• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.89-108
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• 2018

This paper aims to explore the analysis of the meanings and processes of reading online consumer reviews and to construct a substantive theory that explains the process involved with the phenomenon of reading consumer reviews. In order to explore the phenomenon, this study employs a qualitative methodology. Following the grounded theory perspective, the researcher conducted interviews with 17 participants, who have subsequently shopped online and utilized online consumer reviews for shopping, and decidedly employed in-depth interviews with those participants. Through coding and making constant comparison, several themes emerged: improving confidence, trusting reviews, getting a sense of who reviewers are, seeking balance, processing and handling negative reviews, experiencing vicariously, increasing searchability, getting a sense of who they are in terms of similarity, and seeking benefits and the usage situations from consumer based reviews. Among the emerging themes, improving confidence can be considered a core category, which is influenced by the analysis of trusting reviews and the consumer vicarious experiences with a product. Moreover, this study discusses the relationships among the themes. This study concludes with a discussion of the results, implications, and limitations.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.21-32
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• 2017

This study analyzes the variable consumer characteristics that influence the intention to use online product reviews. In online e-commerce, where purchases take place without consumers seeing the products in person, the product reviews left by other consumers who have already purchased the product are believed to be valuable information. However, when different consumers read the same product review, their responses to it may vary. This study analyzes the characteristics of consumers who utilize product reviews for their purchases. Consumer characteristics are categorized into personal information, personality, purchasing tendency, and experience related to product reviews. These factors are examined to see if they have direct or indirect effects on a consumer's intention to use product reviews when making online purchases. We surveyed a total of 240 consumers who had experience using e-commerce and knew about online product reviews. Once the data was collected, path analysis was conducted using the statistics tool AMOS. The study results reveal that consumers who are female, extroverted, and have higher price sensitivity think that product reviews left by others are useful, and that this "perceived usefulness" has a positive effect on the intention to use product reviews for making online purchasing decisions. In addition, consumers who are agreeable to others, have high brand sensitivity, and who have left numerous reviews themselves demonstrated the tendency to trust reviews left by others more. Thus, we conclude that this "perceived reliability" makes it more likely that a consumer will use product reviews when making online purchasing decisions. Future research can be done to develop this study further by analyzing whether providing online product reviews corresponding to the personal characteristics of consumers enhances the effect of product reviews on online purchasing decisions.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.440-451
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• 2013

Because of the e-shopping market consumers now have diverse options to choose when placing their orders, and find it easy to obtain the required information through the Internet. Especially, for consumers, product reviews posted on an e-tailer's website have become more important criteria than such information available elsewhere. Hence, this study investigated the influence of the direction and evaluative contents of online reviews on consumer attitudes toward clothing products. Four types of online reviews based on direction (positive/negative) and evaluative content in review information (objective/subjective) were used in the experimental design. Further, stimulus reviews were developed. Credibility, usefulness of reviews, product preference, and purchase intention were the measured dependent variables in each of the four situations of online review presentations. The results indicated that, overall, positive and objective online reviews resulted in a higher level of consumer attitude. The content in these reviews had a relatively stronger influence than the direction on attitudes toward online reviews. Overall, objective reviews generated a higher level of credibility and usefulness of information than subjective reviews. Regarding subjective reviews, negative information was more related to credibility, whereas positive information was more related to usefulness. Further, positive information had a higher influence than negative information on consumer attitudes.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.139-148
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• 2024

In the post-pandemic era, the demand for online education platforms has surged, leading to increased consumer reliance on online reviews for decision-making. This study investigates the impact of Chinese online customer reviews on consumer purchase behavior in online education. By examining the role of trust, review sentiment, and the quantity and timeliness of reviews, the research aims to understand how these factors influence consumer decisions. By using regression model, findings reveal that negative reviews, timely feedback, and a higher volume of reviews positively affect consumer purchase decisions, while course pricing demonstrates an inverse relationship. Furthermore, cognitive and affective trust mediate the relationship between reviews and purchase behavior, highlighting a reverse U-shaped effect on consumer decision inclination. These insights provide valuable implications for online education providers, emphasizing the need to manage and leverage online reviews to foster consumer trust and improve sales performance.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2019

Prior studies on the effects of online consumer reviews have mainly focused on review valence, but little research has investigated how two-sided (both positive and negative) and one-sided (only positive) reviews influence consumers' response to online review. In addition, little attention has been paid to how sponsorship presence (firm-sponsored reviews vs. consumer-voluntary reviews) influences individuals' attitude toward online review. Unlike consumer-voluntary reviews without any monetary incentive, firm-sponsored reviews include messages about brands providing monetary compensation. This study examines whether review valence (two-sidedness vs. one-sidedness) influences attitude toward online review via its influence on review credibility. Further, this study examines whether sponsorship presence affects when review valence influences attitude toward review. Thus, this research investigates the effect of review valence on attitude toward review and the moderating role of sponsorship presence in the relationship between review valence and attitude toward review. The first experiment reveals that attitude toward review is more favorable when the review is two-sided (vs. one-sided). The second study demonstrates that differences between the two-sided and the one-sided review occur only for firm-sponsored reviews, not for consumer-voluntary reviews. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.3-17
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• 2013

