CARMEN GOO HSU YUE

Effects of Past Experience Valence and Negative eWOM Extremity on
Consumer’s Purchase Intention: A Study on AirAsia

Carmen Goo Hsu Yue

A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement of the
Master of Communication (Integrated Marketing Communication)

School of Communication
Universiti Sains Malaysia

July 2021

AKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a genuine pleasure to express my deepest sense of thank you and gratitude
to my supervisor, Dr Izzal Asnira Zolkepli for her constant guidance and supervision
which paths my way to complete my research as part of the requirement for Master of
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) program. Her timely advice and
meticuleos scrutiny have helped me to a very great extent especially in this research.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Associate Professor Dr. Shuhaida
Md Noor for her kind support and feedback which helps me accomplish this research
as well. I also own a deep sense of gratitude to Associate Professor Dr. Hasrina Binti
Mustafa who inspires and encourage me throughout my study period. My
acknowledgement goes to my esteemed lecturers in University Sains Malaysia (USM)
as well who are all dedicated and crafted who I am today.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents Chang Nyat Yen and Goo
Kooi Chooi for their abundant love and supported me both emotionally and financialy.
I could not have done it without their total support.

Thank you!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
AKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................ iii
LIST OF TABLE ........................................................................................................ vi
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... viii
ABSTRAK .................................................................................................................. ix
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................. 1

1.1 Background of study ..................................................................................... 1
1.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................ 4
1.3 Research Question and Research Objective .................................................. 6
1.4 Significance of Study .................................................................................... 7
1.5 Scope of Study............................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................. 9
2.1 eWOM ........................................................................................................... 9

2.1.1 Overview of eWOM............................................................................... 9
2.1.2 Definition of eWOM ............................................................................ 10
2.1.3 Valence of eWOM ............................................................................... 11
2.1.4 Extremity of eWOM ............................................................................ 12
2.2 Past Experience ........................................................................................... 14

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2.2.1 Definition of Past Experience .............................................................. 14
2.2.2 Valence of Past Experience.................................................................. 16
2.3 Purchase Intention ....................................................................................... 17
2.4 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.......................................................................... 22
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 22
3.2 Conceptual Definitions................................................................................ 22
3.3 Operational Definitions ............................................................................... 24
3.4 Research Methods ....................................................................................... 27
3.5 Instruments .................................................................................................. 29
3.6 Sampling and Data Collection..................................................................... 32
3.7 Data Analysis Technique............................................................................. 34
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS ....................................................................................... 35
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 35
4.2 Data Reduction ............................................................................................ 35
4.3 Descriptive Analysis of Variables ............................................................... 36
4.3.1 Valence of Past Experience.................................................................. 36
4.3.2 Purchase Intention................................................................................ 36
4.3.3 Extremity of Negative eWOM ............................................................. 37
4.3.4 Valence of Past Experience x Extremity of Negative eWOM............. 37
4.4 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test........................................................... 39

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4.4.1 Significant Main Effect of Valence of Past Experience on Purchase
Intention ..............................................................................................................40
4.4.2 Significant Main Effect of Extremity Level of Negative eWOM on
Purchase Intention............................................................................................... 40
4.4.3 Significant Interactive Effect between Valence of Past Experience and
the Extremity Level of Negative eWOM towards Purchase Intention ............... 41
4.5 Paired Sample T-Test .................................................................................. 42
4.6 Hypothesis Testing ...................................................................................... 43
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION............................................. 44
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 44
5.2 The effects of past experience valence towards purchase intention............ 44
5.3 The effects of negative eWOM’s extremity level towards purchase intention

......................................................................................................................45
5.4 The interaction effect between the valence of past experience and the
extremity level of negative eWOM towards purchase intention ............................ 45
5.5 The singnificant difference between pre and post purchase intention after
exposed to negative eWOM ................................................................................... 47
5.6 Implications ................................................................................................. 47
5.7 Limitation of Study and Recommendation for Future Research................. 48
5.8 Conclusion................................................................................................... 49
REFERENCES............................................................................................................ ix
APPENDICES .............................................................................................................. i

v

LIST OF TABLE

Table 3.1: Different Extremity of Negative eWOM .................................................. 25
Table 3.2: 2x2 Experiment Design............................................................................. 28
Table 3.3: Valence of Past Experience Scale Item .................................................... 30
Table 3.4: Purchase Intention Scale Items ................................................................. 30
Table 3.5: Extremity of Negative eWOM.................................................................. 31
Table 4.1: Mean Score for Valence of Past Experience’ Scale Item ......................... 36
Table 4.2: Mean Score for Purchase Intention Scale Item......................................... 37
Table 4.3: Mean Score for Valence of Past Experience x Extremity of Negative eWOM
.................................................................................................................................... 38
Table 4.4: Two-Way ANOVA result ......................................................................... 39
Table 4.5: Levene’s test result ................................................................................... 39
Table 4.6: Paired Sample T-Test result...................................................................... 42
Table 4.7: Summary of Hypothesis Testing............................................................... 43

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Theoretical Framework............................................................................ 21
Figure 3.1: Field Experiment Flow ............................................................................ 29
Figure 3.2: Survey Branch Logic ............................................................................... 33
Figure 4.1: Means of respective quardrants ............................................................... 38
Figure 4.2: Estimated Marginal Means of Purchase Intention................................... 42

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANOVA Analysis of Variance
eWOM Electronic Word Of Mouth
MO Moderator Variable
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences Programme

viii

KESAN NILAI PENGALAMAN DAN EKSTREMITI EWOM NEGATIF
TERHADAP NIAT PEMBELIAN PENGGUNA: SATU KAJIAN AIRASIA

ABSTRAK
Beberapa kajian mengenai eWOM telah dilakukan dalam dekad yang lalu yang
berusaha untuk mengetahui kesannya terhadap pengguna terutama niat membeli.
Walaupun eWOM tidak datang sepihak, para sarjana menyarankan bahawa semakin
besar ekstrem eWOM, semakin jelas pengubaran sikap, berbanding eWOM tahap
ekstremiti yang lebih rendah. Walau bagaimanapun, adalah tidak ketahui seberapa
dalam kesan ini atau adakah ia akan dipengaruhi oleh pemboleh ubah lain. Oleh itu,
kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji kesan ekstremiti eWOM negatif dan kesan nilai
pengalaman terhadap niat membeli, terutamanya dalam konteks tempatan di Malaysia.
Data dikumpul daripada lebih 300 pengguna di seluruh Malaysia yang sebelumnya
pernah menggunakan atau terbang dengan jenama terpilih sebagai subject kajain ini,
Air Asia. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa terdapat pengaruh yang umum dari nilai
pengalaman terhadap niat membeli, sementara tahap ekstrem eWOM negatif dapat
moderasi kesan ini. Hasilnya, penyelidikan ini memberi kesan yang signifikan
terhadap penyelidikan masa depan.

Kata Kunci: Nilai Pengalaman, Ekstremiti eWOM Negative, Niat Membeli, AirAsia

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EFFECTS OF PAST EXPERIENCE VALENCE AND NEGATIVE EWOM
EXTREMITY ON CONSUMER’S PURCHASE INTENTION: A STUDY ON

AIRASIA

ABSTRACT
Several studies on eWOM have been conducted in the last decade trying to
uncover its effect towards consumer especially to purchase intention. While eWOM
does not come one sided, scholars suggested that the greater the extremity of an
eWOM, the greater the amount of attitude shift, as opposed to a lower extremity level
eWOM. However, there is no way of knowing how widespread this effect will be or if
it will be influenced by other variables. Thus, this study aims to examine the effects of
negative eWOM extremity and past experience valence towards Air Asia’s purchase
intention. Data were collected from over 300 consumers across Malaysia which have
previously used or fly with Air Asia before. Findings suggest that there is a generally
consistent effect of valence of past experience towards purchase intention, while the
extremity level of negative eWOM moderate this effect. As a result, this research
implies a significant influence towards future research.

