The Impact of Social Motivations on Word-of-Mouth Generation by Japanese Consumers

The authors examine the role of three social motivations (social bonding, social comparison, and the sharing of social norm information) in generating word-of-mouth (WOM) among consumers in a culture (Japan) where many consumers have an interdependent construal of self. Based on existing discussions of East Asian cultures in general and Japanese culture in particular, the authors hypothesized that these social motivations would be positively...