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Whether, when, and how does online review matter to buying decisions?
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Kim, Rae Yule. Whether, when, and how does online review matter to buying decisions?. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-rv0p-bc47

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TitleWhether, when, and how does online review matter to buying decisions?
NameKim, Rae Yule (author); Yeniyurt, Sengun (Shen) (chair); Mundra, Kusum (internal member); Schaefer, Richard (internal member); Wang, Ruxian (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - Newark
Date Created2020
Other Date2020-05 (degree)
SubjectManagement
Extent1 online resource (ix, 128 pages)
DescriptionWord of Mouth (WOM) is powerful, and online reviews are the most readily available WOM in electronic commerce. In fact, 82% of American adults see online reviews before making new purchases (Smith and Anderson, 2016). Interestingly, the previous findings of whether or not online review valence influences sales have been inconsistent. In this aspect, the effect of online reviews on sales should be contingent on consumer-level decision making, and thus, the importance of understanding whether and how consumers evaluate online reviews for making purchase decisions cannot be overstated. These three essays investigate how online reviews interact with other promotional signals to predict consumer responses in electronic commerce and add insights into online review literature.

The first study investigates if other product quality signals, such as product attribute cues or brandedness, have substantial influences on whether and how consumers evaluate online review valence for making purchase decisions. Online review valence did not matter to buying decisions when product quality was convincing. The second study extends the finding and investigates whether the effect of online review valence on consumer decisions is influenced by good-enough reference points based on the reference effect theory. The findings suggest the marginal effect of online review valence is negative, and subsequently, the effect of online review valence on sales is not linear and also significantly varies by product quality. The third essay investigates how negative reviews can trigger a backlash effect on sales when price promotions are launched. Negative reviews can have a confirmation effect on consumers’ price-quality beliefs. Although managers might be more tempted to offer price discounts for products with negative reviews to compensate for uncompetitiveness in online review sentiments and increase chances of sales, it can provoke the opposite outcome. Price promotions decreased sales likelihood for products with review ratings below three stars (out of five). Especially, launching price promotions for products with extremely negative reviews, such as one to two (out of five) review ratings tended to decrease the chances of sales by 14 to 31%.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-rv0p-bc47
LanguageEnglish
CollectionGraduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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