Keywords: Valence of Past Experience, Extremity of Negative eWOM, Purchase
Intention, AirAsia

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of study

Thanks to automation and the massive usage of smartphones around the world, the
number of Internet users records a fresh number every day in this digital age. A
whopping 4.13 billion, which is 53 percent of the total global population, has been
registered by the total number of Internet users (Clement, 2019). This leads to an open
opportunity for marketers to reach out more directly to their audience, highlighting
interpersonal contact between companies and their customers (Chan & Yazdanifard,
2014). The importance of the Internet rose to peak especially when the world is facing
the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020 where face-to-face activities are widely
limited and the most effective way for marketers to reach out to their consumers is
through digital platforms (Globaldata, 2020). Consumers shifted their purchasing
behavior by focusing on online purchase, where online sales have grown to the highest
level (Moorman, Kirby, McCarthy, & Shkil, 2020; Statista, 2020a). E-Commerce in
Malaysia is expected to record a 24.9% growth in 2020 which is further accelerated by
the COVID-19 pandemic (Globaldata, 2020). More than 73% of Malaysians are now
more positive about shopping online while 34% of them shopped several times in a
month (Jaafar, 2020; Statista, 2020b).

Increasing online activities especially purchasing activities has undoubtedly
opened doors to marketers to grasp the market (Chan & Yazdanifard, 2014). The
nature of the Internet which is free from the location and time boundary has created a
complex interactive relationship between consumers and brands as information from
brands does not flow from one-to-many like how traditional media works but instead
works around a many-to-many communication model where both consumers and

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brands are the receivers and also the sender of communication messages online (Zhu
& Chen, 2015). This leads to an undeniable important aspect of internet-related
research, the electronic Word Of Mouth (eWOM) (Tariq et al., 2017).

The concept of Word of Mouth (WOM) blooms back in the 1960s where it has
proven to affect consumer’s purchasing decisions (Richins & Root-Shaffer, 1988).
Modernization changes consumer’s lifestyles and most importantly how they
communicate with the birth of Web 2.0 where WOM has now transformed into eWOM
for its easy dissemination online (Babić Rosario, de Valck, & Sotgiu, 2020). The most
commonly used definition for eWOM is by Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004) where they
defined eWOM as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or
former customers about a product or company which is made available to a multitude
of the people and institutes via the Internet”. eWOM includes discussion on certain
products or services posted by consumers on the Internet. It is believed to be a valuable
guide for consumers to reduce uncertainty and perceived risks when making purchase
decisions due to the high level of trust (Bronner & de Hoog, 2011; Tkaczyk &
Krzyżanowska, 2014). The easy dissemination of information on the Internet makes it
easy for consumers to express their experiences concerning products and services and
is believed to be one of the most trustworthy channels (Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017a;
Tkaczyk & Krzyżanowska, 2014). Sun et al. (2006) further prove this idea where he
concluded that “compared to traditional WOM, online WOM is more influential due
to its speed, convenience, one-to-many reach, and its absence of face-to-face human
pressure” (p. 1105).

While eWOM gains fame, the negative side of it also rose to attention among
marketers and scholers. eWOM has been proven in studies where its valence (referring
to it’s evaluation direction either positive, negative, or neutral) will give impact to

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consumer’s buying decision (Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017a; Lee & Youn, 2009).
Negative eWOM has proved to give bigger impact to consumer’s decision especially
purchase intention than positive eWOM where negative eWOM provides risk signals
to discourage consumer performing a certain behavior or intention (Bhandari &
Rodgers, 2018; Luo, Chen, & Chea, 2020). Apart from that, different extremity level
of a certain eWOM also carries more weight than the other where Lee, Rodgers, &
Kim (2009) suggests that the greater the extremity of a certain eWOM would give a
higher level of attitude change than a lower extremity level eWOM. This extremity
effect also gives more significant and deemed more powerful on negative eWOM
compared to positive ones (Floh, Koller, & Zauner, 2013; Jeong & Koo, 2015).

The significance of eWOM due to its high influential feature, wide reach, and
ability to cross-boundary of location and time further induce the importance for
marketers to focus on this area. While most research tends to prove the effectiveness
of eWOM towards purchase intention and its antecedent of behavioral intention, this
study intends to discover further the effects of eWOM, mainly the negative eWOM
taking consideration of its extremity level while also factor in user’s past experience.

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1.2 Problem Statement

Numerous research related to eWOM has been done in the past decade (Babić et
al., 2020), which also proves that eWOM still holds a strong effect on consumer’s
purchasing decision and even brand image (see Chiosa & Anastasiei, 2017;
Pramestiara & Rahab, 2018; Rahman et al., 2020; Rakjit & Laohavichien, 2020). Babić
et al. (2020) highlights that eWOM often “reveals consumers’ motivation behind an
opinion or a recommendation” where most research tried to explore (see Farzin &
Fattahi, 2018; Haque et al., 2020; Nam et al., 2020). While various research tries to
imply “User Generated Content (UGC)” as eWOM, Babić et al. (2020) argue that
eWOM should be recognized as “online consumer-generated content about products,
even if far from a direct recommendation to other consumers” (p.425).

While eWOM does not come in one-sided, there is a large amount of research
related to negative eWOM as well, the vast increase of related research in the past
decades proves that negative eWOM gives a greater impact than positive eWOM (Luo
et al., 2020; Tantrabundit et al., 2018). Researches also proved that negative eWOM
would result in attitude change and give impact on consumer’s purchase intention
which is deemed hurtful towards the brand itself (Floh et al., 2013; Jeong & Koo, 2015;
Lee et al., 2009). Apart from its valence, the extremity level of an eWOM should also
be highlighted. Scholars have suggested that the greater the extremity of a certain
eWOM would give a higher level of attitude change than a lower extremity level
eWOM (Lee et al., 2009). This extremity effect is also deemed more powerful on
negative eWOM compared to positive eWOM in terms of significant effect (Floh et
al., 2013; Jeong & Koo, 2015). This underlines that different extremity level of eWOM
could also give different impact towards consumers purchase decision.

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However, there is no visibility to the extend of this impact and whether if this effect
will be affected by any other factors around. This comes to mind as according to the
Theory of Planned Behavior, three determinants that affect the intention include
attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control where it accounts for a
big factor contributing to a consumer’s intention to a certain behavior (Ajzen, 1991).
Perceived behavioral control refers to “the perceived ease or difficulty of performing
the behavior and it is assumed to reflect past experience as well as anticipated
impediments and obstacles” (p.188) (Ajzen, 1991). Bentler & Speckart's (1979)
models of attitude-behavior relations also highlight that intention is also directly
influenced by past experience as well as subjective norms and attitude as consumer
behavior is the result of learning. It is also argued to be one of the best predictors for
future behavior (Conner & Armitage, 1998).

With numerous research highlighting the effect of negative eWOM and past
experience, it is important to understand the extent of both effects towards purchase
intention especially when there is a different extremity level of eWOM and of course,
consumer’s past experience differs by valence. The research gap is yet to be fulfilled
and deemed important in today’s digitalized world.

