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
Plotkina, Daria Munzel, Andreas
Plotkina, Daria
Munzel, Andreas
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Publication Type
Journal article with impact factor
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2016
Journal
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Book
Publication Volume
29
Publication Issue
March
Publication Begin page
1
Publication End page
11
Publication NUmber of pages
Collections
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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Keywords
Electronic word-of-mouth, Experts, New products, Online reviews