Essays on online consumer reviews and consumer decision making

Abstract

The studies on online reviews and their impact on consumer behavioral intention is gaining substantial attention of both academicians and business professionals. The growth of online commerce has given consumers a number of convenient options to shop from. This has led to the proliferation of e-commerce players that offer variety of products and services with customer-centric terms and conditions. However, absence of avenues to test the product(s) before buying, shoppers perceive inherent risk associated with online buying, especially related to products quality and features, terms and conditions of sales, etc. To overcome this pre-purchase dissonance and compensate for the lack of previous experience, they look for reliable information and guidance. Hence, to make decisions, e-buyers rely on the reviews provided by other shoppers. Therefore, it becomes imperative for e-retailers to determine antecedent factors that influence the adoption of online reviews. newlineOnline consumer reviews represent a type of electronic word-of-mouth communication, which has comments or opinions created by the end consumers and are available on e-retailer s web portals or independent review sites. As this medium is mediated by internet technology, it encompasses various derived attributes, other than virtual attributes associated with online reviews. The first essay uses heuristic-systematic model, this study has identified the relative significance of information credibility, argument quality, quantity sufficiency and source credibility in influencing the adoption of reviews available online. It was observed that the two categories of influencers impact the reviews adoption albeit through the two mediators - perceived usefulness and perceived value of reviews. Using the S-O-R model, the second essay has examined the mediating role of perceived control in the relationship between characteristics of online reviews and review adoption and word-of-mouth intention. The findings of the study noted the direct impact of argument quality,source