An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts ... · effectively. Word of mouth (WOM hereafter) is known to be important when it comes to marketing because when it is

An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts on the buying decisions of

consumers with disabilities.

Leon Donegan

1267614

Kingston University Business School

MA Marketing Communication and Advertising


consumers with disabilities

1

Abstract Page

In the United Kingdom there are approximately 11.9 million people who are

categorised as having disabilities. Also, there is an established market of companies who

specialise in producing products and offering services to meet the needs of people with

disabilities. Despite of such an establish market and a sizeable potential customer base it is

still difficult for marketing practitioners to know how to reach this target audience more

effectively. Word of mouth (WOM hereafter) is known to be important when it comes to

marketing because when it is generated it can have an effect upon consumer behaviour and

purchasing decisions, therefore, is WOM influential enough to persuade people with

disabilities to purchase specialist product and services or not.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand how WOM affects upon people

with disabilities in regards to their purchasing decisions of specialist products and services. In

order to achieve this there will be an attempt to discover the importance of WOM when

people with disabilities are purchasing specialist products and services, and also discovers the

different ways the people who different impairments receive WOM information. The main

methods employed to generate the results were: a chosen research approach of qualitative, the

population in the study was selected by the non-probability sampling method called

purposive sampling technique which is homogeneous sampling. The chosen data collection

method was to use Facebook for asynchronous communication by e-mailing participates the

interview over the platform. The chosen analytical approach was thematic analysis and then

axial coding which was followed by a deductive reasoning approach was used in order to

develop a hypothesis. The main themes to emerge from the data collected were: NWOM has

twice the impact on consumers’ decision making process, the respondents still would

possibly react negative to PWOM, WOM would have more effect than advertising, higher

trust placed in friends and the existing users of products/services over experts and

salespeople, respondents preferred to obtain WOM in the pre-purchasing phase of buying

products and services in order to reduce the risk of buying products or signing up to services,

high prices can evoke NWOM, market mavens with disabilities could spread WOM, the best

to access WOM was via electronic forms. The overall conclusion was that WOM was very

influential when people with disabilities are purchasing products and services.



2

Acknowledgements

I would, first of all, like to show my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Eva Kasperova, who has

been a great mentor and have given me so much inspiration during my research.

I would also like to thank my family who have given me endless support and have always

shown belief in my abilities.



3

Declaration

I declare that this dissertation is all my own work and the sources of information and material

I have used (including the internet) have been fully identified and properly acknowledged as

required.



4

Statement of Word Count

This dissertation consists of 15973 words.



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Contents Page

Abstract Page ………………………………………………………………………………...1

Acknowledges ………………………………………………………………………………..2

Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………….......3

Statement of word count …………………………………………………………………….4

Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 10

1.1 Aims of the study ........................................................................................................... 13

1.2 Aim & Objectives........................................................................................................... 13

1.3 Research Question .......................................................................................................... 14

Chapter 2. Literature Review ............................................................................................... 15

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 155

Content ............................................................................................................................... 155

WOM on buying decisions ............................................................................................. 155

NWOM on buying decisions .......................................................................................... 233

PWOM on buying decisions ........................................................................................... 266

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 31

Chapter 3. Methodology ...................................................................................................... 333

Research Approach ......................................................................................................... 333

Data collection method ................................................................................................... 355

Analytical Approach ....................................................................................................... 377

Ethical Issues ...................................................................................................................... 388

Research Plan ..................................................................................................................... 399

Chapter 4. Analysis and Results ........................................................................................... 40

The results from the data - the themes… ........................................................................... 440

Chapter 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 644

The summary of the conclusion ......................................................................................... 644



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An explanation of what was researched and how it was carried out .................................. 645

The main findings of the research ...................................................................................... 655

The original contribution and significance of this piece of research to the field ............... 688

Chapter 6. Limitations and further research .................................................................... 699

Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 699

Lack of prior research studies on the topic ..................................................................... 699

Self-reported data ........................................................................................................... 699

Further Research ................................................................................................................ 699

The unanticipated findings ............................................................................................. 699

The remaining unanswered questions and suggested research strategy ........................... 70

References:.............................................................................................................................. 72

Bibliography: ........................................................................................................................ 844

Appendices: ............................................................................................................................ 91

Appendix A -Sub-themes and Outliers ................................................................................ 91

Appendix B -The invitational letter to invite candidates to take part in the study and the

interview topic guide. ......................................................................................................... 971

Appendix C ...................................................................................................................... 1017

Management Report ......................................................................................................... 1017



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List of Figures

Figure 1. (Sweeney et al.2008: p. 358) gives an overall example of the way that WOM works

including all of the different aspects that can contribute to WOM activity. ………...............16

Figure 2. depicts Maslow’s adapted hierarchy of needs which includes the eighth level

“transcendence needs” i.e. “helping others to self-actualise” (Maslow, 1970). ………..........18

Figure 3. (Vazquez-Casielles et al. 2013) is a depiction of how interpersonal factors and non-

interpersonal impacts on the shift in receiver’s purchase probability. ………........................20

Figure 4. (Nielsen Newswire 2012) is a graph from the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising

Survey that shows WOM to be the most trusted form of advertising globally by consumers.

.……….................……….................……….................……….... .……….................……...22

Figure 5. The Customer’s Loyalty Ladder by (Managing Service Quality 2000).

.……….................……….................……….................……….... .……….................……...24

Figure 6. (Mazzarol et al. 2007) depicts how triggers and conditions of the giver of WOM

can have an effect on the message, which inevitably has an effect on the receiver and the

outcome of the message. ................……….................……….................………...................28

Figure 7. (Lazarsfeld et al. 1948) is a depiction of Lazarsfeld et al.’s two-step hypothesis.

.……….................……….................……….................……….... .……….................……...30



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List of Tables

Table 1. This table shows the characteristics of the participants’ who contributed to the

primary data that was gathered. ..........……….................……….................………...............34

Table 2. This table shows how the literature from the review links to the questions in the

interview guide. ..........……….................……….................……….......................................40



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List of Abbreviations

ALT Assisted Living Technology

eALT Electronic Assisted Living Technology

NWOM Negative word-of-mouth

PPP pre-WOM probability of purchase

PWOM Positive word-of-mouth

WOM Word-of-mouth

WOMM Word-of-mouth marketing



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Chapter 1. Introduction, Aim & Objectives, and Research Question

___________________________________________________________________________

According to the inventor and also manufacturer of innovative healthcare and

disability products and living aids, Chris Buckingham, there are approximately 11.9 million

people living in the United Kingdom who are classed as having a limiting long-term illness,

impairment or disability. Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the

communication industry in the United Kingdom have the responsibility to provide

information on the experiences of consumers with disabilities to stakeholders under the

Communications Act 2003. The figure of people with disabilities living in the United

Kingdom is confirmed by the Government in the United Kingdom which states that “there are

over 11 million people with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability” Family

Resources Survey (2013, no pagination).

It is noted that the market for disability aids in the United Kingdom is experiencing a

growth at a rapid rate in spite of the poor state of the economy. It was stated by Chris

Buckingham, who is also an Occupational Therapist and the founder and Managing Director

of Buckingham Healthcare, that there is still a high demand for products such as “mobility

scooters, stair lifts and other disability equipment” Buckingham (n.d. no pagination). One of

the reasons that Buckingham offers for the previous statement is that the disability aids

market is generally improving and there is a constant emergence of products that are more

sophisticated entering the market. It is predicted that the disability aids market will further

expand over the next decade, this has been helped by the government and the Office of Fair

Trading with the development of stricter regulations for this market (Buckingham n.d. no

pagination).

There are some key drivers within the disability marketing industry. Naidex is the

largest independent living exhibition in the United Kingdom that showcases all the latest

products on the market for people with disabilities and seminars are also held there. The

Naidex exhibition has been running for 40 years (Naidex 2014). Another key driver in the



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disability marketing industry is a flagship magazine in the United Kingdom (Able Magazine

2014).

Further research was conducted by Simon Fielding, who is Director of the Health

Design and Technology Institute at Coventry University, and was formerly a Consultant

Clinical Scientist specialising in the application of assistive technology at South Birmingham

Primary Care Trust. Fielding (n.d.) stated that there has been a strengthening in the consumer

market for assisted living technology, he says this stems from the late 1980s as consecutive

governments have been in support of people with health and social care needs to keep their

independence and remain living in their own homes for as long as they are able to do so.

Fielding (n.d.) suggests that this is achievable with the use of Assisted Living Technology

(ALT) and services that are designed to have a key role in supporting these people to realise

this goal. Moreover, Electronic Assisted Living Technology (eALT) offers even more new

opportunities as products and services have digital features that proves to be a great help to

people with health, well-being and social care needs (Fielding n.d.).

The purpose of this research project is to look at the marketing practice of word-of-

mouth (WOM hereafter), consumer behaviour and consumers with disabilities. To define the

meaning of disability, the Equality Act (2010, p. 4) states that “you’re disabled under the

Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and

‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities”.

According to Deet et al. (2007), WOM is a component that is important in a complex

and dynamic marketplace environment. Much research has illustrated that WOM is a highly

influential communication channel that is in the marketplace. Also word-of-mouth marketing

(WOMM hereafter) is viewed as a kind of marketing that promotes interpersonal

communication which is natural in highly diverse ways (Meiners et al. 2010). WOM was

clearly defined by Arndt (1967, 291) who says that it was “face-to-face communication about

a brand, product or service between people who are perceived as not having connections to a

commercial entity”, Womma (2008), who provide a communication management certificate

program to students, describes WOMM as providing people with a reason to talk about



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products and services, also developing platforms for people to converse with others with

more ease. They continue to say that “it is the art and science of building active, mutually

beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communication” (Womma,

2008. no pagination).

Consumers are central to the practice of marketing, particularly in the way that the

consumers behave towards brands, products and services. Consumer behaviour enables

market practitioners develop an understanding in the way in which consumers make

decisions, understand their thought processes regarding how they think, feel and choose

products, brands and services over other competitors in the market. Also consumer behaviour

can be influenced by other factors such as the environment, family and friends, particular

reference groups, and salespeople etc. Engel et al. (1986, p. 5) defined consumer behaviour

as “those acts of individuals directly involved in obtaining, using, and disposing of economic

goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts”.

There are many factors with the ability to influence consumers buying behaviour which are

“cultural, social, personal and psychological factors” (Brosekhan et al. n.d., p. 8). Marketers

cannot obtain control over these factors, however, they are still considered when attempting

to understand the complexity of the behaviours of consumers. Solomon (1995) defines

consumer behaviour as the study of the stages and these are involved when people or groups

chooses, buys, makes use of, or throws away products, services, notions or involvement to

gratify needs and desires.

Despite this large market for specialist products, there is a dearth of research in the

field of marketing on consumer behaviour of people with disabilities. The purpose of this

dissertation is to fill this gap.



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1.1 Aims of the study

The purpose of this study is to undertake research into the impact that WOM has on

the buying decisions of people with disabilities. There is a good amount of research on the

effects of WOM and also on the buying decision-making process of regular consumers,

however, there is very little research currently to be conducted on the effects of WOM on the

buying decisions of people with disabilities when it comes to purchasing specialist products

and using services that are designed specifically for that target audience.

Carrying out this piece of research would enable marketing practitioners to gain an

understanding of their target audience and specifically how they interact with and use WOM

techniques. As WOM techniques have evolved over the years with the introduction of the

internet and more recently social-networking websites, research is currently needed to

examine to what extent WOM has on the buying decisions of people with disabilities when

purchasing specialist products and using specialist services, as there is very little that is

published at the present moment in time. This dissertation project will endeavour to use the

existing research in WOM and consumers’ buying decisions as a platform, to ultimately gain

an understanding of consumers with disabilities and also understand how market practitioners

can encourage the likelihood of WOM spreading amongst this target audience.

