On-line consumer reviews, functioning both as informants and as recommenders, are important in making purchase decisions and for product sales. Their persuasive impact depends on both their quality and their quantity. This paper uses the elaboration likelihood model to explain how level of involvement with a product moderates these relationships. The study produces three major findings: (1) the quality of on-line reviews has a positive effect on consumers' purchasing intention, (2) purchasing intention increases as the number of reviews increases, and (3) low-involvement consumers are affected by the quantity rather than the quality of reviews, but high-involvement consumers are affected by review quantity mainly when the review quality is high. These findings have implications for on-line sellers in terms of how to manage on-line consumer reviews.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Consumer involvement, elaboration likelihood model, electronic word-of-mouth, on-line consumer review, on-line word of mouth, product review.

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Today, a new form of word of mouth (WOM) called electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is an emerging communication channel. eWOM, unlike traditional WOM, is traceable so strategically manageable. In this paper, one type of eWOM, online consumer review, is investigated to analyze which factors influence consumer decision making. In previous research, analysis of the relationship between expertise and WOM was inconsistent. This study explains the contradiction with the cognitive fit theory by considering a moderating role of review type, one factor of the review structure. This study shows that cognitive fit occurs when experts process the reviews framed as being attribute-centric, while it occurs when novices process the reviews framed as being benefit-centric. Also, the effect of review type on purchase intention is stronger for consumers with high expertise than those with low expertise. The number of reviews, another factor of the review structure, also influences consumer information processing. This study applies the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to investigate the effect of the number of reviews. This study shows that the effect of the number of reviews on purchase intention is stronger for consumers with low expertise than those with high expertise. Our findings have implications for online sellers about how to manage online consumer reviews.

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