Positive Word-of-Mouth Behaviour

What it measures

Seven seven-point items assess how frequently a customer engages in positive word-of-mouth behaviour toward a service provider, including mentioning the provider to others, making others aware of the relationship, speaking positively about employees, and recommending the provider to family, acquaintances, and close friends. Developed in the context of car dealership relationships, the scale is generalisable to other service provider contexts.

Response format

7-point rating scale (1=never, 7=frequently)

Scale items

• Mentioned to others that you do business with the dealership.
• Made sure that others know that you do business with the dealership.
• Spoke positively about the dealership employee(s) to others.
• Recommended the dealership to family members.
• Spoke positively of the dealership to others.
• Recommended the dealer to acquaintances.
• Recommended the dealership to close personal friends.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha of .95. CFA supported convergent and discriminant validity. One discriminant validity test raised a concern with a satisfaction scale, but a second test was sufficient for the authors to claim discriminant validity. The dealership focus in the items can be replaced with another service provider type.

Citation

Brown, T. J., Barry, T. E., Dacin, P. A., & Gunst, R. F. (2005). Spreading the word: Investigating antecedents of consumers' positive word-of-mouth intentions and behaviors in a retailing context. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33(2), 123–138.

Keywords