1.2 Aim

To determine how word-of-mouth impacts upon people with disabilities regarding their

decision to buy a specialized product or service?

Objectives



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1. To examine how important WOM is when making a purchasing decision of specialist

products for consumers with disabilities?

2. To examine how people with different types of impairment receive WOM about specialist

products and services?

1.3 Research Question

To what extent does WOM impact on the purchasing decisions of people with disabilities?



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Chapter 2. Literature Review

___________________________________________________________________________

Introduction

The literature in this review will investigate the theory on the impact that WOM has on

consumer behaviour as a whole. Then the theory will be used to critically evaluate how

WOM can impact consumers with disabilities and their purchasing decisions. This topic is

important because it is unique and yet to be explored thoroughly. I have an interest in this

topic because I have a disability and therefore I use products and services that are marketed to

people with disabilities, and it is the reason why I am interested how people with disabilities

obtain information about the availability of products and services. The literature review

theory from a broad range of academic journals, including seminal papers, books and

websites. The information focuses on the different ways that consumers can use WOM in

order to obtain information about products and services with the view of making purchases.

This section will not cover any practical implications of WOM. The content will be set out in

three parts which are: WOM on buying decisions, negative word-of-mouth (NWOM

hereafter) on buying decisions, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM hereafter) on buying

decisions, finally it will end with a conclusion.

Content

WOM on buying decisions

In this first section of the literature review there will be a detailed description of what

WOM and the dynamics of how it works. Here will also include information on a number of

different aspects which contributes to how messages are passed from person to person. Also

an explanation will be made of what can be added to WOM messages, in order to make them



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more vivid and what adds to the credibility of WOM. What causes people to pass on

messages, within this the notions of market mavenism and also Maslow’s adapted hierarchy

of needs will be discussed. Some consideration will be made to investigate how WOM

happens online. A detailed look into the different relationships in terms of WOM and the

mechanics of them.

WOM has a snowball effect in that it can be given to one person and then it is passed

on to one other person or many people, alternatively many people can receive WOM and then

they could each pass it onto people that they have contact with which causes WOM to spread

further (Mazzarol et al. 2007). Nisbett and Ross, (1980, p. 45) made the point that

suggestions had been made that WOM was vivid because the information was strong as in

“emotionally interesting” and “imagery provoking” and “proximate in a sensory, temporal or

spatial way”. This description is rather technological which makes WOM sounds

complicated. However, Anderson (1998, pp. 5-17) described WOM as “vivid” and “novel”

experiences which can be pleasant and unfairly criticized when positive, and complaining

when it is negative. There are additional dimensions to WOM which are the notions of

PWOM and NWOM which will be discussed in great detail later on in the thesis.

Figure 1 (Sweeney et al. 2008: p. 358) gives an overall example of the way that WOM works,

including all of the different aspects that can contribute to WOM activity.



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Fig. 1 A suggested model of WOM from Sweeney et al. 2008: p. 358

According to East et al. (2007) the adoption of new categories of products or brand

choice can be determined by the amount of WOM activity that is generated. WOM activity

happens between a person to another person about a business’ or a service’s products.

Vazquez-Casielles et al. (2013) believed that for WOM messages to have credibility, it has to

have no connections with any commercial organisations. They go on to explain that the

activity of WOM is a conversation which has derived naturally between two people, “the

giver” who has knowledge of a product, and “the receiver” who requires the knowledge of

the product. It was found that one of the most triggers that causes WOM activity to happen is

the need for information from the receivers. Whether it is PWOM or NWOM, it is given to

address a query or a prompt that comes from givers in an attempt to help others. This was

essentially known as market mavenism which will be discussed in more depth later on

(Walsh et al. 2004). Maslow’s adapted hierarchy of needs supports this theory as the eighth

level is “transcendence needs” which is the need to help others achieve self-actualization.

The figure 2 depicts Maslow’s adapted hierarchy of needs which includes the eighth level

“transcendence needs” i.e. “helping others to self-actualise” (Maslow, 1970).



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Fig. 2 Maslow’s Adapted Hierarchy of Needs from (Maslow 1970)

Research conducted by Bickart and Schindler (2001) found that electronic word-of-

mouth (eWOM), related to consumers’ personal experiences and stories, is deemed to be

more credible and relevant compared to the information that businesses and organisations

generate themselves. Certain statistics of places where people attained advice showed that

“8% of the advice was Web mediated, 70% was face-to-face, and 19% was by telephone”

(Keller and Fay, 2006, pp. 31-41). However, these figures are only representative of the

population in general, research is needed to determine how specifically people with

disabilities attain advice because it has not been taken into account here. Disabled people are

bound to obtain WOM information differently to able-bodied people because of certain

impairments i.e. mobility, speech, deafness, blindness etc.



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It was noted by Engel et al. (1969) that WOM usually is passed between friends and

family because of the closeness of the relationship and the theory of “homophily” (Lazarsfeld

and Merton, 1954, pp. 18–66.) which means “love of the same”, this theory was confirmed by

(Gilly et al. 1998) who says that communication of information between a seeker and another

person have a great opportunity of taking place when they both are similar in aspects of

demographic characteristics (age, sex and education degree, etc.), values, preference, life

style etc. This theory can relate to the theory by Granovetter (1973, pp. 1360 – 1380) who

believed that the closer the relationship, i.e. family and friends to the consumer was classed

as “strong social ties” and the further and more distant people to the consumer i.e. associates

was classed as “weak social ties”. It could be argued that Granovetter’s theory does not take

into account experiences people with disabilities because close friends and family (strong

social ties) may not be knowledgeable about specialist products for people with disabilities

and therefore it may be best to seek advice from experts (weak social ties). As a result, they

are less likely to convey NWOM to people who they do not feel close to (Kowalski 1996;

Richins1984). This may be true for some disabled people, but there could be an argument that

other disabled people would want to let others know about the products and services that

have not worked for them to prevent other people from making the same purchasing mistakes

as they did.

Figure 3 (Vazquez-Casielles et al. 2013) is a depiction of how interpersonal factors and non-

interpersonal impacts on the shift in receiver’s purchase probability.



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Fig. 3 Factors Associated with Impact of Positive and Negative WOM on Shift in Receiver’s

Purchase Probability from Vazquez-Casielles et al. 2013: p. 46

One of the reasons that customers may engage in WOM activity is because of their

experiences with a product or service, if positive, then customers give praise, but if negative

then customers offer condemnation, very rarely do customers spread WOM that is neutral.

Harrison-Walker (2001) developed the two-construct model that could be used to measure

organisations’ WOM activity, specifically the frequency, number of people told and detail,

and also WOM praise which specifically looks at favourability and pride. It is said that

“praise” is very much like the concept of “valence”, however WOM valence can be positive,

neutral or negative (Mazzarol et al., 2006, p. 2). This piece of research showed that the most

common examples were extremely positive or extremely negative WOM. This was consistent



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with Anderson’s (1998) research. What is not addressed here is if the consumers are happy

with the products and services received, but do not spread any WOM. Sometimes people with

disabilities purchase products that assist them in doing mundane tasks which may not be a

cause for them to spread any kind of WOM, the prior research does not consider that there

may be a need for more research to determine the value of products and services for disabled

people, which do not generate any WOM activity.

Consumers are likely to consider WOM from fellow consumers as there is normally

nothing to be gained by these people. Murray (1991) says that consumers think about others’

opinions and experiences prior to making purchasing decisions and use it as a form of

protection from the unknown; this is thought to reduce the risk of making wrong or bad

purchasing decisions. Furthermore, over time there has been a growing distrust in advertising

communications which has caused consumers to seek information from other resources i.e.

WOM (Allsop, et al. 2007). Certain researchers (e.g. Bansal and Voyer, 2000; East, 2003;

Gremler, 1994), agree that when the receiver is actively seeking WOM then the information

attained is more effective. Murray (1991) says that consumers consider their personal sources

as more trustworthy. This behaviour is a result of how consumers evaluate their relationship

with people who they know, compared to their relationship with marketers and they conclude

that whilst the people they know are likely to consider their best interest, marketers are

seeking financial gain (Dichter, 1966). Consumers are not seen as having any financial

interest to give recommendations about products and services and this adds persuasion which

will have a positive influence on the receivers because communication from customer to

customer is more meaningful (Herr et al., 1991; Murray, 1991; Silverman, 2001). It could be

argued that it is a total different experience for people with disabilities in terms of the way

that products and services are advertised to them. Unlike for the able-bodied people who have

adverts coming at them from every different direction, people with disabilities do not and

therefore it would be difficult to say that disabled people have the same distrust in advertising

as able-bodied people do because the evidence does not support this claim.

Figure 4 (Nielsen Newswire 2012) is a graph from the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising

Survey that shows WOM to be the most trusted form of advertising globally by consumers.



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Fig. 4 Nielsen Global Trust In Advertising Survey. Q3 2011 (Nielsen Newswire 2012)

As people with disabilities are heterogeneous, there are no guarantees that WOM activity will

happen because each person has a different need from products and services therefore the

research by Gilly et al. (1998) about there being a greater opportunity of WOM activity

taking place when consumers are similar in demographic characteristics and Granovetter’s

(1973, pp. 1360 – 1380) “strong social ties”, “weak social ties” theory show that these

theories can only be applied to consumers who are homogenous, however, this is not correct

because this theory could be applied to disabled people as their friends and family could be

classed as the “strong social ties” and the experts of the products and services could be

classed as the “weak social ties”.



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NWOM on buying decisions

In this second section of the literature review a reiteration of what NWOM will be

made and how it differs from PWOM with both able-bodied consumers and consumers with

disabilities. Some considerations will be made to determine whether NWOM has more

impact on able-bodied consumers and also consumers with disabilities compared to PWOM,

and why this might be the case. Some consideration will be made about what increases

customer loyalty and how this can contribute to PWOM to influence consumers’ friends,

family and peers. A discussion will happen on how consumers’ satisfaction levels may have

an influence on PWOM. Also, it will entail a detailed examination of the theory behind how

consumers form relationships with each other in order to pass on WOM. Then it will be

conversed how damaging NWOM is for businesses and services in general and how

damaging it could be for businesses and services for people with disabilities. Finally, in this

section the notion of risk will be debated in that the ways it can be reduced in order to limit

NWOM activity and also how this can be put in practiced by businesses and services for

people with disabilities.

It is thought that PWOM is a result of satisfaction and NWOM is a result of

dissatisfaction (e.g., Goldenberg, Libai, Moldovan, & Muller, 2007; Richins, 1983). In fact, it

was found that NWOM had twice as much impact on purchase decision-making than PWOM

(Arndt 1967). However, Fiske (1980) discovered that there was more availability of negative

information than positive information as it was found that positive information is assumed,

therefore negative information is deemed to be more useful (or diagnostic) and have a bigger

impact (Feldman and Lynch, 1988; Lynch, Marmorstein and Weigold, 1988). According to

East et al (2007), consumers that passed on less PWOM also passed on less NWOM and also

those who gave NWOM were mostly on smaller brands rather than the big main brands. It

could be argued that there is little evidence that has determined whether NWOM is more

impactful than PWOM with people with disabilities, though, considering that this market

relies heavily on WOM, the businesses and services have to maintain a good reputation to be

successful, as it is a good reputation that will drive the business.



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According to Christopher et al., (1991) it is important that businesses seek to satisfy

customers, as these customers have the potential to ultimately become loyal as they progress

up the loyalty ladder as depicted in the figure below.

Figure 5 The Customer’s Loyalty Ladder.

