Purpose - Based on the foundations of the schema theory, the elaboration likelihood model, and

customer experience literature, this research examines how the interplay between a consumer’s

previous shopping experience(s) and perceived credibility of negative online word-of-mouth

leads to improved consumer-firm relationship quality.

Design/methodology/approach – We utilised series of scenario-based experiments (N = 918) to

test our research hypotheses.

Findings – We show that a focal customer’s previous shopping experiences attenuate the

perceived credibility of negative word-of-mouth on social media by other customers, which in

turn weakens consumer-firm relationship quality. We also show that positive and negative

perceptual experiences are asymmetric.

Research limitations/implications – First, the online shopping experiences described in the

experimental scenarios were generic and did not refer to any particular product/service. Thus,

calibrating products and services into categories, and studying how product type differences

impact online shopping experiences warrant further research.

Practical implications – From a practical perspective, we demonstrate that not only does

enhancing consumer-firm relationship quality demand meticulous integration of consumers'

website and social media experiences, in positive vs. negative perception scenarios, relationship

quality wane as review frequency increases.

Originality/value – We contribute significant insight to the existing literature by specifically

adopting the premise that consumers’ previous online shopping experience(s) will influence how

credibly they will perceive negative online WOM posted on social media.