Combined effects of valence and attributes of e-WOM on consumer judgment for message and product: The moderating effect of brand community type

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to test whether the combined effects of valence and objectivity/subjectivity of online review have an effect on consumer judgment and whether e-WOM platforms have a moderating effect. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 480 respondents participated in online experiments with a four (positive+objective, positive+subjective, negative+objective, and negative+subjective online review) by two (marketer-generated vs consumer-generated brand community web sites) between subject design. Findings – The experiment showed that: an objective negative online review was rated higher in terms of message usefulness compared to the other types of online reviews; positive reviews, whether they are objective or subjective, were rated higher in terms of attitudes toward and intention to purchase the reviewed product, and the effects of online reviews moderated by e-WOM platforms on consumer judgment were supported. Research limitations/implications – The present s...

[1]  Mira Lee,et al.  Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) , 2009 .

[2]  Daniel A. Sheinin,et al.  The Differential Effect of Ad Novelty and Message Usefulness on Brand Judgments , 2011 .

[3]  P. Chatterjee,et al.  Online Reviews: Do Consumers Use Them? , 2006 .

[4]  Bernard L. Simonin,et al.  Is a Company Known by the Company it Keeps? Assessing the Spillover Effects of Brand Alliances on Consumer Brand Attitudes , 1998 .

[5]  Dina Mayzlin,et al.  Promotional Chat on the Internet , 2006 .

[6]  P. Bone,et al.  Determinants of Word-Of-Mouth Communications During Product Consumption , 1992 .

[7]  P. Herr,et al.  Effects of Word-of-Mouth and Product-Attribute Information on Persuasion: An Accessibility-Diagnosticity Perspective , 1991 .

[8]  David Schuff,et al.  What Makes a Helpful Review? A Study of Customer Reviews on Amazon.com , 2010 .

[9]  H. Kelley.  The processes of causal attribution. , 1973 .

[10]  Pei-Yu Sharon Chen,et al.  The Impact of Online Recommendations and Consumer Feedback on Sales , 2004, ICIS.

[11]  Robert M. Schindler,et al.  Internet forums as influential sources of consumer information , 2001 .

[12]  M. Jalilvand,et al.  The effect of electronic word of mouth on brand image and purchase intention , 2012 .

[13]  Tom M.Y. Lin,et al.  The effects of visual information in eWOM communication , 2012 .

[14]  Donal E. Carlston,et al.  Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: A review of explanations. , 1989 .

[15]  Dong-Mo Koo,et al.  Effects of attribute and valence of e-WOM on message adoption: Moderating roles of subjective knowledge and regulatory focus , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[16]  Bo Yu,et al.  Does the Valence of Online Consumer Reviews matter for Consumer Decision Making? The Moderating Role of Consumer Expertise , 2011, J. Comput..

[17]  Subhash Sharma,et al.  Identification and Analysis of Moderator Variables , 1981 .

[18]  S. Ramaswami,et al.  Consumers’ Responses to Negative Word-of-Mouth Communication: An Attribution Theory Perspective , 2001 .

[19]  Timmy H. Tseng,et al.  Online brand community response to negative brand events: the role of group eWOM , 2013, Internet Res..

[20]  SchuffDavid,et al.  What makes a helpful online review? a study of customer reviews on amazon.com , 2010 .

[21]  R. E. Burnkrant,et al.  Informational and Normative Social Influence in Buyer Behavior , 1975 .

[22]  S. Sen,et al.  Why are you telling me this? An examination into negative consumer reviews on the Web , 2007 .

[23]  Dwayne D. Gremler,et al.  Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet? , 2004 .

[24]  E. Clemons,et al.  When Online Reviews Meet Hyperdifferentiation: A Study of the Craft Beer Industry , 2006 .

[25]  Jae-Nam Lee,et al.  Understanding the product information inference process in electronic word-of-mouth: An objectivity-subjectivity dichotomy perspective , 2009, Inf. Manag..