As such, a study that examines the effects of negative eWOM extremity and past
experience valence towards purchase intention, especially in the local context
(Malaysia) is deemed crucial as the different valence of past experience and extremity
level of negative eWOM may amplify or reduce the effects towards purchase intention.
The company AirAsia has chosen to be the subject of this study where it has been
suffering from negative eWOM since the COVID-19 pandemic strikes Malaysia (Will
Horton, 2020). With uprising issues of canceling flights, credit refunds, and
restructuring to avert bankruptcy, AirAsia has been receiving thousands of eWOM

5

online especially on their social media platforms filled with raged consumers (Tan,
2020). Akin to this, the findings of this study hope to bring valuable insight on
antecedents that affects consumer’s purchase intention in this digitalized world and
especially to explore the interaction effect between the valence of past experience and
the extremity level of negative eWOM towards purchase intention.

1.3 Research Question and Research Objective
From the above discussion, four research questions can be identified:

1. Is there main effect of the valence of past experience on purchase intention?
2. Is there main effect of extremity level of negative eWOM on purchase intention?
3. Is there interaction effect between the valence of past experience and the

extremity level of negative eWOM towards purchase intention?
4. Is there significant difference between pre and post purchase intention after

exposed to different negativity of eWOM?
Concerning the stated research questions, the main objective of this study will attempt
to explore:

1. To investigate the effect of past experience valence on purchase intention.
2. To examine the effects of negative eWOM’s extremity level towards purchase

intention.
3. To identify the interaction effect between the valence of past experience and the

extremity level of negative eWOM towards purchase intention
4. To test the significant difference between pre competency test and post

competency test of purchase intention.

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1.4 Significance of Study

The growing number of online users has been undeniable proof that brands should
pay close attention to their image online. With shopping patterns that have gradually
shifted from offline to online especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, brands must
keep up their pace and stay relevant online. With negative comments or reviews going
viral at high chances every single second at this time, brands must understand the
effects of negative eWOM towards their image and also how does it affect consumer’s
purchasing intention while taking count of past experience. This study serves as
beneficial to local marketers as a guideline to understand their consumers more while
giving insights on the importance to treat negative eWOM strategically before it
emerges into a crisis.

This study also aims to fill the gap of research from previous studies that have
ignored the weight of past experience in affecting consumer’s purchasing intention
while only solely looking at the effects of eWOM. Through explicit literature review
made, the results of previous studies have been used as a strong reference in the
improvement of this study.

1.5 Scope of Study

This study was conducted to examine the effects of negative eWOM towards the
brand image and purchase intention of AirAsia mediated by experience. Therefore,
this study is only focusing on negative eWOM. Negative eWOM is chosen as it is
deemed to give a greater impact than positive eWOM (Luo et al., 2020; Tantrabundit
et al., 2018). Besides, this study also focuses on one organization only, namely AirAsia.
AirAsia was chosen as the subject of study because this brand is the largest low-cost

7

airline in Southeast Asia and also the largest airline in Malaysia by fleet size and
destinations. AirAsia has been carrying a total of 83.5 million passengers for the year
2019 marking a significant growth and expansion compared to previous years (AirAsia,
2020). However, the brand has been facing challenges in the year 2020 when the
COVID-19 pandemic hits. Being a brand that has been actively present online,
consumers have generated a vast amount of eWOM regarding the issue the brand is
currently facing (Tan, 2020). Therefore, choosing AirAsia as the subject of the study
will have a more significant relatability compared to other brands.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 eWOM

2.1.1 Overview of eWOM
With the up-keeping usage of the Internet and non-stop growing user-generated

content online, big data has been a popular topic among marketers especially when
these data can be used to identify user trends and buying patterns (Amado, Cortez, Rita,
& Moro, 2018). Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) being an extension from
traditional word of mouth where it is available online has gained various interest from
researchers and marketers as it has been proven able to influence consumer’s purchase
intention compared to traditional WOM (Elseidi & El-Baz, 2016; Ishida, Slevitch, &
Siamionava, 2016; Tariq et al., 2017). King et al (2014) outlined 6 characteristics that
best differentiate eWOM from WOM, where (1) it can be shared within a short period
to reach a wide circulation of audience, (2) available for users to search for available
eWOM online anytime and anywhere, (3) it is immediately available while leaving a
digital footprint, (4) the anonymous nature of published eWOM, (5) able to build a
social network while publishing eWOM and (6) the increasing reliability towards
eWOM as it has been viewed as more honest and trustworthy compared to
advertisements (Nam et al., 2020).

With the uprising popularity and continuity increasing in terms of internet users,
eWOM has attracted the attention of researchers and trying to best define it in the
context of the online world. Various terms have been used to best relate with eWOM
like reviews (Clemons, Gao, & Hitt, 2006; Filieri, Alguezaui, & McLeay, 2015) or
even user-generated content (UGC) (Dhar & Chang, 2009; Daugherty et al., 2008) but
Babić et al (2020) argued that eWOM is neither a user-generated content nor a critics’

9

review. According to Babić et al (2020), eWOM should be defined as a consumption-
related communication that is consumer-generated which is directed primarily to other
consumers via digital tools. User-generated content is a broad term that reflects all
user-generated content that is predominantly spread on the Internet (Daugherty et al.,
2008) but does not necessarily be consumption-related. While critics' review being
generated by experts has been proven to lead to a greater impact than consumer-
generated eWOM towards consumer’s purchase decision (Floyd et al., 2014), it should
also not be included or classified as a form of eWOM. Influencer marketing that works
in the same way as critics review should also be excluded as an eWOM, but instead is
classified as a form of advertising (Babić Rosario et al., 2020).

2.1.2 Definition of eWOM
While many researchers have been trying to best define eWOM in context, the

most commonly used definition for eWOM is by Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004) where
they defined eWOM as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual,
or former customers about a product or company which is made available to a
multitude of the people and institutes via the Internet”. Babić Rosario et al. (2020) on
the other hand defined eWOM as “consumer-generated, consumption-related
communication that employs digital tools and is directed primarily to other
consumers”.

From both definitions of Babić Rosario et al., (2020) and Hennig-Thurau et al.,
(2004), the characteristics of eWOM can be described as:

1. eWOM is only available online.
2. It is a positive or negative content or statement generated by the consumer.

10

3. It is consumption-related content where it is aimed towards a certain
product, brand, or company.

This study uses the definition by Babić et al., (2020) to conceptualize the term
eWOM where it has been a revised version from the previous definition that tries to
address the confusion that arises within this concept.

2.1.3 Valence of eWOM
As previously discussed, eWOM can be positive or negative content generated by

the consumer which is available online. While not everything is one-sided, eWOM is
proven by many of the past studies where its “valence” will also influence consumer’s
buying decisions (Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017a). Lee & Youn (2009) refers to the
“valence” of a certain eWOM as the evaluation direction where it is either positive,
negative, or neutral. Positive eWOM is believed to have a significant positive impact
on brand image and purchase intention (Chin, Lai, & Huam, 2018; Elseidi & El-Baz,
2016; Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017; Tariq et al., 2017) while has been the focus of
research for the past decade.

