants of the success
or failure of PL in fast moving products, there is a lack
of literature about PL in travel services. Indeed, PL
foray into this industry has been relatively new, as the
research of Global Powers of Retailing 2015 (Deloitte,
2015) has proved by reviewing the services offered by
the first 10 worldwide hypermarket groups.
Our aim is to analyze the influence of online reviews,
the consumer’s attitude toward PL, their experience
with PL, and the effects of individual’s value conscious-
ness (a determinant factor influencing store selection
and product purchase decisions—Swait & Sweeney,
2000) on booking the services offered by a PL travel
agency over a specialized (online or offline) one. Our
specific goals are as follows: (i) to identify the useful-
ness of online reviews to tourists when they choose a
specific travel agency, (ii) to evaluate the valence ef-
fect of online reviews on switching from an STR into a
PL travel agency, (iii) to expand the role of the usual
variables—identified in literature as determinants of

Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 33(12): 1046–1053 (December 2016)

View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mar
© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/mar.20938
1046
PL acceptance in fast moving products—in travel ser-
vices.
Based on a sample of 263 tourists, this paper ap-
proaches the tourists’ switch from STRs into PL travel
agencies as a dependent variable (outcome). Our re-
search has been made through a fuzzy-set qualitative
comparative analysis (fsQCA) data analysis. The con-
tribution of this paper to the existing literature is not
only the novelty of the topic considering PL in the con-
text of travel agencies, but also the fact that it proves
a relatively novel data analysis approach that might
be useful to analyze management issues. In this paper,
fsQCA explores different configurations of eWOM util-
ity perceptions, the valence of review, individual’s value
consciousness, consumers’ attitude toward PL and their
experience with PL, and it analyzes the contribution of
all these determinants to the customers’ switch from
STRs into PL travel agencies. This is an important dif-
ference with respect to other standard linear methods
habitually used in literature, which only estimate the
average effect of the variables given in a set of cases
(Mahoney & Goertz, 2006).
With these aims, the next section reviews literature,
introducing the topics under analysis, which serves as
a basis for stating propositions. Then we present the
methodology, and the paper concludes by summariz-
ing the key findings and discussing their implications,
suggesting avenues for further research.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND
RESEARCH PROPOSITIONS
Two main bodies of literature have been connected in
this research: eWOM and PL in the context of travel
agencies. Each of these topics has been independently
anchored in extensive literature, but we have not iden-
tified any research that focuses on both topics at once.
eWOM and the Valence of Online Reviews
eWOM is currently an influential source of information
that is playing a key role on customers’ purchase de-
cision (Tsao, Hsieh, Shih, & Lin, 2015). Based on the
meta-analysis of You et al. (2015), several conclusions
can be reached: Products with low trialability, such
as tourism services, trigger eWOM elasticity on sales.
However, a high level of competition lowers the vol-
ume and valence’s elasticities. In their meta-analysis
of online product reviews at retail level, Floyd et al.
(2014) found that online product reviews have a signif-
icantly greater impact on the sales elasticities of high-
involvement products. Both meta-analyses show that
online comments made in a third-party system or in in-
dependent sites exert more influence. Since travel ser-
vices may be considered a low-trialability product, and
also travel package choice is a high-involvement prod-
uct, eWOM should affect consumers’ decision. There-
fore, we posit the following proposition:
eWOM ON TRAVEL AGENCY SELECTION
Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar
Proposition 1: Reading an online review condi-
tions tourists’ decision choice.
Despite the growing literature on eWOM and other
related variables, some issues deserve more research.
We have particularly focused on the effects of the review
valence on brand choice. The findings of the extant lit-
erature on this topic are not conclusive (King, Racherla,
& Bush, 2014). For instance, in an offline context,
negative online comments are expected to have more
influence than positive comments (Lee & Yi, 2010).
