Ambivalence and electronic word of mouth

Electronic word of mouth (eWoM) communications are online consumer-generated reviews that affect other consumers’ perceptions of adopting pertinent services. The major component of eWoM is the sentiment portrayed in form of text by the sender of the eWoM to enlighten the receiver of eWoM about the nature of a focal goods/services. It is customary to have the sender of eWoM message to also provide his/her overall attitude in form of a bipolar measure (e.g., star-rating). However, research into ambivalence spawned from the observation that traditional bipolar measures of attitude fail to distinguish between ambivalence and indifference. This paper explores the possible discrepancies that arise between using the sentiment of the eWoM text message versus overall attitude denoted by the star rating within the context of eWoM for restaurants in Yelp.com.