However, with the vast amount of eWOM in the current online environment, it has
also shown the importance and impact of negative eWOM towards brands and
companies. Negative eWOM has been found to give negative impact towards brand
trust and purchase intentions (Lee & Youn, 2009; Sparks & Browning, 2011;
Suwandee, Surachartkumtonkun, & Lertwannawit, 2019). According to
ReviewTrackers (n.d.), 94% of consumers have agreed that they were persuaded by
negative online reviews to discourage an organization or brand. The vast increase of
related research in the past decades also proves that negative eWOM is more

11

persuasive and gives greater impact than positive eWOM (Lee & Youn, 2009; Luo et
al., 2020; Tantrabundit, Phothong, Chanprasitchai, 2018). The higher persuade level
is due to negative eWOM provides risk signals that act as reminders to customers to
discourage the use of a certain product (Bhandari & Rodgers, 2018). The risk signal
or risk cues in negative eWOM attracts high attention from consumer to avoid
purchase risk which then leads to negatively influencing their purchase intention
(Schindler & Bickart, 2005).

Therefore, it has been an important practice for companies to monitor consumer’s
eWOM towards the brand or product, especially negative eWOM to avoid tarnishing
brand image and trust due to unsatisfactory experience (Chiosa & Anastasiei, 2017;
Tantrabundit, Phothong, Chanprasitchai, 2018). Kumar & Purbey (2018) tabled out 7
factors that influenced consumer to post eWOM online namely altruism, anxiety
reduction, vengeance, advice seeking, social benefits, exertion of power and economic
rewards. It has also shown that apart from behavioral factors, consumers would also
tend to post eWOM due to peer influence and the active usage of social media (Zhang,
Omran, & Cobanoglu, 2017).

2.1.4 Extremity of eWOM
Apart from the valence of eWOM, the extremity level of an eWOM also proves to

give influence in consumer’s attitude change. Extremity effect has been referred as an
occurrence where “extreme (versus moderate) behaviors of a person carries more
weight and have greater influence on impressions formed about that person” (Lee et
al., 2009). eWOM extremity is also being defined as “the extent to which an

12

individual’s review deviates from the general consumer consensus about the reviewed
business” by Yang et al., (2018).

Lee, Rodgers, & Kim (2009) suggested that the greater the extremity of a certain
eWOM would give a higher level of attitude change than a lower extremity level
eWOM. Floh, Koller, & Zauner (2013) supported this idea where they found that
although extreme positive eWOM gives significant effect on purchase intention, even
the lowest extremity negative eWOM would immediately decrease the effect. This
proves that extremely negative eWOM is deemed more powerful (Jeong & Koo, 2015),
would hurt the brand more than extremely positive eWOM would help on the brand
(Lee et al., 2009) and stand out more among normal or positive eWOM (Park, Chung,
& Lee, 2019).

The extremity level of a certain eWOM is usually described in the rating systems
where most websites could let consumers vote from 1 to 5 stars of a particular product
or service while leaving their review. A 1-star review is judged as an extremely
negative review while a 5-star comment is being seen as extremely positive. Forman
et al., (2008) suggested that balanced review (or moderate reviews – rated 3 stars out
of 5 stars) is less useful than reviews with higher extremity level. It contains
ambiguous information that does not help provide clear implications for purchase
decision making. Purnawirawan et al., (2012) proposed a similar finding while
experimenting the impact of balance (ratio of different eWOM valence) and sequence
(eWOM presented order) on a set of online reviews. Their result proves that
unbalanced (positive or negative) review sets are deemed more informative than
moderate (neutral) reviews. They provide more consistent information than the
comparatively conflicting information in balanced review sets.

13

While previous studies have tried to prove that different valence and extremity level
of eWOM does give differ results in terms of consumer behavior, most of it only focus
on either one of the factors and is often being counted as the same. This study tries to
fill this research gap by trying to explore the effect of extremity level of negative
eWOM on purchase intention.

2.2 Past Experience

2.2.1 Definition of Past Experience
Prior knowledge plays multiple roles in shaping the understanding of risk, brand

reputation and resulting decision-making habits of consumers (Jun, 2020). Kerstetter
& Cho (2004) identifies prior knowledge into 3 different dimensions: past experience,
familiarity and expertise. The effects of past experience has been highly recognized in
determining consumer’s behavior as it has been proven to be the best predictor of
future behavior (Conner & Armitage, 1998). In previous studies, past experience is
also being highlighted to be one of the most important factors that influence decision
making (Kim & Chung, 2011; Reid, L. J., & Reid, 1994; Weisberg, Te’eni, & Arman,
2011) due to the biasness by consumer as they tend to refer to their past experience
while making choices (Raju, P. S., & Reilly, 1980).

Scholars also believe that experience would also affect beliefs, attitudes, and
behavioral intentions and are more likely to dominate the processing of weaker stimuli
such as eWOM (Jones, Aiken, & Boush, 2009). Brand experience have also been
proven to have positive effects on multiple aspects of consumer relationships, such as
satisfaction and trust (Verhoef, Franses, & Hoekstra, 2002). Studies also often link
frequency of past experience as habit, although measurements are still unclear. It is

14

addressed that a certain behavior's frequent output will put subsequent behavior under
the influence of normal processes (Conner & Armitage, 1998). Individual’s past
experience has also been proven to give a significant impact on purchase intention
(Ahmad et al., 2014; Kim & Chung, 2011). Apart from that, Rao & Monroe (1988)
also suggested that consumers tend to refer to different cues during the product
evaluation stage based on their past experience where more experienced consumers
tend to refer on intrinsic cues (e.g. product attributes) while less experienced
consumers will be more skewed to extrinsic cues (e.g. prices).

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is also a good reference to explain to
role of past experience. It is an extension from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)
introduced by Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) where both theories try to predict consumer
intention and behavior in specific context. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is
introduced by Ajzen (1985, 1988, 1991) where it has broaden up the applicability of
the theory by factoring in the considerations of perceived behavioral control where it
has been assumed to have important effects towards behavior (Ajzen, 1991; Conner,
M., & Norman, 2006). TPB includes three determinants that affects the intention which
includes attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991).
Perceived behavioral control is the determinant that differentiate TPB from TRA
where it is being defined as “the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior
and it is assumed to reflect past experience as well as anticipated impediments and
obstacles” (p.188) (Ajzen, 1991). Past experience claims to be the most effective
source of data to affect certain controls (Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, 1977).

Given so, familiarity although is also in the dimension of prior knowledge is not
being taken account into this study as it is described as an awareness or perception of
a certain product or service that does not necessarily comes along with actual

15

experience (Jun, 2020). This study focuses on actual experience of the brand as past
experience has been found positively correlated with online purchase intention (Aziz
& Wahid, 2018).

2.2.2 Valence of Past Experience
Consumer’s past experience revolves around a person’s internal and external

memory which plays an important role in the purchasing process (Bettman, 1979).
Internal memory refers to the actual experience consumers encountered before
regarding a certain product or service while external memory is often referred to
information related to the goods or service (Jaafar, 2018). The experience of
purchasing or using a certain product or service will tend to last longer in consumer’s
mind and often work as reference for future purchases (Jaafar, 2018). With this in mind,
there is no doubt that consumers will then evaluated their purchase or service
encountered and the result to different valence of experience based on their prior
expectations (Kotler & Keller, 2016). If the product or service meets or exceeds
consumer’s prior expectations, it will then result to a positive experience while if it
fails to meet the prior expectations it will be prone to a negative experience (Kotler &
Keller, 2016). This is actually similar with eWOM where past experience also doesn’t
come only one sided. Past experience valence has been defined as the general nature
of an experience whether it is positive and satisfactory or negative and disappointing
(Yang et al., 2018).