However, Wu (2013) found that positive reviews are
similarly helpful as the negative reviews. On top of that,
his results suggest that the valence of a customer’s re-
view is less important than the content quality of the
information provided in the review. Likewise, Ho-Dac,
Carson, and Moore (2013) show different effects of posi-
tive (negative) online customer reviews on weak versus
strong brand equity, showing that positive (negative)
online comments increase (decrease) the sales of weak
brands. Thus, the mere valence might not be a good
predictor to assess the influence of a given online re-
view. Rather it is affected by some related cues. When
consumers face high-uncertainty decisions, they search
for external signals for service evaluations. eWOM con-
tent, conveying positive or negative comments, may af-
fect customers’ decision making when insufficient valu-
able information is available. Travel services in general
and holiday decisions in particular typically face uncer-
tainty due to the intangible nature of the service and
the lack of previous experience. So, we can state that
Proposition 2: Both positive and negative va-
lence of online reviews condition tourists’ deci-
sion choice.
Besides the review valence, the perceived usefulness
of the eWOM content needs to be accounted in order to
explain choice behavior. A recent paper by Fang, Ye,
Kucukusta, and Law (2016) modeled the helpfulness
votes for tourist attractions in nonpopular destinations
retrieved from TripAdvisor. They found that both text
readability and reviewer’s characteristics affected the
perceived value of the reviews. Although Internet can
be helpful in terms of reviews, it is not exempt from
some problems, mainly associated with the anonymity
or the potential manipulation that the potential user
can be aware of (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). In this re-
gards, the reviewers’ reputation as well as their exper-
tise seem to influence the perceived usefulness of online
reviews (Racherlaa & Friskeb, 2012). Presumably, the
lower the perceived usefulness of online reviews is, the
less influence on consumers they have. Given the nov-
elty of PLs in tourism, the arguments above suggest the
following proposition:
Proposition 3: The perceived usefulness of online
reviews conditions tourists’ decision choice after
reading an online comment.
1047
PL Extension to Travel Services
Despite the abundant research on brand extension
strategies, only a few studies examine the brand ex-
tension in services (Boisvert & Ashill, 2011; Zboja &
Voorhees, 2006), and certainly there are even less stud-
ies that analyze the customers’ assessment of retail
brand extension (Dwivedi & Merrilees, 2012; Laforet,
2007).
GRs are increasingly using their own brands in or-
der to gain competitive advantage (Ailawadi, Pauwels,
& Steenkamp, 2008) extending the number of product
lines and services in which their brands are present. In
fact, GRs have some advantages over other companies
entering in a new market (like the one in focus here,
i.e., travel services) such as a high degree of knowl-
edge of and proximity to their customers, multichan-
nel strategies (both offline and online), a large number
of customers with PL experience in other product cat-
egories and, as a consequence, with a prior attitude
toward their brand (Herhausen, Binder, Schoegel, &
Herrmann, 2015; Laforet, 2007; Rizkallah & Miller,
2015).
PL Consumers’ Attitude and Experience
Attitude and prior experience with the parent brand
has received a lot of attention in brand extension lit-
erature as two of the best variables for explaining the
success of the extension strategy (Reast, 2005). PL atti-
tude refers to a predisposition to respond in a favorable
or unfavorable way depending on the product evalua-
tion, purchase evaluation, and/or self-evaluations that
are associated with PL products (Burton, Lichtenstein,
Netemeyer, & Garretson, 1998). In fast moving prod-
ucts, cumulative consumer experience with PL elicits a
favorable attitude toward the product (e.g., Goldsmith,
Flynn, Goldsmith, & Stacey, 2010). Some studies on
consumer products show that a positive attitude toward
PL triggers a higher purchase intention (Burton et al.,
1998; Zielke & Dobbelstein, 2007).
The few existing studies that analyze PL extension
to new categories state that prior positive PL attitude
and experience influence the decision to buy other new
product categories from the same brand, increasing the
chance of the brand extension being successful (Miquel
et al., 2014; Sheau-Fen, Sun-May, & Yu-Ghee, 2012;
Zielke & Dobbelstein, 2007). On these grounds, we ar-
gue that even when tourists do not have previous ex-
perience with PL in tourism services, their previous
experience—their knowledge of the parent brand—and
attitude toward PL in other product categories will pos-
itively influence their intention to choose a PL tourism
service (Zielke & Dobbelstein, 2007), as it will be used
as valuable information to make the decision. There-
fore, we posit that
Proposition 4: After reading an online review, ex-
perience with PL determines the tourists’ deci-
sion choice regarding a PL.