As electronic marketplaces grow and a large number of consumers exchange their opinions on products and services on the Internet, many studies have been conducted in the area of online consumer reviews. This paper analyzes the research trend of the online consumer reviews by investigating those studies in an attempt to provide future research directions. Many researchers have focused on the effects of online reviews on consumer behaviors as well as the usefulness of the online reviews. In particular, review contents, characteristics of reviewers/consumers and features of products/services have been identified as influencing factors on the effects of the online consumer reviews. For the review contents, the number and the volume of the contents have increasing effects on the online reviews, while the direction (positive vs. negative) of the contents has resulted in conflicting effects of the review. The reputation and trustfulness of reviewers, consumers' prior knowledge on the products, consumers' product involvement, and types of the products were investigated as these factors influence the effectiveness of the online consumer reviews. Social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) nowadays play an important role to disseminate online reviews among consumers. Thus, it is necessary to study how social media influence the effects of online reviews on consumers. Since some firms abuse the online reviews for their own sakes, we recognize the necessity for empirical studies on the side effects of the online reviews.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.994-1009
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• 2016

Applying the S-O-R Model within an online context, a hypothesized model incorporates three review characteristics (perceived concreteness, exaggeration, and sufficient quantity of reviews) for apparel products in order to present their impact on consumer perceptions of review usefulness and consumer attitude toward and patronage intent for the online stores hosting the reviews. An online survey of Korean women (N=299) reported their experiences in purchasing apparel products online and reading apparel reviews on a regular basis. Testing of the hypothesized model showed the usefulness of reviews were determined by two review characteristics (S: perceived concreteness and sufficient quantity of reviews); however, the negative effect of exaggerated reviews were insignificant. In addition, the perceived usefulness of reviews (O-cognitive) hosted by an online store influenced online store attitude (O-affective) which subsequently led to online store patronage intent (R). This study systemically advances online retail literature by showing how the characteristics of online reviews (as a part of the online store environment) can influence attitude toward online stores and patronage intent for online stores. Long term relationships with consumers can be achieved through the building of mechanisms to enhance the perceived usefulness of reviews by employing the strategies of hosting concrete reviews and offering a sufficient quantity of reviews. This study addresses removes research gaps by testing an adapted the S-O-R Model that frames review information as an element of an online store environment using a large sample.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.449-476
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• 2016

This study examines how an initially perceived product value affects consumer's purchase intention after reading online reviews with various tones. The study proposes that associations among initially perceived overall product value, degree of confirmation resulting from reading the reviews, and final purchase intention differ across review tones such that 1) when the tone is favorable, the effect of an initially perceived product value is stronger than when the tone is critical, and 2) when the tone is extreme, the effect of confirmation is stronger than when the tone is moderate. The survey was conducted with 276 online shopping mall users in Korea, and most of the hypotheses were supported. This study asserts that the effects of online reviews should be considered together with customer's level of expectation formed prior to reading online reviews, which resulted from extensive search and screening processes that the customer went through before reading online reviews.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.831-846
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• 2017

Considering that the effectiveness of ads varies according to the credibility of consumers, it is necessary to establish data regarding consumer credibility in relation to online reviews. To conduct a successful study on the marketing strategies of online reviews, it is also necessary to analyze the relationship between credibility and the various factors that influence the purchase intentions of consumers. Therefore, this study attempted to examine the relationship between consumer trust of on-line reviews, brand preference, ads credibility, and purchase intentions in relation to cosmetics. The study was conducted through a normative descriptive survey method using stimuli and a self-administered questionnaire. Analysis of the structural equation model was conducted for the data analysis. The results revealed that consumer reliance on online reviews of cosmetics influences brand preference, credibility of brand ads and purchase intentions. The results also revealed that consumers' on-line reviews, brand preference, and trust of brand ads are important factors for increasing the purchase intentions. The mediation effect of brand preference and brands' ads credibility were found in the process where on-line reviews exercise an influence on the purchase intentions. It was also found that brand preference has a stronger influence on purchase intention than credibility of brand ads. It was discovered that the credibility of on-line reviews directly influences purchase intentions more than indirectly influences. Considering the results of this study, programs that encourage customers to post on-line reviews, and strategies to promote brand preference by targeting groups that exhibit high trust in online reviews would be recommended.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.133-150
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• 2023

Purpose This study aims to develop classification models using a decision tree algorithm to identify core keywords and rules influencing online consumer review evaluations for the robot vacuum cleaner on Amazon.com. The difference from previous studies is that we analyze core keywords that affect the evaluation results by dividing the subjects that evaluate online consumer reviews into self-evaluation (star ratings) and peer evaluation (helpfulness votes). We investigate whether the core keywords influencing star ratings and helpfulness votes vary across different products and whether there is a similarity in the core keywords related to star ratings or helpfulness votes across all products. Design/methodology/approach We used random under-sampling to balance the dataset. We progressively removed independent variables based on decreasing importance through backwards elimination to evaluate the classification model's performance. As a result, we identified classification models that best predict star ratings and helpfulness votes for each product's online consumer reviews. Findings We have identified that the core keywords influencing self-evaluation and peer evaluation vary across different products, and even for the same model or features, the core keywords are not consistent. Therefore, companies' producers and marketing managers need to analyze the core keywords of each product to highlight the advantages and prepare customized strategies that compensate for the shortcomings.