Fig. 5 The Customer’s Loyalty Ladder (Managing Service Quality 2000)



25

(Westbrook 1987; Swan and Oliver 1989) reported that WOM came from satisfaction

levels and there was a correlation between the level PWOM and the consumers’ satisfaction

levels when they both increased. According to Buttle (1998) WOM has a higher importance

to the decision-making process when consumers are seeking to use a service compared to

buying products. It is regarded that consumers like to seek information from family, friends

and their peers rather than promotional material which is paid for by companies (Murray

1991). It could be argued that information is shared about the satisfaction and dissatisfaction

of products and services for people with disabilities which can be linked to three basic

components which are “cognitive”, “conative antecedents” or “affective reaction” according

to (Rust and Oliver. 1994; Giese and Cote, 2000), this means that consumers' reactions can

derive from a particular or a set of service encounters that are lengthy, which may lead to

intentions to repurchase making WOM distinct to loyalty (Dick and Basu, 1994, pp. 99-113;

Gremler and Brown, 1999, pp. 271-91).

In terms of the effects of NWOM Kroloff (1988) believed that written marketing

messages which are negative are four times as persuasive as messages which are positive.

East et al. (2007) found evidence that NWOM is more adjustable than PWOM when it comes

to market share. According to Atkins Limited (2010) the consumer market in the United

Kingdom consists of 10.6 million people, which is a customer base of 20% amounting to an

estimated combined annual spend of £80 billion. These figures support the notion that

businesses can be highly financially successful when marketing products and services to

people with disabilities. However, there does not appear to be much evidence that reveals

how damaging NWOM can be for these businesses and services, research needs to be

conducted into the evaluation stage of the purchase procedure.

To extend on risk, there are some key forms of risk that WOM is believed to reduce

which include “functional, time, financial, psychological and social” (Roselius, 1971, pp. 56 -

61; Settle and Alreck, 1989, pp. 34 - 40). Von Wangenheim and Bayo’n (2004) declared that

risk can be classed as functional or financial risk, which centres on products and

performance, financial loss and social or psychological risk, which focuses on the consumer

and considers results in the social environment which the consumers interact in. Consumers,

in general, may decide to trial a product at the pre-purchase stage as another measurement to



26

reduce the risk, but this is not possible when consumers are going to use a service, unless

they offer a trial period (Berry, 1980; Zeithaml, 1981; Zeithaml et al., 1985).

PWOM on buying decisions

In this final section of the literature review the difficulties in measuring WOM will be

discussed and how this was overcome by researchers measuring the probability of purchase

as a result of WOM. Then a detailed examination into how researchers actually perform the

technique will be accessed. A number of theories will be looked at to try to determine what

makes consumers convey NWOM. It will also be debated how the price of products or

service can generate both PWOM and NWOM. A detailed look into what can trigger PWOM

and NWOM among consumers. Finally, research which supports the effectiveness of market

mavenism will be discussed and then some suggestion how this technique may affect

consumers with disabilities.

Hovland (1948) established that it was most difficult to study the receiver of WOM

and their responses, later Hovland and Weiss (1951) discovered that this was because there

was a difficulty in measuring and controlling such activity. It concerns the expectations of the

receiver, if they do not receive the advice expected because it is not the same as the values of

the giver, the receiver will dislike and in turn, dismiss the WOM. The same will occur if the

receiver gets a lukewarm recommendation when they were expecting a strong one, this

relates to “damning with faint praise”, the WOM is still positive but it is communicated in a

manner which evokes the uncertainty from the receiver. However, much later it was found

that to successfully measure the probability of purchase as a result of WOM, researchers had

to measure the impact of WOM as a shift in the stated probability of purchase. The way that

this was achieved was if the PPP (pre-WOM probability of purchase) is below 0.5 there is

room to change in response to NWOM. If the PPP is 0.4, PWOM can have maximum effect

of 0.6 (up to unity), compare to NWOM that has the maximum effect of 0.4 (down to zero)

(East et al. 2008). According to Laczniak et al. (2001) consumers occasionally reacted

negatively towards received advice, and some did the total opposite and went as far as



27

becoming even more committed to a particular brand after they received the NWOM. These

findings can be linked to Brehm (1966) reactance theory which implies that reactance is a

state of arousal that has a positive effect on the up keeping of self-determination when it is

what the consumers want to do. Therefore PWOM can arouse caution if it is not received

from a trusted source. As it can be seen here the later research from East et al. (2008) built

upon the research from Hovland (1948) and also Hovland and Weiss (1951) however, when it

comes to people with disabilities, there could be other factors which may affect whether or

not WOM activity affects their buying decisions which may include whether or not the

products and services is suitable for them amongst others.

The price of products has a major impact on whether the WOM generated is positive

or negative. Research showed that the higher the price, the more chance that NWOM would

spread if the products fail to satisfy customers (Richins 1983, 1987). This is because

consumers are seeking to receive a return on the money. Moreover, Engel et al (1969) found

that there were emotional responses from consumers towards products and service

performance which generated WOM. From this evidence it can be seen that it is the

combination of price and emotion which encourages WOM activity, however this research

does not take into account people with disabilities. For the market for people with disabilities

the prices are higher for products and services in comparison to products and services for

able-bodied people, therefore more research needs to be carried out to determine the extent

that the prices of products and services has on disabled people and whether this generates

NWOM.

NWOM also derives from experiences that are outstanding, however, these

experiences are bad ones. Gremler and Brown (1999) found evidence which indicates that

there are a series of motivations (triggers), personal and situational conditions which has the

potential to lead to WOM activity. These findings can be used as mediators of the service

evaluation, which was that WOM encouraged consumers to convey their views of high or

low levels of satisfaction or evaluation of service. Promotional activity can be classed as a

WOM trigger, though studies show that this is greatly associated with negative advertising

that is however highly memorable (Mazzarol 2007). It could be argued that it would be more

likely that product and service quality would be more of a trigger for people with disabilities



28

to spread WOM rather than promotional activity even though more research is needed to

confirm this. With a market which has such specialised products, it could be to argue the case

that businesses have to keep customers’ service levels high to encourage consumers to

repurchase and spread PWOM.

Figure 6 (Mazzarol et al. 2007) depicts how triggers and conditions of the giver of WOM can

have an effect on the message, which inevitably has an effect on the receiver and the outcome

of the message.

Fig. 6 A suggested word of mouth model from Mazzarol et al. 2007: p. 1489



29

Lazarsfeld et al.’s (1948) two-step hypothesis is used by marketers which use opinion

leaders to communicate with their peers to influence their attitudes and behaviour. Katz and

Lazarsfeld (1955) research found that interpersonal communication has a role in the influence

of opinions and this is in agreement with other sociologists that note the importance of

“opinion leaders” in such a process. In the 1980s, this concept developed and the opinion

leaders were known by the term “market mavens” who are people who advise others of new

products, services and places to shop (Feick and Price, 1987; Higie et al., 1987). These pieces

of research does not access whether or not it would be beneficial for marketers to use market

mavens to market products and services to people with disabilities, these potential findings

could see a new avenue which marketers can explore when marketing products and services

to people with disabilities.

Figure 7 (Lazarsfeld et al. 1948) is a depiction of Lazarsfeld et al.’s two-step hypothesis.



30

Fig. 7 Two Step Flow Model from Lazarsfeld et al.’s 1948 (University of Twente 2014).



31

Conclusion

This comprehensive review of the literature has outlined the components of WOM

including a detailed examination of PWOM and also NWOM. The data in this review should

be taken with caution as there are limitations which will be addressed in the methodology

section of the dissertation. A criticism of the literature is that it focuses on able-bodied people

and does not take into account how different the decision making process is for people with

disabilities and the major role that WOM plays in this. Gremler and Brown’s (1999),

findings on the series of motivations (triggers), personal and situational conditions would be

key areas of research to do a further assessment, in order to discover the impact of WOM on

buying decisions for people with disabilities. Therefore, many questions remain that still need

to be addressed. Questions such as: how do people with disabilities attain and use WOM also

how effective is it, do people with disabilities seek information from experts, what source do

people with disabilities most trust etc. Granovetter’s (1973), “strong social ties” and “weak

social ties” theory can be applied to this target audience, however it needs to be determined

whether people with disabilities mostly trust the advice of their friends and family or do they

mostly trust more distant consumers or experts who may be more knowledgeable in this area.

Another unanswered question is whether the research by (Kowalski 1996; Leary and

Kowalski 1990; Richins 1984) about image-impairment concerns affects people with

disabilities opinions of products that are designed for this target market and whether this

affects the WOM activity. Also do these image-impairment concerns have any effect on the

adoption of new categories of products or brand choice for people with disabilities as the

WOM received may be different to what was expected (East et al. 2007). As social

networking have become a part of many people’s daily lives further research is needed to

understand how marketers can use this to generate WOM amongst people with disabilities.

More research is required in order to determine whether NWOM has twice as much effect on

people with disabilities as it was found to have on able-bodied people (Arndt 1967). Also,

further research should happen to establish what the sources are that are relied upon by

people with disabilities for WOM information, is it family, friends and their peers rather than

promotional material (Murray 1991). It would be worth investigating if poor service

performances encourages consumers with disabilities, who have long-term contracts, to



32

spread NWOM to other people with disabilities when their satisfaction levels are low and

whether this changes to PWOM when satisfaction levels are high (Westbrook 1987; Swan

and Oliver 1989). It was established that consumers seek information from people with

similarities to themselves, however it also need to be established whether this applies to

people with disabilities (Glaister 1974). An investigation is required to seek whether three

basic components being “cognitive”, “conative antecedents” and “affective reaction” causes

people with disabilities to make repurchases of products and services causing them to become

loyal customers, and this would encourage them to spread WOM to others (Dick and Basu,

1994, pp. 99-113; Rust and Oliver. 1994; Gremler and Brown, 1999, pp. 271-91; Giese and

Cote, 2000). Lastly, further research should be performed into what occurs when people with

disabilities receive WOM that is lukewarm, also referred to as “damming with faint praise”, it

needs to be determine whether or not this has any effects on them passing it onto other

disabled people.



33

Chapter 3. Methodology

___________________________________________________________________________

In this chapter there will be an explanation of the stages that have been undertaken to

obtain the primary research which was needed in order to answer the research question. There

will be a full and detailed rationale of the chosen research approach, sampling plan,

population, sampling method, sample size and data acquisition which will be used for this

study. A consideration of which analytical approach will be taken, the advantages and

disadvantages of choosing one approach over another and reasons why the chosen one is the

best for this particular study.

Research Approach

The chosen research approach to study this subject was qualitative as there was a need

to learn more about how people with disabilities experience with WOM. A qualitative

approach is widely used when not much is known about a topic or phenomenon and is used

when researchers want to explore and understand more about them. On the other hand, a

quantitative approach is widely used by researchers, the confirmatory scientific method,

meaning the focus of this method is to test hypotheses with empirical data in an effort to see

if they are supported. In my opinion a qualitative approach obtained an insight from the

unique perspective from the consumers with disabilities and their viewpoint of the extent that

WOM affects their buying decisions, as Weber (1968) mentioned that qualitative research is

an idea of understanding something from another person’s viewpoint. Also, as the subject of

the study was about people interacting with other people in actual situations, there was a

feeling that a qualitative approach was right for this study. This statement is aligned with the

beliefs of Guba and Lincoln (1989) which was that reality is socially constructed.



34

Selection of Participants

Below is a table of the participants’ characteristics.