1048
Proposition 5: After reading an online review, at-
titude toward PL determines the tourists’ deci-
sion choice regarding a PL.
Value Consciousness
Many GRs try to combine price and quality in their PL
products by offering greater value to their consumers,
reducing the gap between the perceived quality of the
manufacturer brand and their PLs while downplay-
ing the price (Miranda & Joshi, 2003; Sethuraman &
Gielens, 2014). According to the characteristics of the
service sector, the differentiation of a service supply
is determined by the GR’s ability to offer a different
value to their consumers, providing them with a more
suitable response that is based on their expectations.
Literature focused on customer value suggests that con-
sumers differ in terms of the importance they attribute
to price, product quality, service quality, store image,
and brand image when purchasing (Swait & Sweeney,
2000). Past research has found a positive relationship
between value consciousness and attitude toward PL
(Burton et al., 1998), also moderating the aim to pur-
chase PL when product type emerges (Kwon, Lee, &
Kwon, 2008).
Value consciousness becomes, then, a customers’
concern when they pay low prices that are supposed
to be subjected to some quality constraints; as a result,
value-conscious shoppers try to maximize the value of
their purchase (i.e., the quality–price ratio; Lichten-
stein, Ridgway, & Netemeyer, 1993). With that aim,
an individual with high scores in value consciousness,
when faced with two brands sold at the same price, will
prefer the one with more attributes or benefits; so, in an
effort to obtain the greatest value from the purchase, he
is more likely to search for information, viewing online
comments about a travel service as valuable informa-
tion. So, we posit:
Proposition 6: Reading an online review by value-
conscious individuals determines the tourists’
decision choice regarding a PL.
METHODOLOGY
In order to gather information to test Propositions
1–6, a combination of a quantitative and experimental
study was conducted among 303 initial participants.
They were surveyed using an online national panel,
managed by a professional institute of market research.
The sample selection was based on three criteria: indi-
viduals aged over 18, with a monthly salary of €1200 or
higher, who had traveled abroad for at least five days
during the previous year.
The study was structured into two main parts that
were based on a questionnaire; first, a shared block
addressed to the entire sample gathered information
about traveling and eWOM perceptions. The second
part of the study and questionnaire consisted of an
BIGNÉ, CAPLLIURE, AND MIQUEL
Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar
Table 1. Sample Characterization.
Those Not Changing to PL after Reading the Comment Those Changing to PL after Reading the Comment
(181 Individuals) (82 Individuals)
Male Female Male Female
58.6% 41.4% 46.3% 53.7%
Mean age Mean age
42.9 42.5

Income Income
1100–2100€ 2101–3000€ +3000€ 1100–2100€ 2101–3000€ +3000€
30.4% 35.4% 34.3% 23.2% 48.8% 28.0%

experiment that contained two different scenarios. Par-
ticipants were randomly assigned one of the two sce-
narios using the conditional branching function of the
online panel. First, and for both scenarios, each subject
was presented on a screen that showed an online ag-
gregator’s review page, which included an all-inclusive
package holidays of seven days in Cozumel. The screen
showed two offers at the same price; one of them was
offered by an STR (labeled as traditional travel agency)
and the other one was offered by a PL travel agency (la-
beled as Travel agency of your habitual hypermarket).
The individuals had to choose which travel agency they
would book. After that, half of the sample read a posi-
tive comment about the PL travel agency, and the other
half read a negative comment about the STR. Since we
were aiming to measure the influence of online com-
ments on PL, negative comments of a PL and positive
comments of STRs were discarded. After reading the
online comment, individuals were presented with both
of the initial offers and were asked to choose between
them.
As both comments favored the PL travel agency, our
real interest lied in those individuals who had chosen
the STRs in the first place, before reading the review.
In this way, we could analyze whether or not the online
comment, together with the rest of the considered vari-
ables, influenced the tourists’ choice. Of all the partic-
ipants sampled (303 individuals), 263 had chosen the
STR in the first place. After reading the online com-
ment, only 31.18% of those 263 participants switched
to the PL travel agency (Table 1 describes sample char-
acterization).
The scales used in the questionnaire were taken
from previous studies and adapted for our purposes
(Table 2). All construct measures were 7-point Likert
scales (1 = strongly agree and 7 = strongly disagree);
however, we used a single item to measure which travel
agency the individuals were going to choose.
