E-tailer website attributes and trust: understanding the role of online reviews

Impulse buying behavior during livestreaming: Moderating effects of scarcity persuasion and price perception

This research aimed to identify the factors that influence impulse buying behavior during livestreaming and advance the existing literature based on a proposed conceptual framework grounded in the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. We also tested the moderating effects of price perception and scarcity persuasion. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 837 Chinese participants aged over 18 years. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling using Smart-PLS version 4.0. The findings showed that susceptibility to social influence, impulse buying tendency, cognitive reactions, affective reactions, and the urge to buy impulsively are statistically significant predictors of impulse buying during livestreaming, with price perception and scarcity persuasion as moderators. The study expands the S-O-R model for livestreaming impulse buying in e-commerce context, highlighting its multifaceted nature and revealing the mediating role of Urge to Buy Impulsively in translating cognitive and emotional factors into impulse buying behavior. These insights offer practical guidance for marketers to design tailored strategies that leverage psychological triggers and external cues to enhance consumer engagement and encourage desired behaviors, ultimately leading to more effective marketing campaigns and improved consumer experiences.

The impact of online reviews on renters' perceived trust in property information

Using cognitive consistency theory, we explored the mechanisms of prospective renters' cognitive processing and cognitive outcomes of reviewing rental listing information on the Internet. We conducted an eye-movement experiment with 102 prospective renters to investigate the mechanisms influencing their cognitive processing and outcomes, via a 2 (comment form: subjective, objective) × 2 (risk preference: risk avoider, risk preference) factorial design. The results show that (a) subjective reviews required more cognitive processing effort than did objective reviews, but the perceived trust level of subjective reviews was lower; (b) risk-averse (vs. risk-inclined) participants put more cognitive effort into processing listing information, but their perceived trust in the listing information was lower; and (c) participants' perceived trust in listing information was mainly influenced by the display attributes of the webpage, rather than the review information. Our results will help Internet rental companies understand tenants' information concerns and enhance their online display pages in a targeted manner.

Effect of word of mouth on m-payment service adoption: a developing country case study

This study determines influential factors that account for mobile payment service adoption in a developing country and assesses the mediating effect of word of mouth on this platform. Our model combines multi-dimensions of trust and risk, and word of mouth to predict the target population’s use intention and use behavior. We use the structural equation modeling method to analyze the data collected by an online survey of 392 respondents who use mobile payment services in Bangladesh. This study’s results reveal that trust in service providers, trust in service, privacy risk, and security risk have significant impacts on the intention to use. The findings also indicate that word of mouth mediates the direct impacts of trust in service providers, trust in apps, and security risk on the intention to use. In addition, importance-performance map analysis depicts that word of mouth is the most critical performing factor, but performance is comparatively low.

What Affects Usage Satisfaction in Mobile Payments? Modelling User Generated Content to Develop the "Digital Service Usage Satisfaction Model"

Mobile payment services have become increasingly important in daily lives in India due to multiple planned and unplanned events. The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of usage satisfaction of mobile payments which could enhance service adoption. The "Digital Service Usage Satisfaction Model" has been proposed and validated by combining technology adoption and service science literature. First the data was extracted from Twitter based on hashtags and keywords. Then using sentiment mining and topic modelling the large volumes of text were analysed. Then network science was also used for identifying clusters among associated topics. Then, using content analysis methodology, a theoretical model was developed based on literature. Finally using multiple regression analysis, we validated the proposed model. The study establishes that cost, usefulness, trust, social influence, credibility, information privacy and responsiveness factors are more important to increase the usage satisfaction of mobile payments services. Also methodologically, this is an endeavour to validate a new approach which uses social media data for developing a inferential theoretical model.

eWOM credibility: a comprehensive framework and literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) credibility. Further, the authors propose a comprehensive and integrated model on eWOM credibility.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic review of the extant literature on marketing, sociology and psychology to identify the factors that affect eWOM credibility. Further, the authors developed themes and identified factors which lead to eWOM credibility.

Findings

Four factors were identified, i.e. content, communicator, context and consumer, which affect eWOM credibility. Several variables associated with these four factors were identified, which result in eWOM credibility. Further, the authors developed 22 propositions to explain the causal relationship between these variables and eWOM credibility.

