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Delight the experts, but never dissatisfy your customers! A multi-category study on the effects of online review source on intention to buy a new product

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  • Plotkina, Daria
  • Munzel, Andreas

Abstract

Online reviews are a pervasive form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) that potentially accelerate—or slow down—the diffusion of recently launched services in the marketplace. While empirical research largely supports the effects of online reviews on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, less is known about the impact the source of the review—i.e., if it comes from a peer consumer or an expert—has on the recipient. Two experiments that combine reviewer- (expert, consumer), service type- (mobile package, restaurant, car repair), consumer- (level of general innovativeness), and review-related (positive, negative) characteristics reveal a challenging interaction between the review’s source and its valence: while—compared to an established baseline—a positive expert review seems more effective in increasing the recipient's intention to purchase than a review by a peer consumer, a negative consumer review lowers the recipient's intentions to a larger extent than a negative expert review. We further find effects of the consumer's innovativeness and the service category across the experiments. Our research contributes to the topical and increasing body of empirical research on the effects of involved characteristics within online reviews across several product types.

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  • Plotkina, Daria & Munzel, Andreas, 2016. "Delight the experts, but never dissatisfy your customers! A multi-category study on the effects of online review source on intention to buy a new product," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-11.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:29:y:2016:i:c:p:1-11
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.11.002
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    1. Elvira Ismagilova & Emma L. Slade & Nripendra P. Rana & Yogesh K. Dwivedi, 0. "The Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth Communications on Intention to Buy: A Meta-Analysis," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
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    6. Könsgen, Raoul & Schaarschmidt, Mario & Ivens, Stefan & Munzel, Andreas, 2018. "Finding Meaning in Contradiction on Employee Review Sites — Effects of Discrepant Online Reviews on Job Application Intentions," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 165-177.
    7. Krishnamurthy, Anup & Kumar, S. Ramesh, 2018. "Electronic word-of-mouth and the brand image: Exploring the moderating role of involvement through a consumer expectations lens," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 149-156.
    8. Kaushik, Kapil & Mishra, Rajhans & Rana, Nripendra P. & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2018. "Exploring reviews and review sequences on e-commerce platform: A study of helpful reviews on Amazon.in," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 21-32.
    9. Plotkina, Daria & Munzel, Andreas & Pallud, Jessie, 2020. "Illusions of truth—Experimental insights into human and algorithmic detections of fake online reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 511-523.
    10. Elvira Ismagilova & Emma L. Slade & Nripendra P. Rana & Yogesh K. Dwivedi, 2020. "The Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth Communications on Intention to Buy: A Meta-Analysis," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 1203-1226, October.
    11. Abdul Kadir Othman & Lailatul Faizah Abu Hassan & Muhammad Iskandar Hamzah & Amirun Razin Razali & Mohamad Amir Shah Saim & Mohd Safwan Ramli & Muhammad Amir Osman & Mohamad Amirul Anbia Azhar, 2019. "The Influence of Social Commerce Factors on Customer Intention to Purchase," Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research, Knowledge Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-10.
    12. Eslami, Seyed Pouyan & Ghasemaghaei, Maryam, 2018. "Effects of online review positiveness and review score inconsistency on sales: A comparison by product involvement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 74-80.
    13. Perez, Dikla & Stockheim, Inbal & Baratz, Guy, 2022. "Complimentary competition: The impact of positive competitor reviews on review credibility and consumer purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    14. Ismagilova, Elvira & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Slade, Emma, 2020. "Perceived helpfulness of eWOM: Emotions, fairness and rationality," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    15. Ayat Zaki Ahmed & Manuel Rodríguez Díaz, 2022. "A Methodology for Machine-Learning Content Analysis to Define the Key Labels in the Titles of Online Customer Reviews with the Rating Evaluation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-31, July.
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    17. Wu, Jia-Jhou & Chang, Sue-Ting, 2020. "Exploring customer sentiment regarding online retail services: A topic-based approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).

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