a Asst. Prof., PhD., Okan University, Faculty of Business and Administrative Sciences, Istanbul, Turkiye, edin.sozer@okan.edu.tr (ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4984-4629) Cite this article as: Sozer, E. G. (2019). The effect of message valence on e-wom spread: A moderated mediation analysis. Business and Economics Research Journal, 10(2), 541-555. The current issue and archive of this Journal is available at: www.berjournal.com The Effect of Message Valence on e-WoM Spread: A Moderated Mediation Analysis Edin Guclu Sozer a Abstract: This study aims to examine the effect of e-WoM message on the intention level of consumers to spread the word to other consumers in the presence of a moderated mediation interaction effect between risk perception and uncertainty avoidance levels of consumers. An experimental design was implemented, and the manipulated experimental condition was e-WoM message represented in two levels, negative and positive. The results indicate that, compared to negative ones, positive e- WoM messages lead to higher intention to share the message with other consumers. However, in the presence of perceived risk, the positive direct effect of positive messages turns into a negative indirect effect when perceived risk mediates this relationship. Moreover, this negative indirect effect stabilizes with the uncertainty avoidance moderated relationship between e-WoM message and perceived risk. In the light of these findings, a two levels e-WoM communication strategy was proposed to maximize the benefits of positive customer feedbacks: Construction of a strong pool of positive e- WoM messages generated by existing satisfied customers and the use of negative framing in the marketing communication messages targeted to prospect customers. Keywords: e-WoM, Message Valence, Perceived Risk, Uncertainty Avoidance JEL: M30, M31, M37 Received : 24 November 2018 Revised : 30 January 2019 Accepted : 06 February 2019 Type : Research 1. Introduction The fast adoption of internet among consumers as a means of both communication and transaction, led to the development of platforms which are used for different purposes including socializing, information sharing as well as e-commerce. Social media, blogs and consumer forums are those powerful tools which consumers use to share their opinions as well as experiences with brands, products or services. This content, namely User Generated Content (UGC), when it includes any positive or negative statement about the brands, its products or services and shared with public, it is called as electronic word of mouth - e-WoM (Thurau & Walsh, 2003). Active and extensive usage of these platforms led the e-WoM communication to be an important reference point for consumers, which is eventually turned into an important factor affecting the purchase decisions (Stauss, 1991). Consumer surveys also confirm that consumers use e-WoM content as a reference before making their purchases and their decision-making is influenced by the evaluations of other consumers (Cheung & Thadani, 2012). As a reaction to the changing dynamics of marketing ecosystem and consumer behavior, brands employed digital media as a part of their communication mix and started to allocate a considerable portion of their communication budget to digital advertisement. According to eMarketer (2017), the share of total Business and Economics Research Journal Vol. 10, No. 2, 2019, pp. 541-555 doi: 10.20409/berj.2019.184