Different valence of past experience will of course strongly differ on it’s effects
towards need fulfillment (Tuch, 2016). Consumer with negative experience towards a
product or service will strongly impact negatively on their future purchase while a

16

positive experience would of course encourage for a repeating purchase behavior
(Jaafar, 2018). Research also suggests that consumer would also tend to share their
negative experience with others especially their close ones which then results to
influencing their decision-making (Goeltom, et al., 2019). Vermeulen & Seegers (2009)
also supported this idea by proving that valence of a certain past experience also serves
as an operating factor that leads to consumer’s eWOM posting behavior.

Positive experiences are mainly associated with enthusiasm and excitement,
whereas most negative experiences are being linked with the feeling or irritation,
disappointment and upset (Tuch et al., 2016). Positive experience is often deemed as
more superordinate compared to negative experience during decision making (Li, Qi,
Liu, Meng, & Zhang, 2021). This has also been proven by Bernhard et al., (2020) that
a positively rated experience valence helps to change consumer’s attitude towards
willingness of usage. However, Baumeister et al., (2001) believed that negative
experiences will give stronger impact to consumers compared to positive experiences.
They suggested in their study that at least 5 positive experiences are needed to make
up (replace or erase) for one negative experience which then leads to the suggestion
that brands should put high priority on avoiding negative consumer experiences
(Baumeister et al., 2001)

2.3 Purchase Intention

According to Schiffman & Kanuk (2009), purchase intention is characterized
as a transaction activity shown by customers after reviewing products and services. It
is also defined as the likelihood of purchase where the higher the intention the high
probability is for the consumer to purchase a certain product or service (Alford &

17

Biswas, 2002). Purchase intention is also linked with the “preference of consumer to
buy the product or service” and is often accompanied with product evaluation (Younus
et al., 2015). Purchase intention has been widely discussed and being considered
effective to predict consumer purchasing behavior (Ghosh et al., 1990)

According to Keller (2001), consumer’s intention and its purchasing behavior
is highly dependent on its intention which is affected by large external factors like
customer knowledge, perception of consumers, product packaging, celebrity
endorsement and many more. Ghosh et al. (1990) also suggested that purchase
intention is influence by price, quality perception and value perception of the product.
Vahdati & Nejad (2016) also note that intentions might be affected by social pressures,
consumer interest and also perceived expectations towards the product. Apart from
that, consumer’s past experience has also been proven to serve as a reference for
consumer which directly impacts on purchase intention as well as behavior (Ahmad et
al., 2014). Past experience has been seen given a high weightage on consumer’s
purchasing intention especially on repeating purchase behavior (Ahmad et al., 2014).
Shim & Drake (1990) supports this idea and proposed that past experience helps to
reduce consumer’s uncertainties during online purchase which then boosts their online
purchase intention. They also observed that consumers who have past experience on a
certain product would tend to purchase the certain products from the Internet (Shim &
Drake, 1990).

Apart from the factors above that contributes to purchase intention, the effects
of eWOM towards purchase intention is also widely discussed in recent years due to
the emerging technology that transforms the mode of communication. A wide range
of research has proven that positive eWOM would result to positive purchase intention
(Elseidi & El-Baz, 2016; Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017b; Nadarajan et al., 2017). Casado

18

et al., (2017) took a step ahead and proved that eWOM gives a higher effect on
purchase intention for brands with poorer brand image. eWOM’s effects towards
purchase intention is also commonly linked with brand image where it has been seen
to have a significant positive relation and works as the strongest predictor for both
(Chin et al., 2018; Farzin & Fattahi, 2018)

Purchase intention is an important element and considered as the most precise
indicator of real purchasing behavior and is usually related to perceptions and attitudes
of consumers (Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, 1977; Ghosh, P., Dasgupta, D., & Ghosh, 1990).
It also has a strong influence towards consumer choices while considering alternatives
(Kazmi & Mehmood, 2016).

2.4 Theoretical Framework

Recent research have put focus on the comparing WOM and eWOM (Ishida et
al., 2016), factors leading to eWOM (Farzin & Fattahi, 2018; Haque et al., 2020;
Kumar & Purbey, 2018; Nam et al., 2020; Zhang, Omran, & Cobanoglu, 2017), and
effects of eWOM towards purchase intention and brand image (Casado et al., 2017;
Chin et al., 2018; Chiosa & Anastasiei, 2017; Elseidi & El-Baz, 2016; Esmark et al.,
2018; Pramestiara & Rahab, 2018; Tariq et al., 2017). However, a large number of the
research only focuses on the effects of positive eWOM and also are mostly towards
brand image and purchase intention. The visibility of the extend of this impact is yet
to be discussed in the terms of negative eWOM and also in the presence of past
experience as most research focuses on consumer involvement (Krishnamurthy &
Kumar, 2018). Previous studies have been linking past experience as moderating effect
towards purchase intention and brand love (Karjaluoto, Munnukka, & Kiuru, 2016;

19

Kim & Chung, 2011) but it has been proven to give significant impact on consumer’s
purchase intention (Ahmad et al., 2014; Kim & Chung, 2011).

Therefore, while considering negative eWOM, this study takes a step ahead by
also considering the effect of the extremity level of eWOM towards purchase intention
in the context of different past experience valence. It is arguable that past experience
is one of the factor that affects consumer’s purchase intention instead of just a
moderating factor. Different extremity level of eWOM should also have different
impact towards purchase intention as well.

A theoretical framework for this study has been built based on the hypothesis
proposed as below as well as reference towards Namazi & Namazi (2016) study on
mediating and moderating variables. According to Namazi & Namazi (2016), inserting
suitable moderator variables (MO variable) is a powerful approach to improve research
design as well as providing a more realistic and accurate finding. A MO variable is
capable to affect the strength and/or direction of the relationship between the
dependent and independent variables which acts like a second independent variable.

In this research, the valence of past experience is determined as the
independent variable while the purchase intention is determined as the dependent
variable. As per Namazi & Namazi (2016), The extremity level of negative eWOM is
inserted as a moderating variable hoping to reveal the true relationship between
valence of past experience and purchase intention (p.543). The extremity level of
negative eWOM is chosen as the moderator effect as it is preceding the dependent
variable (purchase intention), has no casual relation with the independent variable
(valence of past experience) but posits a casual relation with the dependent variable
(purchase intention) and maintains a similar role just like the independent variable

20

(p.548). Figure 2.1 illustrates the theoretical framework of the study for easier
understanding.

Figure 2.1: Theoretical Framework

Giving the preceeding arguments, the below hypothesis is being proposed:
H1: There is significant main effect of valence of past experience on purchase intention.
H2: There is significant main effect of extremity level of negative eWOM on purchase
intention.
H3: There is significant interactive effect between valence of past experience and the
extremity level of negative eWOM towards purchase intention
H4: There are significant difference between pre competency test and post competency
test of purchase intention.

21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction

This chapter deep dives into the methodology used in this study. Each section
focuses on important elements of the study such as conceptual and operational
definitions, the research methods, instruments, sampling and also the data analysis
methods. These elements serve as a guideline for this study.

3.2 Conceptual Definitions
This study operates on a basic hypothesis that the extremity level of negative

electronic word of mouth and valence of past experience has significant impact on a
consumer’s purchase intention. From the hypothesis, it can thus be seen that the
variables of this study are extremity of negative eWOM and valence of past experience,
the independent variable and purchase intention, the dependent variable.
Therefore, this study’s conceptualization of the three variables as follow:

1. Extremity of Negative electronic word of mouth (Negative eWOM)
The most commonly used definition for eWOM is by Hennig-Thurau et al.