Participant Age Gender Disability

1 24 Female Cerebral Palsy

2 30 Male Cerebral Palsy

3 29 Female Generalised

Muscular Dystonia

and associated

conditions

4 24 Female Cerebral Palsy

5 35 Male Multiple Sclerosis




9 25 Female Dyslexia


(with epilepsy)

11 26 – 30 Male Cerebral Palsy,

dyslexia learning

difficulties, a mental

health condition


13 27 Male Muscular Dystrophy

The selection of participants had consisted of people with disabilities aged 18 to 35

from the United Kingdom. As the core subject of the study was disability and the respondents

from the interviews all had physical disabilities, the population has been selected by a



35

purposive sampling technique called homogenous sampling which is non-probability

sampling method. Patton (1990, p. 169) explains that the key component that makes

purposeful sampling both logical and powerful is the selection of “formation-rich cases” to

perform in-depth studies on. Customers with disabilities are a heterogeneous audience as

each customer processes different needs from products and services. Also, customers with

disabilities fall into different marketing demographic categories, i.e. age, gender, income

level, race and ethnicity. This is confirmed by Franke and von Hippel (2003, p. 2) who said

that “customers for a given type of product and service can have needs that quite

heterogeneous”.

As the required respondents are from a niche audience, the sampling method that has

been used was to initially identify the participants and then contact the via the social network

website Facebook using asynchronous communication by e-mailing the interview to them on

this platform, the participants were my friends and acquaintances who have disabilities. The

plan was to email as many participants until enough responses received. The number of

participants in this study consisted of thirteen respondents who would contribute data by

taking part in e-mail interviews. The rationale behind the number of respondents was that it

would be sufficient enough to create a large amount of data which is required in order to

arrive at a definitive conclusion.

Data collection method

E-mail Interviewing

Coomber (1997) states that one of the advantages of e-mail interviewing is the

asynchronous communications of place, which was beneficial to this study as the participants

was selected from all over the United Kingdom and therefore e-mail interviews eliminated

the issue of having to meet up with them which would have been rather time consuming and

very expensive.



36

I have a disability called Cerebral Palsy and affects me as I have involuntary

movements which in turn affects the control that I have over my body when attempting to

complete tasks. My disability also affects the quality of my speech. Due to my disability, it

would take a longer period of time to complete an e-mail interview because of the

involuntary movements and also because I have poor speech and therefore I am unable to

dictate to another person what I would like to type thus it takes longer to complete typing

tasks. I also have specialist adapted equipment which includes a mini keyboard with a

keyguard and a joystick; these pieces of equipment enable me to use a standard PC. As there

may be issues with communication between some of the participants and myself due to our

disabilities, e-mail interviewing would eradicate any difficulties which may have arisen. A

major benefit in the use of e-mail interviews for this particular research was that due to the

participants’ disabilities they may have required a longer amount of time to respond to the

questions and also they were able to use any specialist equipment needed to take part in the

interview therefore it was best to allow the participants to do the interview at a place and time

that is the most convenient for them. Also, as they typed the responses to the interview

questions themselves it saved me a lot of time as there was not any need to type out what the

respondents had said.

Conducting e-mail interviews were much cheaper than doing face-to-face interviews

as there were no travel costs and no travelling which save on time as well. However, there

was a danger with this because the respondents were unsupervised thus they may have had

some difficulties in answering the questions or may have taken a long time to answer the

questions and also there is a chance that the respondents may have failed to answer the

questions at all (Kivits 2005). These issues were overcome by suggesting that the participants

got help to participate in the interview and it was imperative that there was enough time for

the participants to answer the questions so they did not feel under pressure. This reduced the

risk of the participants being hesitant to provide answers that they felt required instead of

what they truly believed. The option to use the e-mail interviewing technique reduced the

chance for the respondents to complete the interviews quickly as they had more time to

consider how they would answer the questions. However, for this study, it may be beneficial

that the respondents did have a long time to give their answers because they needed time to

reflect upon their previous buying decisions. An e-mail interview had the advantage over

face-to-face interviews in the fact that a dialogue could be developed to get more



37

information, butt the respondents did not have the pressures of providing immediate answers

(Bampton and Cowton, 2002; Kivits, 2005). When receiving back the e-mail interviews from

some of the respondents the opportunities were taken to ask further questions to obtain even

deeper information by creating a dialogue with them.

Even though there was a disadvantage of not having the social cues in e-mail

interviews, this was somewhat overcome by the use of emoticons (Opdenakker 2006). It was

beneficial to ask the respondents in this study to use emoticons because it was direct evidence

from them on what emotions they had behind the responses which they gave.

Analytical Approach

The chosen analytical approach was thematic analysis, which, in the field of research,

is thought to be the simplest and common way of analysing qualitative data. The approach

enables researchers to transfer their analysis from reading the data broadly and then to move

towards the discovery of patterns and the development of themes. This approach is

commonly used in order for researchers to get close to the data in order to develop a deeper

appreciation of the information which is within the data, the data can then be sorted, as Braun

and Clarke (2006, p. 82) explains “a theme captures something important about the data in

relation to the research question and represents some level of patterned response or meaning

within the data set.”

In order to determine the themes of the research, first researchers must sort the items

into proto-themes by organising items from the emerging themes and relate them to similar

topics transforming them into categories. Next an examination was performed to determine

how information was assigned to each proto-theme in an attempt to evaluate the current

meaning of the proto-theme. Then a name, which is provisional, and also a flexible definition

can be created and assigned to each emerging theme, as Boyatzis (1998 p. vii) explains, “this



38

may be a list of themes, a complex model with themes, indicators, and qualifications that are

causally related; or something in between these two forms”

The next stage is to do axial coding which, entails looking back over the data to re-examine

each theme separately to see if they relate to the original data and to ensure that the data is

not contradictory, thus the researcher develops "codes," words or phrases that serve as labels

for sections of data.

A deductive reasoning approach was used in order to develop a hypothesis. This

approach enabled me to find the most common links between the theory and the research.

Bryman and Bell (2011, p. 11) says that this approach works …”on the basis of what is

known about a particular domain and of theoretical considerations in relation to that domain,

deduces a hypothesis (or hypotheses) that must then be subjected to empirical scrutiny”. The

secondary research which I am enabling me to produce hypotheses to be tested on the

participants in my study. Bryman and Bell (2011, p. 11) also explain that “theory and the

hypothesis deduced from it come first and drive the process of gathering data”. The overall

goal was to generate a theory that answered the research question by finding a relationship

between various constructs or emergent ideas. This generated information about the types of

products in question which improves people with disabilities lives and that able-bodied

people do not need to buy. For instance products such as wheelchairs, adapted vehicles,

specialist software and hardware, etc. The data was analysed with the use of the computer

software program Nvivo.

Ethical Issues

The ethical issues which were apparent were with the use of Facebook to collect data

for research purposes and also the benefits of the research. The key thing to do was to make it

clear to all participants that by taking part in the email interviews, they were giving their

consent to the data received to be used for research purposes. Attaining the participants



39

consent was done by asking for it at the beginning of the interviews. A major consideration

was to make sure that the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants were upheld. This

was achieved by the participants by having direct conversations with me over Facebook then

the raw data was saved onto my external hard drive. The participants were not asked to put

their names on the interview forms which made sure that they remained anonymous.

Research Plan

May/June

Start writing the research proposal including introduction and background, literature

review, research aim and objectives and also methodology. Send a draft to my supervisor

for feedback.

July/August

Complete the research proposal and then conduct a pilot study. Send a draft to my

supervisor for feedback.

August/September

Make the necessary changes to the data collecting instrument and send a draft to my

supervisor for feedback. Commence with data collecting when I receive approval from my

supervisor.

September/October

Commerce with data analysing and recording the results.

October/November

Write the dissertation conclusion and management report.

November/December/January

Assemble dissertation, proofing/checking and submission.



40

Chapter 4. Analysis and Results

___________________________________________________________________________

This table shows how the literature links to the questions in the interview guide.

Propositions Questions Related Sources

What causes people with

disabilities to spread WOM?

Can you tell me what would

make you tell other people

about products or services?

(Mazzarol et al. 2007)

Gremler and Brown (1999)

How effective is eWOM

with consumers with

disabilities?

In what ways do you engage

with and share electronic

word-of-mouth?

(Keller and Fay, 2006)

What is the most trusted

source for people with

disabilities regarding WOM,

friends and family (strong

ties) or experts (weak ties)?

When it comes to word-of-

mouth whose information do

you trust the most, your

friends or family, or the

experts who is selling the

products? Please explain

why?

(Gilly et al. 1998)

Granovetter (1973)



41

What are the effects of high

prices of products regarding

WOM activity amongst

consumers with disabilities?

Does the high prices of

products which are

specifically made for people

with disabilities affect

whether you pass the

information onto other

people? Please explain why?

(Richins 1983, 1987)

To what extent does risk

influence WOM activity for


Do you use word-of-mouth

to reduce the risk when

purchasing these specific

products? Please explain

why you do or do not use

WOM to reduce risk?

(Roselius, 1971; Settle and

Alreck, 1989)

von Wangenheim and

Bayo’n (2004)

Roselius, (1971)

(Bone 1995)

(Dichter, 1966)

Which has the higher impact

on consumers with

disabilities, PWOM or

NWOM?

When purchasing specialist

products do you tend to

react more to positive word-

of-mouth or negative word-

of-mouth? Please explain

why?

Arndt (1967)

Fiske (1980)

(Feldman & Lynch, 1988;

Lynch, Marmorstein, &

Weigold, 1988)

(East et al. 2007)

Kroloff (1988)



42

Does WOM have a higher

effect on people’s with

disabilities than what

advertising does?

When purchasing specialist

products do you tend to

react to word-of-mouth or

advertising? Explain your

reasoning?

Sheth (1971)

Day (1971)

(Hogan et al. 2004)

Does WOM have a bigger

importance for consumers

with disabilities when they

are seeking to use a service

rather than when buying a

product?

Do you tend to seek word-

of-mouth more when you

are seeking a service to use

than when you are buying a

product? Please explain

why?

(Litvin et al., 2008; Trusov,

Bucklin, and Pauwels, 2009)

Would consumers with

disabilities benefit from trial

periods when purchasing

specialist equipment?

Would you like an

automatic option to trial

products for a period of time

before making a purchase?

How would this be a benefit

to you?

(Berry, 1980; Zeithaml,

1981; Zeithaml et al., 1985)

Which aspect of WOM is

most engaging for people

with disabilities: “the

message’s depth, intensity,

and vividness“, “highly

evocative words or phrases”,

“pleasurable, social and

humorous experiences for

both the giver and

receiver”?

What aspect of word-of-

mouth most makes you want

to engage with it: if the

message is deep, strong, and

attractive; if there is a lot of

suggestive words or phrases;

or if the experience between

you and the giver is

pleasurable, social,

humorous etc? Please

comment:

(Mazzarol, et al. 2006)

Anderson (1998)



43

Does WOM have a strong

influence on “value ratings”

and does this leads to the

“likelihood of purchase” for


Do you give value ratings to

brands and services? Please

explain how value ratings

affect the decision to buy a

product of use a service?

Arndt (1967)

Is WOM most important for


in the final stages of

purchase?

Please explain when you

would consider word-of-

mouth to be most important

when making a purchase?

Martilla (1971)

Kotler and Armstrong

(2012)

Khalid et al. (2013)

(Schiffman and Kanuk,

2010)

Does NWOM prevent

people with disabilities from

purchasing products?

Please explain how negative

word-of-mouth affects you

when making a purchase?

Hovland (1948)

Hovland and Weiss (1951)

To what extent do emotions

generate WOM activity

towards products and

services performance

between consumers with

disabilities?

Would you agree that your

emotions would drive you to

generate word-of-mouth

activity in regards to

products and service

performance? Please explain

why?

Engel et al. (1969)



44

Would people with

disabilities benefit from

“market mavens”?

How would you benefit

from people with disabilities

who are in the media

spotlight relying information

about the availability and

quality of products and

services that are on the

market?

