Other title: ANZMAC 2009, sustainable management and marketing conference.
The specific question that this paper seeks to answer is: are psychographic culturallyanchored
values antecedents to positive word of mouth intention independent of an
individual’s generational (Generation Y rather than Generation X) membership? This
question has important implications specifically for university leaders and more generally to
service-based industries. Results suggest that positive word of mouth intention is influenced
by psychographic characteristics. Generation Y’s positive word of mouth antecedents were:
high collectivism, high uncertainty avoidance, and high power distance; whereas Generation
X’s was only high collectivism. This paper concludes by outlining the implications for future
research of Generation Y for university leaders tasked with enhancing positive word of mouth
in current students and alumni.