(2004) where they defined eWOM as “any positive or negative statement made by
potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company which is made
available to multitude of the people and institutes via the Internet”. Babić et al., (2020)
on the other hand revised the definition and proposed that eWOM should be defined
as “consumer-generated, consumption-related communication that employs digital
tools and is directed primarily to other consumers”.

22

This study uses the definition by Babić et al., (2020) to conceptualize the term
eWOM. Lee & Youn (2009) refers “valence” of a certain eWOM as the evaluation
direction where it is either positive, negative or neutral where negative eWOM
provides risk signals that act as reminders to customers to discourage the use of a
certain product (Bhandari & Rodgers, 2018). eWOM extremity is then being
operationalized as “the extent to which an individual’s review deviates from the
general consumer consensus about the reviewed business” (Yang et al., 2018).

Therefore, based on the discussion above and in chapter 2, the characteristics
of the extremity of negative eWOM can be conceptualized as:

4. Negative eWOM is only available online.
5. It is a negative content or statement generated by consumer that provides

risk signals.
6. It is consumption-related content where it is aimed towards a certain

product, brand or company.
7. Its extremity extends ranges from moderate to extremely negative.

2. Valence of Past Experience
Lee & Youn (2009) refers “valence” of a certain as the evaluation direction

where it is either positive, negative or neutral. In this study, past experience is being
conceptualize as prior AirAsia use experience with either a positive or negative past
experience. This study focuses on consumer’s past experience of Air Asia as past
experience has been found positively correlated with online purchase intention (Aziz
& Wahid, 2018).

23

3. Purchase intention
According to Schiffman & Kanuk (2009), purchase intention is characterized

as a transaction activity shown by customers after reviewing products and services. It
is also defined as the likelihood of purchase where the higher the intention the high
probability is for the consumer to purchase a certain product or service (Alford &
Biswas, 2002).This study employ the definition of purchase intention by Alford &
Biswas (2002) as the likelihood of purchase of a certain product or service.

3.3 Operational Definitions
The variables discussed in the previous section is being operationalized in the

form of the following questions with scale items as derived below, mainly using the
7-point Likert Scale.

1. Extremity of Negative electronic word of mouth (Negative eWOM)
Based on the characteristics outline in the previous section, a negative

eWOM mainly targeting on Air Asia is being picked from their Trip Advisor page
where comments with risk signals are being selected. The negative eWOM is then
being modified into 2 different extremity level. Both versions are identical in every
respect except for the varying combinations of extremity of the eWOM: high
extremity and low extremity. The manipulation on the level of extremity is being
done by careful selection of evaluative adjectives which tends to show different
strength of extremity like “completely disappointed” and “slightly disappointed”.
Below show the 2 different versions of negative eWOM based on their level of
extremity.

24

Table 3.1: Different Extremity of Negative eWOM

High Extremity of Negative eWOM Low Extremity of Negative eWOM

We are frequent flyers of AirAsia but are We are frequent flyers of AirAsia but slightly
completely disappointed with the airline! disappointed with the airline.

Our flight was cancelled by them without Our flight was cancelled by them without
prior notice. We requested for a refund, and prior notice. We requested for a refund, and
was promised by the airline that we will be was promised by the airline that we will be
refunded in a few days. Attempt to get in refunded in a few days. Attempt to get in
touch with AirAsia is extremely unorganized touch with AirAsia is slightly unorganized
where it takes extra-long hours to get a reply where it takes long hours to get a reply via
via their email. Their customer relations are their email. Their customer relations are
the worst and major improvement must be okay but I feel it can be improved. Overall, it
made. Overall, the experience is a complete is a slightly poor experience.
disaster!

2. Past Experience

The past experience is the second independent variable for this study where
participants are being divided into two groups which is those with positive past
experience with Air Asia and negative past experience with AirAsia. 4 questions are
being proposed and measured using a 7-point Likert scale.

The first question is presented as “Did you fly or used Air Asia products before?”
with a Yes or No answer. Participants who answered no will be screened out from the
survey. Participants who answered yes will be presented with the following four
questions with a 7-point Likert scale:

i. Overall, my experience flying with Air Asia is very likable.
ii. My trip flying with AirAsia in the past is very pleasant.
iii. I found Air Asia a better choice to have in the past.
iv. My recent experience with Air Asia is very good.

25

The 7-point Likert scale used for these questions are:
1. Strongly Disagree
2. Disagree
3. Somewhat Disagree
4. Neutral
5. Somewhat Agree
6. Agree
7. Strongly Agree
The mean of responses for these four questions for each participant will be

calculated, with the highest mean as 7 and lowest as 1. Participants with mean score 4
or higher will be classified into the “Positive past experience” group while participants
with mean score lower than 4 will be classified into the “Negative past experience”
group.

3. Purchase intention
The purchase intention is operationalized into three 7-point Likert scale

questions adapted from Jung & Seock (2016). The questions are:
i. It is likely that I would purchase AirAsia tickets in the future.
ii. I would consider flying with Air Asia next time when I think of travelling.
iii. I will continue to fly with Air Asia in the future.
The 7-point Likert scale used for these questions are:

1. Strongly Disagree
2. Disagree

26

3. Somewhat Disagree
4. Neutral
5. Somewhat Agree
6. Agree
7. Strongly Agree

3.4 Research Methods

This study utilized a quantitative methodology to prove or disapprove the
hypothesis proposed in the previous chapter; specifically a field experiment, conducted
via online self-administered questionnaire as it is believed to be able to control bias
responses by participants (Grewal, Hardesty, & Iyer, 2004; Jung & Seock, 2016). The
method is adapted from Jung & Seock (2016) where different extremity level of
negative eWOM towards AirAsia has been used as stimuli for this study.

Field experiment has been widely used in the field of study where scholars
have been utilizing this method to explore effects of eWOM (Barhorst & Retweeting,
2017; Bhandari & Rodgers, 2018; Casado et al., 2017; Esmark et al., 2018;
Tantrabundit et al., 2018; Liu & Hu, 2016). While survey is also widely adapted, the
field experiment method is being chosen as it is a powerful tool for “inferring how
public opinion works in the real world” where it is easy to implement and able to avoid
problems of drawing inferences from traditional survey results. (Gaines, Kuklinski, &
Quirk, 2007). Field experiement is also useful to shed light on real-world effects of
interest where is it mainly used to understand “how people react to the content and
format of information presented to them” (Dafoe, Zhang, & Caughey, 2018). This is
being done so by manipulating the information or stimuli presented to the survey

27

participants then compare the responses of the participants that are assigned to
different informational conditions (Dafoe et al., 2018).

This study is using a 2 (Positive/Negative) x 2 (Low/High) field experiment
(Table 2). Air Asia is being chosen as the subject for this study as they are the pioneer
in the airline industry to implement Internet technology in its operation (booking
online, ticketless check in, self-kiosk check in etc) which results in them being named
the number one travel website in Asia by Google as 80% of their sales are generated
over the Internet (Jeddi, Renani, Khademi, Shokri, & Noordin, 2014). However,
AirAsia has been suffering from negative eWOM since the COVID-19 pandemic
strikes Malaysia. With uprising issues of cancelling flights, credit refunds and
restructuring to avert bankruptcy, AirAsia has been receiving thousands of eWOM
online especially on their social media platforms filled with raged consumers thus
making it a well-suited case for measuring the effects of negative eWOM towards
purchase intention mediated by past brand experience as they are heavily depending
on online sales.