Lazarsfeld et al. (1948)

Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955)

(Feick and Price, 1987;

Higie et al., 1987)

Walsh et al. (2004)

The results from the data - the themes and sub-themes

The themes of significance in the responses:

Advantages of WOM:

WOM is more effective than advertising:

Seven respondents thought that WOM was more effective than advertising when it

came to specialised equipment and services. Some of the things mentioned was that WOM is

more engaging than advertising because WOM results from conversations between people,

whereas advertising is just a one-way process which is easier to avoid and not pay any

attention to which is in agreement with the research by Allsop et al. who found that

consumers began to distrust advertising over a period of time, causing them to seek

information via WOM. Engaging with WOM was also focal to the research of (Bansal and

Voyer, 2000; East, 2003; Gremler, 1994) who found that when WOM was sought for and

engaged in then the information was attained was more effective. Results showed that



45

because advertising is just everywhere these days the trust of the consumers has gone in

advertising as consumers are wising up to the practice that companies pay for advertising and

therefore these respondents put a higher trust into WOM than advertising. Promotions and

deals have become highly frequent in recent times and the novelty of having them has worn

thin according to some of the respondents, this is another reason that WOM has become more

effective than advertising and can be linked to the research by (Mazzarol 2007).

It could be a good estimation that advertising is more effective on able-bodied people

than people with disabilities. This is because the products and services as are specifically

designed for people with disabilities need to be advertised in a way that promotes their

practical uses, whereas advertising products and services for an able-bodied target audience

can focus on their desires.

WOM obtained before purchase to reduce risk:

Thirteen respondents indicated that they obtained WOM prior to making purchases of

products and services for people with disabilities to reduce risk. Some believed that it was

vital to do this in order to discover whether or not products or services would be suitable for

them. Some said they look at reviews about products and services in the pre-purchase phase

to determine whether they should invest in a product or service. Some admitted to asking

other consumers who they knew used similar products and services about their positive or

negative experiences and whether or not they would recommend them. All of the prior

information was in agreement with the research by Murray (1991) who found that consumers

sought the opinions of other consumers before making the decision to make a purchase or not

to protect themselves from the unknown. Many of the respondents mentioned that they are

making a substantial investment when they purchase products and services which are

designed for people with disabilities and therefore they could not want to make purchasing



46

mistakes. One respondent in particular gave a detailed account of when they purchased a stair

lift mentioning that they asked many questions about safety.

Based on the findings, it could be argued that when it comes to obtaining WOM

information prior to making purchases, there was no difference between consumers with

disabilities and able-bodied people. The results from both pieces of research echoed each

other which goes some way to confirming that both sets of consumers generally seek WOM

in the pre-purchasing phase of buying products or services in order to reduce risk.

PWOM:

The benefits of PWOM:

The data indicate that PWOM has an effect on people with disabilities as six

respondents said that it had an effect upon them. Some said that PWOM was most helpful to

them when purchasing products or services for people with disabilities because it usually

came from somebody they trusted. Some said that hearing PWOM would make them feel

more positive about the products and services which matches up with Brehm’s (1966)

reactance that as the PWOM information seems to arouse these respondents which gives

them the self-determination to purchase products and services. This encourages consumers’

satisfaction levels to increase (Westbrook 1987; Swan and Oliver 1989).

As the same was found amongst able-bodied consumers, consumers with disabilities

did not consider PWOM to be beneficial at a universal level. This could be because

consumers are heterogeneous whether they have a disability or not therefore some consumers

may react favourably to PWOM whereas others may become sceptical about the information

in which they are receiving.



47

Market Mavens:

The benefits of market mavens with disabilities:

There was a fairly high response to this questions with seven responses in favour that

people with disabilities would find having market mavens with disabilities beneficial. The

overall comments were that it would be useful to obtain information from people and

celebrities with disabilities as it would give consumers opinions from people who would have

had first-hand experience with the products and services, it would enable these people to

relay messages to the consumers which would inform them whether or not a product or

service is worth purchasing. This was summed up by one of the respondents who said that “I

would benefit a lot from that, as those people understand the problems and understand which

things are important, I would value their opinion a lot”. This finding is in agreement with the

research about market mavenism by (Lazarsfeld et al. 1948: Kats and Lazarsfeld 1955) in

that it would benefit people with disabilities if celebrities with disabilities gave their opinions

about the products and services which are on the market.

It was also mentioned by one respondent that having market mavens for specialised

products for people with disabilities would improve the knowledge of their availability as the

existence of these products and services are not always well-known. Also it was discussed

that this would improve the trust between them and the companies because they would trust

that the market mavens were being truthful. A couple of the respondents mentioned that they

would benefit from the existence of market mavens with disabilities because the market

mavens would have a unique understanding of their problems, situation and which things are

important which may not be noticed by able-bodied market mavens, therefore they would

highly value the opinions of the market mavens. Many marketers use market mavens to

market products and services because it has proved to be a success over many years. With the

high response in this study of respondents indicating that they would like to see more market

mavens with disabilities, there would be a good chance that this marketing technique would

be successful in putting the spotlight on the market for products and services for people with

disabilities.



48

Would not benefit from market maven

On the other hand, there were six respondents who thought that they would not have

any benefit from the existence of market mavens with disabilities. Three of the respondents

mentioned that it would be difficult to trust the messages, with one saying that “I would be

suspicious of whether that individual is being sponsored the company involved and may not

give the views the same value, as I would with others”. Two respondents commented that the

mere fact that a market maven happened to have a disability would not have a big influence

whether or not they brought a product or used a service as further explained by this

respondent “I don’t think this would have a massive influence on me, I would just treat it as if

a non-celebrity had reviewed the product or service”.

As in any heterogeneous group of people some disabled people have opposing opinions of

other disabled people. This can be seen here with the almost equal amount of opposing views

over whether market mavens would be beneficial to them. This would be the same as an able-

bodied group of people in that not all of them would have the same point of view.

NWOM:

NWOM is more effective than PWOM:

Again the response was high towards this question with seven of the respondents

indicating that that they thought it to be true that NWOM is more effective than PWOM

which is in agreement with the research by Arndt (1967) who found that there was twice as

much impact which NWOM had on consumers compared to PWOM. One of the respondents

mentioned that they tended to be overly cautious thus that contributed to the way that they

reacted to NWOM. Another respondent alluded to that they believed it to be human nature to



49

remember bad things more than good things this may be because of what Fiske (1980) found

that negative information is my available as positive information is assumed thus NWOM

may just be natural for humans to share and it has a bigger impact on consumers as was also

found by (Feldman and Lynch, 1988; Lynch, Marmorstein and Weigold, 1988). Somebody

else thought that negative views tended to be more realistic and unbiased. Many of the

respondents said that they used NWOM as a form of protection or warning sign against

purchasing products or services which are not suited to them. All of the previous thoughts

and beliefs are probably the sorts of issues which contributed to the Kroloff (1988) principle

which is that written marketing messages which are negative are four times as persuasive as

messages which are positive because consumers are inclined to protect themselves from bad

situations such as making poor purchases. As it can be seen that the majority of the

participates were in agreement with the prior research on able-bodied people in that NWOM

has more of an effect on them than what PWOM does.

The effects of NWOM:

There was generally an agreement amongst a very high percentage of the respondents

that the effects of NWOM puts them off buying products or services. Most of the respondents

said that receiving NWOM would either cause them to re-evaluate their purchasing decisions

by looking at the competing products or services which are in the market or it would put them

off purchasing a product and service altogether which matches the finding by Laczniak et al.

(2001) as they found this to be the case in their studies.

Results showed that the source is important which the NWOM has derived from as

many of the respondents mentioned, if they was receiving NWOM from many sources, this

would then be a turn-off for them, also one respondent said that they receive their NWOM

specifically from their parents and therefore they go along with what they hear unless they try

the products or services themselves. This relates to Granovetter’s theory as this respondent

said receive NWOM from their parents and then they relay the NWOM information to other

people with disabilities that they feel close to (Kowalski 1996; Richins1984). One respondent



50

said that NWOM would make them investigate about the products and services further by

obtaining information from experts, researching online reviews, etc.

These results would replicate findings from research involving able-bodied people as

was seen in the literature review because the evidence shows that NWOM serves to put off

people from purchasing products and services no matter if they have disabilities or not.

Obtaining Information:

How information is obtained about services:

Some of the responses were quite varied in this theme, although ten out of the thirteen

respondents mentioned other online sources or social media such as Facebook or Twitter. The

high number of respondents shows that consumers with disabilities actively seek information

which they do presumably be proactive which accordingly to a number of researchers makes

the information that is attained more effective (e.g. Bansal and Voyer, 2000; East, 2003;

Gremler, 1994). Eight of the respondents said that they would have a face-to-face

conversation with a mixture of friends, experts (Occupational Therapists, Social Workers,

specialists, remedial teachers) about services that are available to them. Other ways of

obtaining information which was mentioned by some respondents, five said that they did it

over the phone one said that they visited Naidex the exhibition show. From these findings, it

was evident that the respondents found information more creditable from people without any

commercial connections such as friends rather than experts which is in correlation with the

research by Vazquez-Casielles et al. (2013) which confirms this.

Nowadays most people have become increasingly proactive in terms of seeking

information for products and services thanks to the internet. It could be said that the internet



51

actually helps to put disabled and able-bodied consumers level with each other because

everybody has the opportunity to search for and buy products and services when they wish.

Information about specialist products on the market:

The majority of the respondents said that they sought information about wheelchairs

with eleven out of the thirteen respondents mentioning this, whether it was purchasing them

or repairing them at wheelchair services and dealerships. Five respondents mentioned that

they sought information about independent living and mobility products or assistive living

aids such as feeding equipment, scooters, armchairs, grab railings, environmental control

systems, intercoms and specialised kitchen appliances. Three of the respondents mentioned

specialised hardware and software for their computers, one said that they ask others about

accessible iPads amongst other specialist computer equipment from companies who provide

them, another respondent mentioned that they have enquired about computer assistive

software and hardware, the last respondent mentioned that they sought information about

technology products to help with their dyslexia during studies.

Generally people with disabilities have to go to specialist companies and agencies to

purchase suitable products and services which meet their required needs. This is not normally

a problem for able-bodied people who usually have a wide range of products and services to

choose from. This is why the internet along with WOM is so important to people with

disabilities in order to obtain information about specialist products and services.

The best way for WOM to be obtained:

There was a high response to this question with ten out of the thirteen people

responding however opinions were split. Five of the respondents said that the best way for



52

them to obtain WOM was through electronic forms, i.e. over the telephone, via email or

social media, it was said that this way allowed for speed, convenience, independence and it is

more targeted. This was also found by Mazzarol et al. (2007) as they found that when a

person receives WOM, they then pass it on to one other person or many other people and this

allows the process of WOM to have speed, convenience, independence and to be more

targeted because of its “snowball effect”. On the other hand, four of the respondents said

through the people who they know whether that was their friends or when they met up with

people who have similar difficulties, it was said it is easier to trust the source this way

because they can be questioned more directly and it is quicker to get the answers required,

one of the respondents mentioned that they had difficulties with reading thus obtaining

information about products and services face-to-face eliminates this problem. When people

with disabilities meet up with other people with disabilities it increases the chances of “the

hypothesis of homogeneous mixing” happening because the chances of those people passing

on WOM information to other people with disabilities are heightened because of their wider

social relationships with the broader community of people with disabilities. (Glaister, 1974,

pp. 139-156.)

On the whole people with disabilities communicate with each other in the same manner as

able-bodied people. As it can be seen in the results it comes down to the choice of the

individual person in how they receive WOM rather than whether or not or not they have a

disability.

