The credibility and attribution of online reviews: Differences between high and low product knowledge consumers

Impact of information credibility on social media information adoption behavior: a systematic literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this systematic literature review was to collect and review the studies published worldwide in English language presenting the persuasive role of information/content credibility (IC) on the information adoption behavior (IAB) of social media users.

Design/methodology/approach

The relevant literature was searched by the reviewers from two specialized databases, i.e. Library, Information Science and Technological Abstract (LISTA) and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), whereas five general databases, i.e. Emerald, Springer Link, Taylor and Francis Online, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global and Google Scholar, using the Internet (portal) services available at the two Pakistani universities, i.e. University of Sargodha and the University of the Punjab. The search was updated in February 2022.

Findings

The results of this study revealed that there was a significant impact of IC over the IAB of social media users.

Originality/value

This study is the first of its nature that aims to collect and present a systematic review of the literature based on empirical evidence of the influential role of IC on the IAB of social media users.

Predictions on usefulness and popularity of online reviews: evidence from mobile phones for older adults

Purpose

Online reviews are regarded as a source of information for decision-making because of the abundance and ready availability of information. Whereas, the sheer volume of online reviews makes it hard for consumers, especially the older adults who perceive more difficulties in reading reviews and obtaining information compared to younger adults, to locate the useful ones. The main objective of this study is to propose an effective method to locate valuable reviews of mobile phones for older adults. Besides, the authors also want to explore what characteristics of the technology older adults prefer. This will benefit both e-retailers and e-commerce platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

After collecting online reviews related to mobile phones designed for older adults from a popular Chinese e-commerce platform (JD Mall), topic modeling, term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), and linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC) methods were applied to extract latent topics and uncover potential dimensions that consumers frequently referred to in their reviews. According to consumers' attitudes towards different popular topics, seven machine learning models were employed to predict the usefulness and popularity of online reviews due to their excellent performance in prediction. To improve the performance, a weighted model based on the two best-performing models was built and evaluated.

Findings

Based on the TF-IDF, topic modeling, and LIWC methods, the authors find that older adults are more interested in the exterior, sound, and communication functions of mobile phones. Besides, the weighted model (Random Forest: Decision Tree = 2:1) is the best model for predicting the online review popularity, while random forest performs best in predicting the perceived usefulness of online reviews.

Practical implications

This study’s findings can help e-commerce platforms and merchants identify the needs of the targeted consumers, predict reviews that will get more attention, and provide some early responses to some questions.

Originality/value

The results propose that older adults pay more attention to the mobile phones' exterior, sound, and communication function, guiding future research. Besides, this paper also enriches the current studies related to making predictions based on the information contained in the online reviews.

There is no smoke without fire: How frequency information and the experience attribution make negative online restaurant reviews more harmful

The paper proposes and evidences that a more frequent mentioning of a service issue in an online restaurant review makes the readers blame the restaurant more for the issue. This inside attribution, in turn, may worsen the restaurant evaluation. Two experiments (Study 1 and 2) examine this mechanism using different stimuli. In both experiments, consumers exposed to high (vs. low) mentioning-frequency reviews attributed the issue more inside the restaurant and evaluated the restaurant lower. Additionally, the paper considers the role of consumer analytical processing (Study 1) and perceived review helpfulness (Study 2) in the relationships between mentioning frequency and issue attribution. The paper extends the existing literature by applying the attribution theory to the context of frequency information in online reviews. The results guide marketers dealing with negative online reviews by suggesting the way to deal with high-mentioning-frequency negative reviews.

A good dentist or not: understanding the role of storytelling in online dentist reviews

Purpose

Narrative comments about dentists on physician review sites have been documented to increasingly influence people's selection of their dentists. From a communication standpoint, these comments are a type of narrative communication that people share their experiences with dentists by telling stories. Based on the frameworks of rhetoric structure theory and extended elaborated likelihood model, this study aimed to examine the effects of such storytelling from two perspectives including narrative structure and narrative focus.

Design/methodology/approach

A 4 (narrative structure) × 2 (narrative focus) between-subjects experiment was conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses and research questions

Findings

The results showed that a one-sided comprehensive comment focusing on technical competence generated the strongest persuasion effects measured by attitude and behavioral intention. These effects were mediated by perceived narrative credibility and enjoyment.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the extant literature in two ways. First, it extends previous studies of online narrative comments by showing which narrative structure and focus are deemed to be more persuasive when selecting a dentist. Second, it offers a test of two routes of information processing (i.e. cognitive and experiential) to understand the mechanism underlying the effects of narrative comments.

Peer review

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0359

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

What about “U”? The influence of positive online consumer reviews on the individual's perception of consumption benefits

Purpose

This study examines the influence that the positive valence intensity of online consumer reviews (OCRs) has on the benefits that individuals perceive they have derived from consumption. A distinction is made based on whether the performance obtained during the consumption was high or low, that is, whether the product/service met the objectives set by the consumer.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a between-subjects experiment with two manipulations: the positive valence intensity of OCRs (highly positive vs neutral-indifferent) and the performance obtained by the consumer (high vs low). The manipulations were measured on 11-point Likert-type scales, the lowest perception being scored at 0 (strongly disagree) and the highest at 10 (strongly agree). A total of 249 useable questionnaires were returned.

Findings

The results demonstrated that the influence of positive OCRs on the consumer's perception of consumption benefits follows concave curvilinear functional forms for low performance (inverted U-shaped) and convex for high performance (U-shaped). Thus, highly positive OCRs not corroborated by performance lead to negative perceptions, whereas neutral-indifferent OCRs verified by performance create positive perceptions.

Originality/value

This study goes beyond the immediate influence of positive OCRs on purchases and argues that their influence remains important for the individual's final perception of the consumption benefits that she/he, in the event, received. In addition, the results of the present study show that OCRs are important reference points from which individuals make social judgments and comparisons during consumption. Finally, this study provides theoretical and empirical support to explain the U-shaped functional forms associated with the influence of OCRs.

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.