Analysis: fsQCA Method
The data analysis method used in this study is the
fsQCA, a set-theoretic analysis technique that analyzes
in detail how causal conditions lead to a particular
outcome (for details, see Ragin, 2008). Through this
Table 2. Scales Used.
Construct Source
Perceived usefulness of Rapp et al. (2013)
online reviews
General attitude toward PL Burton et al. (1998)
PL experience Dick, Jain, & Richardson
(1995)
Value consciousness Lichtenstein et al. (1993)
technique, it is possible to avoid some weaknesses of
SEM, traditionally used to measure relationships be-
tween the variables considered in this research, which
is based on symmetric relationships and fails to rec-
ognize the occurrence of causal asymmetry (Woodside,
2016).
The key stage of fsQCA is to transform variables
into calibrated sets using at least three substantively
meaningful thresholds: full membership (1), full non-
membership (0), and a cross-over point (i.e., the point
of maximum ambiguity—0.5; Ragin, 2008). For four of
the five causal conditions considered in the analysis—
perceived usefulness of comments, value consciousness,
attitude toward PL, and experience with PL—the cur-
rent study has used the three-value scheme mentioned
above, considering the median value of each causal con-
dition as the point of maximum ambiguity. For the
causal condition related to the type of review, this study
has only considered value 0 (negative comment about
the STR) and value 1 (positive comment about the PL
travel agency).
KEY FINDINGS
The first step to verify whether the data support or re-
fute our propositions is to check if the causal conditions
are necessary for the outcome to occur. For the outcome
variable Change, the values of consistency and coverage
for each of the five causal conditions are less than the
minimum values set by Ragin (2006). This finding im-
plies that those variables are not a necessary condition
for tourists to switch from STRs into PL travel agencies.
Despite this finding, calculating the truth table allows

eWOM ON TRAVEL AGENCY SELECTION 1049

Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar
Table 3. Sufficient Combinations of Conditions to Keep Choosing an STR Instead of Moving into PL Travel
Agency after Reading an Online Comment.
Configuration
Negative comment toward STR
Perceived usefulness of online comments
Value consciousness
Attitude toward private label
Experience with private label
Raw coverage
Unique coverage
Consistency
Overall solution coverage: 0.56
Overall solution consistency: 0.74
a
Black circles • indicate the presence of a condition. Circles with “/” ∅ indicate its absence.
us to calculate the sufficiency of the causal conditions
or configurations. As in the analysis of the necessary
conditions, none of the values for raw coverage, unique
coverage, consistency of the causal conditions, and cov-
erage/consistency of the set of solutions yielded by the
program are relevant. This finding reveals that there
isn’t a relationship between the presence of causal con-
ditions (the five variables under analysis) and presence
of the outcome (a change in the tourists’ choice).
Given the nature of these results, the fsQCA philos-
ophy advocates for analyzing whether the absence of
causal conditions may result in the absence of the out-
come. Thus, the next stage of the analysis explores the
relationship between the absence of the outcome (i.e.,
making the same decision of choosing STRs even after
reading an online comment) and the presence and/or
absence of all the causal conditions.
For this set of causal conditions, once again, no
causal conditions are necessary for the tourists’ deci-
sion making when they keep choosing an STR after
reading an online comment. Focusing on the absence
of the outcome, the second analysis phase consists in
analyzing the sufficient conditions. According to Ragin
(2000), the absence of a causal condition is sufficient to
lead to the absence of the outcome, provided that the
fuzzy membership value of the absence of causal condi-
tion X is less than the fuzzy membership value of the
absence of outcome Y (Ragin, 2000). Consistent with
Ragin’s (2000) suggestion, Table 3 shows the interme-
diate solution.
All causal paths consist of causal configurations
(Table 3) and are empirically important because their
unique coverage is greater than 0. Raw coverage is
important when assessing empirical evidence (Ragin,
2006). Table 3 also shows that eight causal paths ac-
count for 56% of the outcome set. This figure shows the
importance of all joint causal paths (total coverage).