The times when WOM is sought for:

When WOM is considered the most important in the buying process:

Again, there was a very high percentage of respondents who supplied data to this

question, out of the thirteen there was twelve. Nine out of eleven said that WOM is most

important to them in the pre-purchase phase when deciding on which products to buy or



53

services to use. Research shows that WOM is considered more in the pre-purchase stage of

the buying process because there is more scope to respond to NWOM (East et al. 2008). A

couple of the respondents mentioned quite significant products, for example, one said that

they considered WOM to be most important when buying a car or a house and the other one

said when buying a wheelchair, seating or a car.

In general WOM is sought for in the pre-purchase phase of the buying process and

this is a universal practice amongst both people with disabilities and also able-bodied people

because the buying procedure is the same amongst both of the sets consumers WOM is used

in the same way.

WOM is sought for more when using services than when buying products:

There was a fairly high response to this question with seven responses out of the

thirteen. The general consensus was that because when signing up with a service they are

entering into a long-term contract, this finding is backed up by research by Buttle (1998) who

found that WOM was more important when consumers were seeking to use services than

buying products. Therefore, it is more important to seek WOM when seeking to use a service

in order evaluate a service as was also found by (Litvin et al., 2008; Trusov, Bucklin, and

Pauwels, 2009). Three people mentioned that as products are tangible objects it is a more

personal opinion but to use a service what they offer is more generalised WOM is more

effective and easier to come by. Giving that the primary research echoed the secondary

research suggests that both disabled and able-bodied people think that it is more important to

seek WOM when buying services than when buying products.



54

The participates’ preferred tone of message by experts and salespeople which may

generate WOM:

There was a very mixed reaction to the consumers’ preferred tone of message by

experts and salespeople which may generate WOM with eight out of the thirteen respondents.

The main consensus was that a lot of the respondents said that they like when the message is

confident, serious and liable. These findings could be measured by the two-construct model

by Harrison-Walker (2001) which is used to measure organisations’ WOM activity,

specifically the frequency, number of people told and detail, and also WOM praise which

specifically looks at favourability and pride. If the experts and salespeople approach

consumers with disabilities messages which are considered to be confident, serious and liable

then this would encourage the consumers pass on WOM “praise” and “valence” which is

positive (Mazzarol et al. 2006, p. 2).

It could be argued that some people may prefer to receive WOM messages differently

compared to others. Ultimately, experts and salespeople are trying to get to potential

consumers to spend their money, thus if the experts and salespeople approach to the

consumers is confident, serious and liable this will undoubtedly reassure consumers, whether

they have disabilities or are able-bodied, that they can trust them, which in term is more

likely to spread PWOM.

Online:

This question generated a high response with ten out of the thirteen respondents. Two

respondents mentioned about their mobility problems and expressed that the internet is an aid

which assists them to access information. One of the quotes reads as follows: “I would say

online, due to my disability which is Cerebral Palsy, I have difficulties with my mobility and

speech so it is easier to communicate with people on the internet.”



55

The ways that eWOM is shared:

There were ten responses out of the thirteen which is again very high, who discussed

the ways that they shared eWOM. All of the respondents mentioned some sort of

communication online, whether it was social media networking, blogs, e-mailing, Skyping,

text messaging or via Google. Five of the respondents mentioned that they shared eWOM

over the telephone. This piece of research differs from the research which was conducted by

Keller and Fay (2006, pp. 31-41.) who found back then only 8% of people (not specifically

people with disabilities) obtained eWOM that was Web mediated.

The effects of consumers' disabilities to receive WOM:

As all thirteen respondents in the study had disabilities, all thirteen of them were able

to contribute data on how their disabilities affected the way that they received WOM about

products and services for people with disabilities. Six of the respondents mentioned that they

relied on electronic devices in order to receive WOM whether this was in the form of the

internet in general, i.e. online reviews or forums, Facebook, video chat or voice over IP. As

one of the respondents explains “having Cerebral Palsy affects my mobility and speech. I

don’t receive word-of-mouth over the phone because I don’t use the phone unless I have to. I

don’t meet up with other people with disabilities much as it is hard to do this due to my

mobility problems and the amount of effort that it takes to arrange to meet up with them, e.g.

organising care, transport etc. It is much easier to go on Facebook and blogging websites and

receive word-of-mouth information in that way”.

It is clear that people’s disabilities can affect the way that they receive WOM. As it

was found that many people with disabilities engage with WOM via some sort of electronic

form it is important that this is enabled to happen more by creating more portals online and

offline in order for people with disabilities to receive WOM information, as it is already done

by mainstream and some businesses and services for people with disabilities. This is what



56

Khalid et al. (2013) and Schiffman and Kanuk (2010) is getting at that marketers need to

continually perform market research to monitor the factors which influence consumers’

buying decisions which can also identify whether a marketing plan is working.

Social Media:

Nine out of the thirteen respondents mentioned that they used social media to obtain

information about products and services for people with disabilities. One of the respondents

said that “as I said previously I use Facebook a lot, I also look at blogs on the internet as it

can be useful to get a wider view on products and services from other people that I don’t

know.” This respondent’s opinion is in alignment with the research by Bickart and Schindler

(2001) because there is an agreement that information which is found on social networking

websites about products and services is more credible as a wider view as there are comments

from many other people available who have had experience with the products and services.

Thanks to the internet, and especially social networking websites, it has become very easy for

people to receive and share information about products and services. Both disabled and able-

bodied people can find out information about specific products and services which may not

be as easy to obtain without the internet and social networks, thus it could be argued that both

disabled and able-bodied people benefit from the communication about products and services

which takes place online.

Price:

Not affected by price:



57

Six respondents articulated that the high prices of products and services for people

with disabilities does not discourage them from passing on information if they think that the

recipients would benefit from the products or services. As one respondent explains “no it

does not. If I think other people could benefit from the information and products, then I

would tell them. Such as telling my friend about the Blue Badge Parking Scheme of the UK.

He is almost entirely blind and not physically disabled, but even so. I would tell people the

cost of such products of course, but what they do with the information is their business. It is

however my belief that it’s of people’s right to know.”

As it can be seen around half of the respondents were not affected by the high prices

of the products and services for people with disabilities. This finding shows that it is an

individual choice whether one chooses to share WOM information about products or services

which is universal no matter if the person that disabled or not.

The negative effects that high prices has on WOM:

The response was quite good to this question about the negative effects of the high

prices of the products and services for people with disabilities sparking six respondents out of

the thirteen responding to it. All of these respondents were in agreement that the high prices

of the products and services for people with disabilities would cause them to think hard

whether or not they should pass on WOM information to other people with disabilities but

half of the respondents said that they would pass on WOM information regardless of the high

prices. One of the respondents said “yes, when prices are too high, it is more difficult to use

the product or service and therefore becomes less accessible.” By this quote from the

interviewee it is evident that NWOM could derive from their feelings which was also the

findings from some research by Richins (1983, 1987) who found that there is a higher chance

that NWOM would spread if high priced products fail to meet customers’ satisfaction.



58

It is evident that if products and services are highly priced and do not meet the consumers’

needs then more than likely this would cause the consumers to spread NWOM. This would be

the same whether or not the consumers have disabilities because it is human nature for people

to want to express their feelings when they believe that they have been done a wrong.

The external factors that affect WOM:

The effects of consumers' emotions on WOM activity:

There was a very good response to this question with thirteen respondents

commenting. Four respondents mentioned that a bad experience with a product or service

would make them have negative emotions and be a cause for them to spread NWOM. On the

other hand, four respondents mentioned that products and services which prove to be good

would make them generate PWOM. The previous two findings confirms the research by

Engel et al. (1969) when they found that consumers’ emotional responses towards products

and services generated WOM activity. The following statement from one of the respondents

gives a good explanation “most definitely, especially with me, my emotions are powerful and

can really affect the way I feel and what I say to people. If I am angry with a product or

service I will tell people not to use it or them .if I am pleased this can sometimes work in the

opposite way. However, I am more likely to remember and generate negative feedback as

appose to positive if I’m being honest. I think this is because it is far easier to remember bad

experiences than good experiences I think this is because for some reason people tend to

remember bad experiences far more than they do good ones”. As it can been seen in the

response by this respondent negative feedback is more memorable than positive to them

which matches what was found by Kroloff (1988) that written marketing messages which are

negative are four times as persuasive as messages which are positive.

It is clear to see that the purchases of products and services has an effect on

consumers’ emotions no matter whether they have a disability or not. Buying new products



59

and services are usually exciting times for consumers thus if things are successful some

people may want to tell others, but on the other hand if products and services fail to meet

consumers’ needs and desires usually emotions heighten and people tell others about their

bad experiences to regain some control over the situation.

Trial periods:

Option of trial periods when purchasing products:

Most of the respondents indicated that they would want an option of a trial period

when purchasing products for people with disabilities. The response was strong with ten out

of the thirteen respondents in favour of this proposal. Five of the respondents mentioned that

this notion would be a protection for them against wasting money on products that turn out to

not be suitable for them. This is summed up by one of the respondents as they said “yes

because if the product does not meet my requirements it will save me money. If I get a

chance to try the product it will reduce the risk of wasting money”. This is confirmed by the

studies by Roselius, (1971, pp. 56 – 61) and Settle and Alreck, (1989, pp. 34 – 40) who

discovered that finances was one of the key aspects that form the risks of making a purchase

which was also confirmed by von Wangenheim and Bayo’n (2004). From the respondents’

high reaction in favour of having trial periods for products which are in the market backs up

the research by Berry, (1980); Zeithaml, (1981); Zeithaml et al., (1985) and shows that

consumers are wanting to have trial periods when purchasing products.

It can be quite easy for able-bodied people trial products or services, whether it is in a shop,

through friends or family or on a longer term basis. However it is not this easy for people

with disabilities to trial products and services because many have particular needs which have

to be met. This could be the reason that there was such a positive response from the

participants to this question.



60

Trust:

Trust friends and existing users:

It is clear that the majority of the respondents in the study trust their friends’ and

existing users of products or services WOM information over other people’s as eleven

respondents out of the thirteen indicated this to be the case. The general consensus was that

this is because their friends and the existing users also have disabilities and therefore are

more likely to have experienced using the products and services which qualifies them to have

more worthy opinions. One of the respondents said that “I have high trust in my friends who

have disabilities because they go through the same experiences that I do so they would know

which products have worked well for them and which has not so I would trust their first-hand

experiences of the products”. These findings are confirmed by previous research by Litvin et

al., (2008); Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels, (2009) who argued of there being a possibility that

consumers could extensively rely on PWOM or NWOM messages in order to evaluate a

service brand. Also it is likely that WOM activity would take place between friends and also

existing users of products and services as they are likely to have similar demographic

characteristics which was also found by Gilly et al. (1998).

Trust family:

On the other hand six respondents from the thirteen mentioned that they trusted their

family members’ WOM advice over other people’s when it came to advice about the

purchasing products and services for consumers with disabilities. Most of the six respondents

mentioned that this is because family members are the people who know them the best and

therefore are most likely to pass on WOM information which would benefit them the best.



61

This is summed up very well by one of the respondents who said that “my family without a

doubt as they are the people who know me best and have my wellbeing at heart also they are

with me in different environments where the product may be used as opposed to the place

where it is demonstrated by the salesperson”.

There was a significant number of respondents which indicated that consumers with

disabilities had higher trust in their friends and family over experts. This confirms the

research which highlights the importance of the closeness of the relationship which was

central to the studies by Engel et al. (1969) and their theory of “homophily” findings.

Therefore with these findings it can be seen that both disabled and able-bodied people have

more trust in their friends and family over the experts of products and services.