Table 3.2: 2x2 Experiment Design

Extremity Level of Negative eWOM

Low High

Valence of Past Positive Low/Positive High/Positive
Experience Negative
Low/Negative High/Negative

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3.5 Instruments
The instrument used in this study is a field experiment, conducted via online

self-administered survey. This survey will be available in English and to be
administered to respondents as a self-administered online survey where it is delivered
electronically to maximize the scalability and data collection speed while increasing
respondents’ anonymity which tends to result to a more truthful responding result
(Gnambs & Kaspar, 2014; Marcano Belisario et al., 2014). The figure below shows
the flow of the field experiment used in this study.

Figure 3.1: Field Experiment Flow

The field experiment is being divided into 6 parts, with the first part being the
screening part. This part consists of 2 questions “Have you heard or know about Air
Asia” to screen out participants that does not have any brand awareness on Air Asia
and “Did you fly or used AirAsia products before?” to screen out participants without
past experience. The following questions will only be available to the participants if
they answered yes in this preceding screening question.

The second section continues with questions related to past experience.
Participants will be divided into 2 groups which is those with positive past experience

29

and negative past experience with AirAsia via this section of the survey question.
Valence of past experience (positive or negative) will be defined via a 7 point Likert
scale using the four question of this section.

Table 3.3: Valence of Past Experience Scale Item

Derived Scale Items Scale Authors
Valence of Past Experience Likert Scale 1-7 (Jung & Seock,
Overall, my experience (1=Strongly Disagree; 7=Strongly 2016)
flying with Air Asia is very Agree)
likable.

My trip flying with AirAsia
in the past is very pleasant.

I found Air Asia a better
choice to have in the past.

My recent experience with

Air Asia is very good.
After having a brief idea of participant’s past experience towards the brand,

they were then being divided into 2 experiement groups based on their valence of past

experience. Participants with mean score 4 or higher will be classified into the
“Positive past experience” group while participants with mean score lower than 4 will

be classified into the “Negative past experience” group.

Participant’s initial purchase intention will be recorded in this section. Table 4
below shows the scale items used to measure participant’s initial purchase intention.

Table 3.4: Purchase Intention Scale Items

Derived Scale Items Scale Authors
Purchase Intention Likert Scale 1-7 (Jung & Seock,
It is likely that I would (1=Strongly disagree; 7=Strongly 2016)
purchase AirAsia tickets in Agree)
the future.

I would consider flying
with Air Asia next time
when I think of travelling.

30

I will continue to fly with
Air Asia in the future.
After measuring participants’ initial purchase intention, participants from both

experiment group will then be randomly exposed to different extremity level of

negative eWOM. Only one version of negative eWOM will be exposed to the

participants and they will then be separated into different groups again based on the

extremity level of negative eWOM being exposed to. Participants are instructed to

carefully read through the negative eWOM statement before proceeding to the next

section.

Table 3.5: Extremity of Negative eWOM

High Extremity of Negative eWOM Low Extremity of Negative eWOM

We are frequent flyers of AirAsia but are We are frequent flyers of AirAsia but slightly
completely disappointed with the airline! disappointed with the airline.

Our flight was cancelled by them without Our flight was cancelled by them without
prior notice. We requested for a refund, and prior notice. We requested for a refund, and
was promised by the airline that we will be was promised by the airline that we will be
refunded in a few days. Attempt to get in refunded in a few days. Attempt to get in
touch with AirAsia is extremely unorganized touch with AirAsia is slightly unorganized
where it takes extra-long hours to get a reply where it takes long hours to get a reply via
via their email. Their customer relations are their email. Their customer relations are
the worst and major improvement must be okay but I feel it can be improved. Overall, it
made. Overall, the experience is a complete is a slightly poor experience.
disaster!

After the negative eWOM, participants’ purchase intention is measured again

by the same scale items used to measure the initial purchase intention (Refer Table 4).

The scale items are measured with a 7 point Likert scale with 1 as strongly disagree

and 7 as strongly agree.

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3.6 Sampling and Data Collection

This study is using a 2x2 field experiment where the sample size is being
calculated using an online sample calculator
(http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html). While this study is mainly focusing on
AirAsia as its subject, only participants that has awareness of this brand will be
included. While eWOM will only be available online, only users that has access to
Internet will be accounted as well. Therefore, the population size for this study will
need to have the criteria below. Participants that does not fit into the 2 criteria below
will be rejected from the sample.

1 Malaysian that has access to Internet
2 Has past experience with the brand Air Asia

According to MCMC (2020), 88.7% of the Malaysian population are internet
users while Malaysia's population in 2020 (at the time of the study) is estimated at 32.7
million (DOSM, 2020), therefore the total population for this study is 29 million. Using
the online sample calculator with 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error the
recommended minimum samples size is 385. While this study includes 4 different
groups, each group requires a minimum of 95 sample for each group which will then
make up to at least a total of 380 sample.

The field experiment which is self-administered will be generated via online
survey which will be available on the Internet. A survey via Qualtrics will be used to
generate the set of questions to collect data electronically where it will be easily
distributed among netizens via Facebook and Whatsapp or any social media platform.
Qualtrics is chosen to be the tool for this survey as it includes brand logic feature that
allows easy design in survey flow. Two screening questions will first be shown to

32

participants to only included targeted samples. The first question “Have you heard or
know about Air Asia” is to screen out participants that does not have any brand
awareness on Air Asia and the second question “Did you fly or used AirAsia products
before?” is used to screen out participants without past experience with the brand. Only
participants that answered both “Yes” to the two questions above will be included in
the sample and redirected to the survey questions and scenario. Using the branch logic
and randomizer tool, participants will then be breaked into groups based on their past
experience and randomly assigned to either one of the different extremity level of
negative eWOM. Figure 3 below shows the survey logic applied in Qualtrics.

Figure 3.2: Survey Branch Logic

33

3.7 Data Analysis Technique

The data collection is done via the designed survey as attached in Appendix 1.
All data collected will then be analysed using the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS). Hypothesis for the research will be tested using the analysis of
varience (ANOVA) test and paired sample t-test assisted by IBM SPSS. The ANOVA
test is chosen to compare the means between different groups more than two (Mishra,
Singh, & Pandey, 2019). The one-way ANOVA is used to compare the overall means
for both negative and positive past experience (Hypothesis 1) as well as the overall
means for both high and low extremity of negative eWOM (Hypothesis 2). It is useful
to compare means between two and more independent groups (Mishra et al., 2019).
The ANOVA test is conducted at a 95% confidence level to test the significant
difference. A significant P value is tested where if the value is greater than the critical
value (0.05) which then accepts both Hypothesis 1 and 2.

For Hypothesis 3, the two-way ANOVA is used to understand whether there is
any interrelationship between the valence of past experience and extremity of negative
eWOM on purchase intention. When an interaction effect is present, it shows that the
impact of one variable depends on the level of the other variable. The interaction effect
will be used to explain the main effects later then.

A paired sample t-test will be used for Hypothesis 4 to test the significant
difference between the initial and post purchase intention. Data for the initial purchase
intention is collected via participant’s purchase intention before exposure to different
extremity of negative eWOM while data for post purchase intention is collected via
participant’s purchase intention after being exposed to negative eWOM. The paired

34

sample t-test is used to test the significant difference berween both data mainly trying
to compare means before and after an intervention.