Research limitations/implications

The conceptual model needs empirical validation across various eWOM platforms, i.e. social networking websites, e-commerce websites, etc.

Practical implications

Managers and e-commerce vendors can use these inputs to develop specific design elements and assessment tools which can help consumers to identify credible eWOM messages. Credible eWOM messages, in turn, will increase the “trust” and “loyalty” of the customers on e-commerce vendors.

Originality/value

This paper provides a conclusive takeaway of eWOM credibility literature by integrating multiple perspectives and arguments from the extant literature. This study also presents an integrated model, which provides a theoretical framework for researchers to further examine the interaction effect of various variables, which results in eWOM credibility.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0263

Which cues influence the perceived usefulness and credibility of an online review? A conjoint analysis

Purpose

This study aims to assess the relative importance of the argument strength, argument sidedness, writing quality, number of arguments, rated review usefulness, summary review rating and number of reviews in determining the perceived usefulness and credibility of an online review. Additionally, the authors use insights from the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to explore the effect of consumers' product category involvement on the cues' relative importance.

Design/methodology/approach

A conjoint analysis (N = 287) is used to study the relative importance of the seven previously mentioned attributes. A balanced orthogonal design generated eight cards that correspond to individual reviews. Respondents scored all eight cards in a random order for perceived usefulness and credibility.

Findings

Overall, argument strength is the most important cue, while summary review rating and the number of reviews are the least important for perceived review usefulness and credibility. The number of arguments is more important for people who are more highly involved with the product, while writing quality and rated review usefulness are relatively more important for the low-involvement group.

Originality/value

This study provides a comprehensive test of how consumers perceive online reviews, as it the first to the authors’ knowledge to simultaneously investigate a large set of cues using conjoint analysis. This method allows for the implicit valuation (utility) of the individual cues, revealing the cues' relative importance, in a setting that comes close to a real-life context. Besides, insights of the ELM are used to understand how the relative importance of cues differs depending on the level of review readers' product category involvement.

The helpfulness of online reviews

Purpose

Online reviews are increasingly available for a wide range of products and services in e-commerce. Most consumers rely heavily on online reviews when making purchase decisions, so an important topic is that of understanding what makes some online reviews helpful in the eyes of consumers. Researchers have demonstrated the benefits of the presence of customer reviews to an online retailer, however, few studies have investigated how images in review content and the facial expressions of reviewers’ avatars influence the judgment of online review helpfulness. This study draws on self-construal theory, attribution theory and affect-as-information theory to empirically test a model of the interaction effects of images in review content and the facial expressions of reviewers’ avatars on online review helpfulness. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper is to identify an underlying mechanism of causal attribution toward store performance on the above effects.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted two online experiments. Study 1 is a 2 (images in review content: one person with a product vs a group of people with a product) ×2 (facial expression of the reviewer’s avatar: happy vs angry) between-subjects design. Study 2 is a 3 (image: product alone vs one person with a product vs a group of people with a product) ×2 (facial expression of the reviewer’s avatar: happy vs angry) ×3 (valence of the review: positive vs negative vs neutral) between-subjects design.

Findings

The results indicate that when consumers were exposed to a happy-looking avatar, they were likely to express higher perceptions of online review helpfulness in response to an image showing a group of people in a restaurant than they would for an image of one person in the same situation. In contrast, when consumers were exposed to an angry-looking avatar, their perceptions of online review helpfulness did not differ in response to images of either a group of people or of one person. Furthermore, cause attribution toward store performance mediated the interaction between images in content of reviews and the facial expression of a reviewer’s avatar on the perceptions of online review helpfulness.

Practical implications

The authors provide insights into how to develop guidelines on how online reviews should be written so that readers perceive them to be helpful, and how to design effective reward mechanisms for customer feedback.

Originality/value

Compared with previous studies, this study provides further contributions in three ways. First, it contributes to the literature on review content by showing which images in reviews are deemed to be helpful. Second, it extends previous findings from the literature relating to online peer reviews by demonstrating the importance of facial expressions in reviewers’ avatars (i.e. happy vs angry) when explaining helpfulness, rather than the strength of purchase intent. Third, this study contributes by further highlighting a novel mechanism which shows that a causal attribution toward store performance motivates the perceptions of online review helpfulness.