This study concludes five main findings. First, on-
line comments do not always play a role in changing
tourists’ choice toward PL (in solutions 4 and 5, online
comments do not play any role). Thus, Proposition 1
is not supported. Second, as for the valence of online
1050
Solutionsa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
• • • • • ∅
∅ ∅ ∅
∅ ∅ • •
∅ • ∅ ∅
• ∅ • ∅ ∅
0.21 0.14 0.12 0.33 0.20 0.44 0.21 0.14
0.04 0.01 0.01 0.05 0.03 0.04 0.01 0.04
0.81 0.77 0.76 0.76 0.76 0.75 0.74 0.73
comments, negative online comments play a more im-
portant role than positive comments. In our study, a
positive online comment about a PL travel agency is
only present in one of the solutions (solution 8), whereas
the negative online comment about an STR appears in
five solutions (solutions 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7). Proposition 2 is
then supported, although both valences have not equal
relevance. Data suggest contrary results to what is ex-
pected; even after reading a negative comment about
the company, the consumer remains loyal to the com-
pany, and the other way round: even after reading a
positive comment about the competitor’s performance,
the individual does not choose it. Third, with regard to
the perceived usefulness of online reviews, Proposition
3 is supported, since the absence of perceived useful-
ness, together with other causal conditions, result in
the same decision making (solutions 4–6). This finding
suggests that the content of online comments is critical
in order to perceive them as useful in choice behavior.
Fourth, experience and attitude toward PL—relevant
in the purchase of other PL product categories—are
also relevant when using the services of travel agencies
(Propositions 4 and 5 are accepted, since one or other
causal condition is present in seven out of eight solu-
tions). Fifth, the presence of value consciousness in an
individual interacts with online comments (solutions 7
and 8). So, Proposition 6 is supported. It is relevant to
note that the opposite is not always true: for individu-
als who are not value-conscious online comments may
play a role (solution 1) or not (solution 5). This result
highlights the occurrence of causal asymmetry not con-
sidered by other methodologies traditionally used for
analyzing the topic.
According to data, tourists will not change their ini-
tial choice and will remain loyal to STRs after reading
a negative online comment related to the performance
of that travel agency, given that although they have
experience with PL, they do not have a positive atti-
tude toward it, or vice versa, they do not have experi-
ence with PL, although they have a positive attitude
toward it (solutions 2 and 3). Likewise, consumers are
not value-conscious individuals (solution 1) or, if they
BIGNÉ, CAPLLIURE, AND MIQUEL
Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar
are, they do not have experience with PL (solution 7);
in addition, they believe that online comments are not
useful at all (solution 6).
As for positive online comments about PL travel
agencies (solution 8), a value-conscious tourist without
any experience with PL and a negative attitude toward
PL will not change his/her initial choice and will re-
main loyal to STRs even after reading a positive online
comment about a PL travel agency.
Finally, online comments (either positive or nega-
tive) do not play any role in the individuals’ decision
making when they do not perceive the online comments
utility and (a) have a negative attitude toward PL or
(b) when, even having experience with PL, they are not
value-conscious individuals (solutions 4 and 5, respec-
tively).
DISCUSSION
Despite the vast number of studies on PLs, only a scarce
number of them are devoted to analyze the successful
factors of PL extension into new product categories,
and even less of them are focused on services. As far
as we know, none of the studies have been published
in the area of PL extension to tourism. This lack of
research contrasts with an increasing tourism demand
of 4% per year (UNWTO, 2015), and the low costs for
GRs in expanding its portfolio to travel services.
Our study integrates PL and eWOM aiming to ana-
lyze the conditions that need to be met so that tourism
services users switch from STR into PL travel agencies
once they have read online comments about the ser-
vices offered by both types of travel agencies. In order
to carry out the analysis, we have used a new method-
ology, fsQCA.
Findings suggest that a third of the STR users would
switch from an STR into a PL travel agency after read-
ing online comments about the performance ability of
both travel agencies offering the same holiday package.