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents findings derived from the study. In this chapter, descriptive
analysis of variables will be presented and the significant difference and interactive
effect between several variables are derived. Collected data were entered into
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), to run appropriate statistical analyses.
The subsections below will encover findings for each of the hypothesis.

4.2 Data Reduction
A total of 390 responses were being collected via the online survey during the

experimental period. Out of 390 responses 303 were selected and the remaining 87
responses are excluded due to the screening questions. While all respondents did hear
about the brand AirAsia before (Screening Question 1), 87 of them did not fly or buy
AirAsia products before (Screening Question 2). This shows that they did not have any
past experience with AirAsia before and was excluded from all further analysis.

35

4.3 Descriptive Analysis of Variables

4.3.1 Valence of Past Experience
While 303 respondents heard about AirAsia and did use or fly with AirAsia

previously, not all of them have the same experience which leads to difference valence
of past experience. Overall, the mean score for valence of past experience records a
4.98 which is high above average. Scale item 3 ‘I found AirAsia a better choice to have
in the past’ records the lowest overall mean of 4.85 which scale item 2 ‘My trip flying
with Air Asia in the past is very pleasant’ records the highest overall mean among all
4 scale item with an overall mean of 5.15.

Table 4.1: Mean Score for Valence of Past Experience’ Scale Item

No. Question N Mean Std.
Deviation

1 Overall, my experience flying with Air Asia is very 303 5.07 1.156

likable.

2 My trip flying with Air Asia in the past is very 303 5.15 1.131

pleasant.

3 I found Air Asia a better choice to have in the past. 303 4.85 1.355

4 My recent experience with Air Asia is very good. 303 4.94 1.243

Overall Mean 4.98

4.3.2 Purchase Intention
Data for initial purchase intention was collected before respondents were

exposed to different extremity level of negative eWOM while data for post purchase
intention was collected after respondents were exposed to different extremity level of
negative eWOM. Table 4.2 shows the overall mean score for both initial and post
purchase intention. The overall mean for initial purchase intention records a mean
score of 5.42 while post purchase intention records an overall mean of 5.01. All three
scale item records a drop in mean score with a difference of 0.47 (scale item 1), 0.34
(scale item 2) and 0.41 (scale item 3). Scale item 1 ‘It is likely that I would purchase

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AirAsia tickets in the future’ recorded the highest overall mean score among three
scale items in both initial and post purchase intention. Oppositely, scale item 2 ‘I would
consider flying with Air Asia next time when I think of travelling’ scored the lowest
among three scale items in both initial and post purchase intention. While there is a
drop in mean scores for all scale items, all scale item records a mean of over 5 which
is higher than average.

Table 4.2: Mean Score for Purchase Intention Scale Item

Initial Purchase Post Purchase

No. Question N Intention Intention

Mean Std. Mean Std.
Deviation Deviation

1 It is likely that I would 303 5.51 1.088 5.04 1.337

purchase Air Asia tickets in

the future.

2 I would consider flying with 303 5.31 1.210 4.97 1.427

Air Asia next time when I

think of travelling.

3 I will continue to fly with Air 303 5.44 1.166 5.02 1.388

Asia in the future.

Overall 5.4191 1.0565 5.0099 1.2871

4.3.3 Extremity of Negative eWOM
Respondents are evenly assigned to 2 different extremity level of negative

eWOM via the randomizer tool in Qualtrics. The final sample (N=303) consists of near
equal number of respondents from both Low Extremity level of negative eWOM
(N=153) and High Extremity level of negative eWOM (N=150).

4.3.4 Valence of Past Experience x Extremity of Negative eWOM
To have a better understanding of the data represented in different quadrants of

the experiment design (refer Table 3.2), the overall mean and standard deviation for
each of the quadrant is described in Table 4.3 below.

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The Negative/Low group records a mean of 3.67 with a standard deviation of
1.593 while the Negative/High group records a mean of 4.29 with a standard deviation
of 1.279. The Postive/Low group records a mean of 5.3 with a standard deviation of
0.979 while the Postive/High group records a mean of 5.14 with a standard deviation
of 1.273.

Table 4.3: Mean Score for Valence of Past Experience x Extremity of Negative eWOM

Valence of Past Extremity of Mean Std. Deviation
Experience Negative eWOM
Negative Low Extremity 3.6667 1.59326
High Extremity 4.2917 1.27901
Positive 3.9608 1.47369
Total 5.3016 .97928
Total Low Extremity 5.1429 1.27362
High Extremity 5.2222 1.13654
5.0131 1.27038
Total 5.0067 1.30819
Low Extremity 5.0099 1.28710
High Extremity

Total

To have a better overview of the means for each of the quardrants, the figure 4.1
below illustrates the mean scores in respective quardrants.

Extremity Level of Negative eWOM

Low High
M=5.00
M=5.01 SD=1.308

SD=1.27 High/Positive
M= 5.1429
Positive Low/Positive SD=1.274

M=5.22 M= 5.3016 High/Negative
M= 4.2917
Valence of Past SD=1.137 SD= 0.979 SD=1.279
Experience
Negative Low/Negative

M=3.96 M= 3.6667

SD=1.474 SD=1.593

Figure 4.1: Means of respective quardrants

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4.4 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test

The hypothesis for this research is being tested using analysis of variance
(ANOVA) tests with a 2x2 between subjects design with two degree of past experience
valence (positive vs. negative) and two extremity level of negative eWOM (low vs.
high). The ANOVA test also provides information regarding any interaction effects,
that is, if there is any difference between positive (or negative) past experience
respondents exposed to low vs. high extremity level of negative eWOM. Results of the
two-way ANOVA test is displayed in Table 4.4 as below as well as the Levene’s test
result in Table 4.5. The Levene’s test showed that the variances of the groups were not
equal [F(3,299)=4.796, p=0.003].

Table 4.4: Two-Way ANOVA result

Source df Mean F Sig. Partial Eta
.000 Squared
Valence of Past Square
Experience .133
Extremity of 1 65.352 45.841
negative eWOM
Valence of Past 1 2.299 1.612 .205 .005
Experience *
Extremity of 1 6.495 4.556 .034 .015
negative eWOM
Error 299 1.426
Total 303
Corrected Total 302

Table 4.5: Levene’s test result

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variancesa,b

Levene df1 df2 Sig.

Statistic 299 .003
299 .009
Post Purchase Based on Mean 4.796 3
Intention
Based on Median 3.952 3

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Based on Median 3.952 3 286.3 .009
and with adjusted 4.765 40
df
Based on trimmed 3 299 .003
mean

4.4.1 Significant Main Effect of Valence of Past Experience on Purchase
Intention
According to the ANOVA result as displayed in Table 4.4, there was a

significant effect of valence of past experience on purchase intention at the p<0.05
level, [F(1,299)=45.841, p=0.000]. The p value reported is <0.05 therefore Hypothesis
1 is accepted while the Null Hypothesis is rejected. This shows that there is significant
main effect of valence of past experience on purchase intention. Although the results
found a main effect of valence of past experience, this main effect was qualified by an
interaction between valence of past experience and extremity level of negative eWOM.

4.4.2 Significant Main Effect of Extremity Level of Negative eWOM on
Purchase Intention

According to the ANOVA result as displayed in the above table, there was not a
significant effect of extremity level of negative eWOM on purchase intention at the
p<0.05 level, F(1,299)=1.612, p=0.205. The p value reported is >0.05 therefore
Hypothesis 2 is rejected while the Null Hypothesis is accepted. This shows that there
is no significant main effect of extremity level of negative eWOM on purchase
intention.

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