Words and phrases:

From the reaction to this question it is evident that it is important to the target

audience how information about products and services for people with disabilities is

delivered to them and that this may affect whether or not they pass on the information. The

consensus was that if messages are reliable, clear, descriptive and not too suggestive then it

would be more likely that the information would be trusted and passed on. One of the

respondent said that “no I wouldn’t be because using a lot of suggestive words and phrases

would make me feel like I was being advertised to and just being encouraged to buy

something rather than being given information about products and services to help address

my needs”. These findings adds to the existing findings by Anderson (1998, pp. 5-17)

described WOM as “vivid” and “novel” experiences and also the research from Nisbett and

Ross, (1980, p. 45) who commented that WOM was vivid because its information was strong

as in “emotionally interesting” and “imagery provoking” and “proximate in a sensory,

temporal or spatial way”.



62

Normally, it could be said that some sort of buzz is needed for WOM to spread. However

from the feedback received from the study’s respondents it is not really about the buzz, rather

it is about the qualities in the message i.e. whether it is reliable, clear, descriptive and not too

suggestive, this is more likely to encourage people with disabilities to pass on WOM.



63

This chart represents the responses to the interviews:



64

Chapter 5. Conclusion

___________________________________________________________________________

The summary of the conclusion

This dissertation has a combination of secondary and primary research which are the

sources that the information derived from. Throughout this paper, research has taken place to

evaluate the subject of disability and also the broad subject of WOM including PWOM and

NWOM to answer the research question “to what extent does WOM have on the purchasing

decisions of people with disabilities?” The contribution to the field is the new found

knowledge which is in this paper of the how people with disabilities engage with WOM when

seeking information to purchase a product or a service.

An explanation of what was researched and how it was carried out

In the introduction to the dissertation research took place in order to provide a

background for the dissertation. To achieve this research was carried out on the internet

firstly to seek the definition of “disability” and also to find out what the communication

industry was. Some of the key drivers were identified which are used as platforms to enable

products and services to be marketed to people with disabilities. To finish the introduction

some definitions were provided which was taken from scholars in order to define WOM and

consumer behaviour.

In the literature review and the methodology chapters there were a broad range of

academic journals including seminal papers, books and websites which were used. The



65

sections in this paper are quite focused and therefore it was possible to zone into specific

areas of theory after doing a wider research.

Actual data was collected for the primary research. To do these friends and

acquaintances were relied upon to provide the data which were required, i.e. how WOM

affected their purchasing decisions. This was carried out by developing a writing interview

and conducting it over the social media website Facebook.

The main findings of the research

The chapter contained data of the existing market of products for people with

disabilities and also the number of its market size, also it contained clear definitions of the

two main subjects in the paper which was WOM and consumer behaviour.

The second chapter was the literature review where there was a detailed examination

of WOM. In this part it was found that WOM conversations derives naturally between a giver

and a receiver and also consumers of products and services generally conversed with each

other and naturally pass on WOM messages about available products and services.

Conversations can develop socially and nowadays it is common to use social networking

websites, these social networking websites are likely to be more credible because they are

coming from the consumers themselves rather than the businesses and services. Evidence was

found in the literature that showed that there are a series of motivations (triggers), and

personal, and situational conditions which has the potential to lead to WOM activity. It was

also found that these conditions could be used as mediators of the service evaluation which,

in turn, could encourage consumers to convey their views of high or low levels of satisfaction

or evaluation of service.



66

The findings in the NWOM part were that there is limited research in this area, but the

main findings were that NWOM has twice the impact on consumers’ decision making

process than what PWOM has and the reason for this is because it is more available and

therefore more useful. A correlation was found in the literature that showed consumers that

spread less PWOM also spread less NWOM and this was on smaller brands. Research

showed that consumers like to seek information from family, friends and their peers rather

than promotional material which is paid for by companies compared to people who they do

not know. Also, there was evidence found that when existing customers' levels are high, then

PWOM will be passed on. In this chapter there in many theories discussed, including “the

hypothesis of homogeneous mixing” when consumers may seek advice from another

consumer with similar needs and also discussed was the impact of “conative antecedents” on

purchasing decisions.

The third and final part of the literature review looked at PWOM. The main findings

were that it was still possible for consumers to have a negative reaction to PWOM especially

if the particular product or service receives a “damming with faint praise” which is a

lukewarm recommendation. However, on the other end of the scale, it was found that PWOM

can cause a state of arousal when received from a trusted source which fuels the receiver’s

self-determination. A detailed examination was performed to look into what causes WOM to

be passed on.

The main findings were: WOM was more effective than advertising when it came to

specialised equipment and services. There was a high indication that consumers with

disabilities had higher trust in their friends and family over experts. However, it was

important how the WOM information was delivered especially from the experts themselves,

there was a preference for the message to be reliable, clear, descriptive and not too

suggestive, this will increase the consumers’ trust in the WOM message and thus it would

increase the likeliness of the consumers passing messages on. In regards to when consumers

make purchases, the data demonstrated that the preferred tone of message that experts and

salespeople delivered to the consumers would be confident, serious and liable, this would

encourage the consumers to spread PWOM. It was found that NWOM was thought to be

more effective than PWOM which resulted in NWOM putting consumers off from buying



67

products or services. It was learnt that NWOM from many sources, this would then be a

turn-off for them.

There was a preference of receiving WOM information through conversations face-to-

face with their friends or some experts, the most common product which the respondents

sought information for were wheelchairs, whether it was information about purchasing them

or repairing them. However, the majority of the respondents showed higher trust in friends

and existing users of products and services over the experts and salespeople because their

friends and the existing users have experience in using the products and services which puts

them in a position to have worthy and unbiased opinions. The participants also indicated that

WOM was sought for online to search for WOM information about specialist products and

services for people with disabilities. Also, it was that social media was used to get

information about products and services for people with disabilities. Further investigations

revealed that people with disabilities received eWOM through different avenues online i.e.

online reviews or forums, Facebook, video chat or voice over IP.

It was discovered that people with disabilities preferred to obtain WOM in the pre-

purchasing phase of buying products and services in order to reduce the risk of buying

products or signing up to services that are not suited to them. High prices of products and

services has a negative effect on people with disabilities, however it was learnt that the

information would still be passed on via WOM to other people. Another marketing practice

would have the potential to spread WOM is market mavenism.

The best way for them to obtain WOM was via electronic, i.e. over the telephone or

via e-mail or forms of social media. The online resources include social media such as

Facebook or Twitter this makes information which is obtained more effective. The online

sources which are used are social media networking, blogs, e-mailing, Skyping, text

messaging or via Google. Five of the respondents mentioned that they shared eWOM over

the telephone.



68

The original contribution and significance of this piece of research to the field

The research in this dissertation is an original contribution to knowledge. There was a

gap in the knowledge of the extent that WOM had on the purchasing decisions of people with

disabilities. This piece of research has unearthed many examples of how the practice of

marketing could be improved to encourage PWOM amongst people with disabilities and

minimise NWOM. This would increase the chances of people with disabilities seeking and

sharing WOM information amongst each other which may have a positive affect their

purchasing decisions of specialist products and services.



69

Chapter 6. Limitations and further research

___________________________________________________________________________

Limitations

Lack of prior research studies on the topic

There was a limited amount of information about the extent that WOM had on people with

disabilities when purchasing products and services and therefore the secondary research

which was gathered from the literature review was based upon consumers in general and not

specifically consumers with disabilities.

Self-reported data

As the data collected was self-reported it is limited because it was not independently verified.

The e-mail interviews were sent out to the participants via the social networking website

Facebook thus the participants were unsupervised while taking part in the interviews and

therefore a certain level of trust had to place in the participants to trust that the data they were

supplying was accurate. There are several potential sources of biases which could have

limited the quality of the data and these are: if the participants have selective memories,

telescoping which means that the participants could have got confused and recalled events

that may have occurred one time, but believing that it occurred again at a different time, and

finally another factor of the limitation to the study could be caused by the participants

exaggerating that events were more significant than what they really was in reality

Further Research

The unanticipated findings



70

There were a number of unanticipated findings in the results of the data. In the literature, it

was found that the majority of consumers trusted WOM information from friends and family

members over the experts and salespeople of the products and services. However, five out of

thirteen of the participants in the study mentioned that they most trusted the experts and

salespeople which was unanticipated because of the number is quite high thus there could be

a cause for further research to be performed here.

The second unanticipated finding to come out of the data was that there were five

participants who mentioned that they would put their trust into experts on the products and

services over everybody else when it came to listening to WOM information, further research

may be worth performing to determine how significant this finding is and if anything can be

done to increase the trust in experts in order to encourage higher levels of WOM activity

amongst people with disabilities.

Another avenue of possible further research is to assess the usefulness of value ratings of

products and services for people with disabilities and what affect that they have on WOM

activity as just three of the respondents said that they used them.

The final unanticipated finding to come out of this research was that six of the respondents

were not put off of sharing information even if the products and services were highly priced,

further research should be performed to determine how effective this WOM information is in

terms of whether it leads to purchases being made.

The remaining unanswered questions and suggested research strategy

In terms of the research question further research could be performed to examine how much

does the post-purchasing stage of the buying process have on the WOM activity of people

with disabilities and whether or not it affects them passing on information to other people. To

do this the suggested research strategy would be to perform some observation research in



71

order to explore what events occur during the purchasing phase in order for WOM activity to

be generated and shared in the post-purchase phase. The suggested analytical approach could

be a qualitative or a quantitative one. This approach would allow researchers to observe

people with disabilities, making purchases and then assess what encourages them to pass on

WOM.



72

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Appendices

Appendix A

Sub-themes and Outliers

Sub-themes:

For findings with a low percentage of agreement from respondents.

Theme one:

Advertising is more effective than WOM

Five respondents mentioned positive things about advertising. Two of the respondents

mentioned that they used advertising to make cross references in order to make a judgement

and to make a purchasing decision on products and services for people with disabilities. The

three other respondents were more in favour for adverts for products and services with one

commenting that “adverts are rare but can be powerful”.

In the mainstream world advertising is everywhere and it general works on people’s

desires and wants which has a great potential to spread WOM. With advertising products and

services for people with disabilities, there have to be a need for the product or service present

or else the desire would not be generated for them.

Theme two:



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Trust experts:

Five respondents mentioned that they would put their trust into the experts over

everybody else when it came to listening to WOM information. The general consensus was

that this is because they feel that the experts know everything about the products and

therefore trust that they would provide them with good knowledge. One of the comments

from a respondent was “I would choose the experts because they know more about the

product”. Some result from three of the respondents went towards explaining was what the

expected experiences between the consumer and the salesperson, the words that were

generated were “polite”, “informative”, “social”, “functional”, “humorous”, and

“pleasurable”.

It is very much a personal choice whether to put trust in experts, it is clear that these five

respondents benefit from the expertise of salespeople even though they are not particularly

personally close to them which Granovetter (1973) called “weak social ties” theory.

Theme three:

Ratings:

In terms of using value ratings as a form of WOM, three questions were asked to the

respondents. Firstly, it needed to be found out whether the respondents looked at value

ratings from other consumers on products and services for people with disabilities and then it

needed to be known whether or not the respondents passed on their own value ratings to other

people with disabilities to obtain an understanding of the extent that information from value

ratings has on the influence of people with disabilities buying products or services. Just three

out of the thirteen respondents said that they consulted value ratings to compare products and



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services, one of the respondents said that “they help massively particularly if you are

comparing similar products each person has different priorities and needs so they can be very

useful”.