[26]  Fei Xue,et al.  The Effects of Product Involvement and Prior Experience on Chinese Consumers’ Responses to Online Word of Mouth , 2010 .

[27]  Bin Gu,et al.  Do online reviews matter? - An empirical investigation of panel data , 2008, Decis. Support Syst..

[28]  Pranjal Gupta,et al.  Emotional expressions in online user reviews: How they influence consumers' product evaluations , 2012 .

[29]  Jo Mackiewicz,et al.  Assertions of Expertise in Online Product Reviews , 2010 .

[30]  Jun Yang,et al.  Experiential goods with network externalities effects: An empirical study of online rating system , 2010 .

[31]  Ingoo Han,et al.  The effect of negative online consumer reviews on product attitude: An information processing view , 2008, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[32]  J. Berry.  The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy , 2003 .

[33]  Gerrard Macintosh,et al.  Retail relationships and store loyalty: A multi-level perspective , 1997 .

[34]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Susan T. Fiske,et al.  Attention and weight in person perception: The impact of negative and extreme behavior. , 1980 .

[36]  S. Sénécal,et al.  The influence of online product recommendations on consumers' online choices , 2004 .

[37]  Qiang Ye,et al.  How Does the Valence of Online Consumer Reviews Matter in Consumer Decision Making? Differences between Search Goods and Experience Goods , 2010, 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[38]  Stephen C. Nettelhorst,et al.  Examining the impact of consumer feedback on internet product evaluation: Comparing base-rate and case history information , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[39]  Andrew D. Gershoff,et al.  Consumer Acceptance of Online Agent Advice: Extremity and Positivity Effects , 2003 .

[40]  Po-Huan Chiu,et al.  Recommending Quality Book Reviews from Heterogeneous Websites , 2013, Internet Res..

[41]  Freimut Bodendorf,et al.  Mining Consumer Dialog in Online Forums , 2012, Internet Res..

[42]  Melinda L. Andrews,et al.  Building Trust with Consensus Information , 2006 .

[43]  Jang-Sun Hwang,et al.  How Consumers Evaluate eWOM (Electronic Word-of-Mouth) Messages , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[44]  Lisa R. Klein,et al.  Consumer search for information in the digital age: An empirical study of prepurchase search for automobiles , 2003 .

[45]  Fei Xue,et al.  Internet-facilitated consumer-to-consumer communication: the moderating role of receiver characteristics , 2004 .

[46]  Mira Lee,et al.  Effects of Valence and Extremity of eWOM on Attitude toward the Brand and Website , 2009 .

[47]  R. Goldsmith,et al.  Measuring Motivations for Online Opinion Seeking , 2006 .

[48]  Seoyeon Hong,et al.  Computer-mediated persuasion in online reviews: Statistical versus narrative evidence , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[49]  Huaping Chen,et al.  Credibility of Electronic Word-of-Mouth: Informational and Normative Determinants of On-line Consumer Recommendations , 2009, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[50]  Ingoo Han,et al.  The Effects of Consumer Knowledge on Message Processing of Electronic Word of Mouth via Online Consumer Reviews , 2008, ECIS.

[51]  Wei Peng,et al.  Consumer reviews: reviewer avatar facial expression and review valence , 2013, Internet Res..

[52]  J. Chiou,et al.  Should a company have message boards on its Web sites? , 2003 .

[53]  L. J. Harrison‐Walker.  The Measurement of Word-of-Mouth Communication and an Investigation of Service Quality and Customer Commitment As Potential Antecedents , 2001 .

[54]  Kai H. Lim,et al.  Effects of conflicting aggregated rating on eWOM review credibility and diagnosticity: The moderating role of review valence , 2012, Decis. Support Syst..

[55]  J. Chiou,et al.  How Much can you Trust Online Information? Cues for Perceived Trustworthiness of Consumer-generated Online Information , 2011 .

[56]  Jason Q. Zhang,et al.  When does electronic word-of-mouth matter? A study of consumer product reviews☆ , 2010 .