However, the variables under analysis—presence of an
online comment of different valence, perceived useful-
ness of the comment, attitude and experience with PL
and the individual’s value consciousness—could not ex-
plain that change. Conversely, we were able to identify
the opposite, that is, the role those same variables
play in reinforcing decision making about choosing the
STR again even after reading an online comment about
its performance or that of its competitor. In this re-
gard, the presence or absence of an online comment—
positive or negative—perceived usefulness of the com-
ment, attitude, and experience with PL and value
consciousness—or a combination of them—act as deter-
rent to switching agencies. This deterrent effect occurs
despite the fact that both of the online comments in-
cluded in the experiment favored the PL travel agency,
since one of them was a positive comment about the PL
travel agency’s performance, and the other one was a
negative comment about the STR’s performance.
eWOM ON TRAVEL AGENCY SELECTION
Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar
There are four main conclusions derived from this
research that can help managers. First, online reviews
are not the only determinants for switching travel agen-
cies or remaining loyal to them, but other variables
deter this influence. This result confirms that the re-
view valence and usefulness given to online comments
by users are not good behavior predictors per se. Other
variables, such experience with PLs, or value conscious-
ness, also affect the tourists’ choice. In this regard,
managers have to consider and deal with what online
consumers say about the company, but other offline
considerations have to be taken into account, as they
are as relevant as the online consumers. Of course,
other variables not considered in this research, such as
the source credibility, text readability, and reviewers’
characteristics (Fang et al., 2016) might also influence
their choice.
Second, regarding the types of comment, negative
comments have a greater role than the positive com-
ments. This finding is aligned with some previous re-
search, such as Cui, Lui, and Guo (2012), who real-
ized that negative comments about new products were
more influential on the purchase decision; however, the
consequence of the negative comment on sales (in our
research, on travel agency selection) is the opposite of
that proposed by Cui et al. (2012). Our data suggest
that negative comments are not necessarily harmful
for companies in terms of sales, at least when the com-
petitor is a PL travel agency. This leads us to suggest
that marketers need to build a strong brand in order
to make it more resistant to negative online comments,
but at the same time we would encourage them not to
underestimate what online consumers say negatively
about their competitors.
Third, having a positive attitude toward PL and ex-
perience with PL in other categories are not sufficient
conditions for users to change from an STR to a PL
offering. However, PL managers should encourage ex-
perience (and consequently a positive attitude) with the
brand, as it can help to deter individuals from choosing
a competitor travel agency. These findings might be of
interest since a great part of eWOM research has fo-
cused on comments as a unit of analysis without taking
into account the external influences derived from the
consumers’ attitudes or experiences.
Fourth, online comments (whatever their valence)
can play a key role for value-conscious individuals, as
they need information to make a decision looking for
the best value. In this regard, companies providing on-
line services should encourage consumers to give their
opinions, as they usually do.
The main contribution of the present study comes
from the results themselves and methodology used.
First, new insights by interrelating eWOM and PL ex-
tension in the context of travel agencies are provided.
Second, the methodology used, fsQCA, shows that the
different variables under review interact differently—
by their presence or absence—when it comes to explain-
ing the choice of a particular travel agency. The con-
sideration of causal asymmetry by fsQCA offers a new
1051
approach in the analysis of variables extensively ana-
lyzed in literature, offering a new vision and interpre-
tation of data.
Our research faces some limitations. Although our
aim was to avoid the pricing effect in order to assess
the pure effect of eWOM, future research must over-
come this absence of information by adding new sce-
narios with contrasted pricing levels. Further analysis
must give evidence about the role of experience with the
product from either previous product usage or product
involvement.
Other potential areas of interest for future re-
search must be addressed to analyze the variables re-
lated to eWOM, such as the credibility and quality of
the source (Matute -Vallejo, Polo-Redondo, & Utrilla-
Acerete, 2015), fit of the extension, and also the PL
variables (e.g., engagement with the provider and trust
in PL, and how different perceptions and attitudes to-
ward different PLs interact). This integrative approach
must combine the building blocks of knowledge with
other processes of consumers’ decision, and integrate
them into a single study that assesses the joint effects,
rather than carry out isolated studies aimed to analyze
nonconnected effects.
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The authors would like to thank Generalitat Valenciana for
the support from the research project (GVAICO2015-071).
Correspondence regarding this article should be sent
to: Marı́a-José Miquel, Department of Marketing, Uni-
versity of Valencia, Av. Tarongers s/n 46022, Spain
(eva.caplliure@uv.es).
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