Four out of the thirteen respondents said that they gave value ratings. The general

consensus was illustrated by a comment made by one of the respondents who said that value

ratings can be “very helpful to get an actual perspective on other people’s views on products

and services”. On the other hand, six out of the thirteen respondents reported that they did not

give value ratings for products and services and this seemed to be because they placed more

confidence in WOM, advertising and previous experiences as explained further by one of the

respondents “I don’t, really. I would attach value based on WOM, advertising and my

previous experience of similar products, as well as the advice of sales people (this might be

WOM) and try to make an informed decision this way. I don’t know of, for instance, disabled

consumer websites or magazines that I would trust or value”.

As it can be seen the responses were low when it came to the subject of value ratings. There

was some positivity around the fact that they can help consumers compare similar products

and services against one and another. Respondents were not so keen on giving value ratings

on products and services either with six out of the thirteen indicating that they did not give

value ratings. This could be because value ratings can be extremely negative and according to

Arndt (1967) NWOM has twice as much impact on purchase decision-making than what

PWOM does.

The Outliers

Obtaining WOM information from “other people”:



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There were two respondents that mentioned something about obtaining information

from other people. One of them mentioned that they obtained WOM information about

services for people with disabilities from existing users. The other respondent explained that

they received WOM information about a “through floor lift” from a social worker.

Pleasurable experience between the giver and receiver:

Only one respondent had the opinion that it was important that the interaction

between them and the giver of the WOM is pleasurable because this would cause them to

trust them more as they said “it is important that the interaction between the giver of the

word-of-mouth information is pleasurable as I need to be able to trust them”.

Seeking services and products the use of WOM is equal:

Only one respondent they used WOM to seek for products and services equally.

Other aspects that make consumers engage with WOM messages:

There were responses from two people in the study. One of the respondents said that

mentioned that it was crucial to them that the messages are well informative and the other

respondent preferred the messages to be in a serious tone.



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The strength of the WOM message is most important:

There was one respondent who thought that the strength of the argument within the

WOM message is the most important aspect which helps to purchase products, they said “I

think it is the strength of the augment that is being put forward, people would have to tell me

why the product or service is good to persuade me to buy it”.

Deciding to buy a product based upon the amount of PWOM from the existing users:

Just one respondent said that they decided on a product on the basis of the amount of

PWOM received from the existing users, they said that “if a number of people liked a

product, I’d be more inclined to give it a go”.

The option of a trial of products and services not wanted:

There were just three respondents that indicated that they would not benefit from a

trial period for products of services for people with disabilities.

The most important thing when making a purchase:

One of the respondents commented that the most important thing to them when

making a purchase of products and services was the trust between them and the other person.



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WOM is sought for more when buying a product than a service:

There were two respondents who indicated that they sought WOM more when buying

a product than what they did when seeking for a service. One of the respondents mentioned

that they were able to adapt to able-bodied services and the other respondent believed that

there were more variables when it came to using services.

Consumers not affected by emotions:

One of the respondents mentioned that they was not affected by their emotions when

making purchasing decisions.

Do not trust the experts:

Just one respondent mentioned that they did not trust the experts as they said that “I

don’t trust the experts as I think they have an agenda in selling their product and are therefore

biased”.



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Appendix B

The invitational letter to invite candidates to take part in the study and the interview

topic guide.

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Leon Donegan and I am a Master’s student of Marketing Communications and

Advertising at Kingston University. I am currently conducting a dissertation research project

that looks at the impact of word-of-mouth on the buying decisions of people with disabilities.

I am specifically interested in specialist products and services used by people with

disabilities, for example, assistive technology or devices, independent mobility products, e.g.

wheelchairs, and services such as care agencies, adapted transport services, etc. If you are a

user of such products or services, I wonder if you might be interested in taking part in the

study?

The study involves an online interview with a set of questions included in this document.

Please use emoticons to illustrate your emotions when answering the questions. Kindly send

your answers as a reply to this message to me via Facebook. There are 22 questions in this

interview, which should take up to 30 minutes to complete. If you have any questions please

do not hesitate to contact me via Facebook or my supervisor Ms. Eva Kasperova via e-mail

[email protected]. The data collected will be used for academic purposes only

and will remain anonymous and confidential.

Thank you in anticipation of your help.

Kind regards,

mailto:[email protected]



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Leon

Please declare that you are happy to participate in this study:

Please give your age:

Please state your gender:

Please state your disability:

Questions

1. Please explain how you obtain word-of-mouth information about products and

services that are designed specifically for people with disabilities. For example,

electronic word-of-mouth, face-to-face, or other ways?

2. Do you ask others for information about services which are on the market? If so

which particular services?

3. If you do not ask others information about products or services that are for people

with disabilities how do you hear about them?

4. In what ways do you engage with and share electronic word-of-mouth e.g. internet,

telephone, social media, blogs etc?



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5. Please explain the best way for you to obtain word-of-mouth information and why

this might be?

6. Do you ask others for information about products that are on the market for people

with disabilities? If so which particular products?

7. When it comes to word-of-mouth whose information do you trust the most, your

friends or family, or the experts who is selling the products? Please explain why?

8. Does the high prices of products which are specifically made for people with

disabilities affect whether you pass the information on to other people? Please explain

why?

9. Do you use word-of-mouth to reduce the risk when purchasing these specific products

when you have not previously brought them in the past? Please explain why you do or

do not use word-of-mouth to reduce risk?

10. When purchasing specialist products do you tend to react more to positive word-of-

mouth or negative word-of-mouth? Please explain why?

11. When purchasing specialist and adapted equipment do you tend to react to word-of-

mouth or advertising? Explain your reasoning?

12. Do you tend to seek word-of-mouth more when you are seeking a service to use than

when you are buying a product? Please explain why?



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13. Would you like an automatic option to trial products for a period of time before

making a purchase? If yes, how would this be a benefit to you?

14. Please comment on what aspects of word-of-mouth most makes you want to engage

with it: for example, if the message is deep, strong, or attractive?

15. Please explain if you would be more affected by word-of-mouth information if there

is a lot of suggestive words or phrases?

16. Please comment on whether it is important that the experience between you and the

giver of the word-of-mouth information is pleasurable, social, humorous etc.?

17. Do you give value ratings to brands and services? Please explain how value ratings

affects the decision to buy a product of use a service?

18. Please explain when you would consider word-of-mouth to be most important when

making a purchase?

19. Please explain how negative word-of-mouth affects you when making a purchase?

20. Would you agree that your emotions would drive you to generate word-of-mouth

activity in regards to products and service performance? Please explain why?

21. Please explain how your disability may have influence over the ways that you receive

word-of-mouth?



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22. How would you benefit from people with disabilities who are in the media spotlight

relaying information about the availability and quality of products and services that

are on the market?

Appendix C

Management Report

Introduction

This Management Report derives from a piece of research was conducted in order to

determine the extent in which WOM had on the purchasing decisions of people with

disabilities. Secondary research was performed to obtain an overall aspect of WOM and

consumer behaviour when it comes to making buying decisions. The primary research was

performed by conducting email interviews via the social networking websites Facebook to

obtain information from people with disabilities about how WOM affects their buying

decisions. This information was then analysed qualitatively using a deductive approach. The

overall implications of this research are for marketing managers to improve the level of word-

of-mouth (WOM) that is generated amongst their target audience about products and

services.

Key implications/recommendations

The key implication for marketing managers is to reduce the risk that consumers with

disabilities face when they are purchasing products and services designed for disabled people.

To achieve this there are a number of recommendations for business and marketing managers

in order to utilise WOM more effectively. There will be some suggestions for business and



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marketing managers on how to minimise the consumers’ perspective of risk by limiting their

perceiving risk of purchasing products and services and to endeavour to maximise the

PWOM activity.

Specific implications/recommendations

To reduce risk

The reduction of risk would allow the consumers to make purchases of products and

services with more confidence. This is because when consumers are in the pre-

purchasing stage there is the risk of the unknown, whether that is about the products

or services, the suitability of them and whether or not then would be successful etc.

To utilise the techniques of WOM in order to maximise the success rates

It is recommended that marketing managers make use of the techniques to generate

WOM as this would help to promote their products and services. In order to

encourage WOM marketing managers should make sure that their marketing

campaigns are engaging and highly trusted through the perspective of their target

audience.

To develop and maintain good and strong relationships with consumers



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The maintenance of a good and strong relationship with consumers is highly

important because this encourages existing consumers to pass on PWOM to other

potential consumers. This could be done by creating a database of the existing

consumers and occasionally offering them special promotions.

To offer organisations and events

To ensure that the consumers stay interested in the products and services marketing

managers could set up organisations that the existing consumers could join up to.

These organisations could put on special events to promote the products and services

that the existing consumers get invited to in the hope that it generates PWOM.

To offer trial periods

As purchasing products and services can be very expensive for people with

disabilities and as these people can have very specific needs and requirements from

products and services it is recommended that businesses could offer trial periods to

ensure that the products and services are suitable for consumers prior to the purchase.

Also offering trial periods have the potential to generate WOM which could help to

promote the products and services.

To remember that the target audience is heterogeneous

It is important for marketing managers to remember that people with disabilities are a

heterogeneous group of people and therefore it is vital that marketing managers do not



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attempt to target this audience in the same manner. This target audience should be

segmented in terms of demographic characteristics, e.g. age, sex and education

degree, etc. values, preference, life style etc. rather than target them by their

disabilities. If this is not applied to marketing campaigns, then there is a danger for

NWOM to be generated and shared, this is because it could be perceived as being

disrespectful by the target audience as it could seem to them like they are being

judged as not being individual people.

To do not underestimate the levels of emotions that the consumers link to the

products and services

It is important that marketing managers do not underestimate the levels of emotions

that the consumers link to the products and services. Consumers attach high levels of

emotions onto products and services which they have brought because there is a

possibility that their lives can be dramatically improved by these purchases, whether it

is assisting them to complete certain tasks or even enabling them to have total

independence. If products or services are successful then there is a very good chance

that PWOM could be shared, however, if the products or services prove to be failures,

then marketing managers need to be wary of the generating and spreading of NWOM

which could put off other potential consumers doing business with them.

To beware that high prices of products and services may generate NWOM

It is recommended that marketing managers take notice that the high prices of

products and services for people with disabilities could generate NWOM which may

spread amongst their target audience. In order to overcome this issue, marketing

managers could develop campaigns that highlights the benefits that is there to be



105

gained from investing in the certain products and services and how they would

improve their quality of life of people with disabilities on a long term basis.

To use Market Mavenism

Market Mavenism is already used when marketing to people with disabilities. There

are already some “market mavens” in this area in the United Kingdom, for example

TV presenter and veteran Great Britain’s wheelchair basketball player Ade Adepitan

MBE, was the ambassador for the wheelchair company, Invacare, for their Top End

product range during 2012. Also in 2012 the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) used

veteran Paralympic Athletics wheelchair racer and television commentator, Baroness

Tanni Grey-Thompson, to promote the access features of the Olympic Park. This

technique has the potential of generating buzz around products and services which

could create WOM therefore it is recommended that marketing managers use it more.

To focus marketing activity on WOM rather than advertising

It is recommended that marketing practitioners should focus their attentions on WOM

rather than advertising. As products and services for people with disabilities have to

be customized to meet the consumers’ needs, in many cases, they cannot be treated as

a homogenous target audience. With this in mind, it would be more beneficial for

marketing practitioners to try to generate WOM amongst their target audience rather

than producing generic adverts that are not targeted at people’s specific demographic

characteristics.

To utilise social media to interact with the target audience more effectively



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The final recommendation to marketing practitioners is to make use of the

opportunities to reach potential consumers by the means of social media. It is evident

that many people with disabilities obtain information about specialist products and

services via social media. By the use of this strategy marketers could send specific

marketing messages to individual about products and services that would be adequate

to suit their particular needs.

Documents

An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts ... · effectively. Word of mouth (WOM hereafter) is known to be important when it comes to marketing because when it is