Dissemination motives and effects of internet book reviews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the motives of consumers in the dissemination of book reviews on the internet. It aims to present an exploratory investigation followed by an empirical study that seeks to analyze the effects of such motives on the communication behavior of consumers.Design/methodology/approach – A study was conducted of both traditional and online focus groups to investigate from a broad perspective why consumers disseminate internet book reviews. A survey was also carried out of the disseminators of internet book reviews which aimed to assess the influence and importance of the motives on dissemination behavior.Findings – The pluralistic approach to research methods adopted in this study reveals that a desire for sharing, venting negative feelings, and social interaction, as well as product involvement are the main motives why consumers disseminate internet book reviews. At the same time, except for venting negative feelings, all the motives genera...

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