All Reviews are Not Created Equal: The Disaggregate Impact of Reviews and Reviewers at Amazon.Com

Chen, Peiyu; Dhanasobhon, Samita; Smith, Michael D.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.918083

Cited by 169 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Two frequently studied risk-mitigating features are user ratings and product reviews [3,15,16,19,20,24,30,40,82]. However, the extent to which consumers attend to online ratings as compared to other information cues, and how they influence perceptions of product quality and subsequent purchasing intentions, remains unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, users (particularly females) find negative reviews very helpful in evaluating products and services (Bae & Lee 2011), higher ratings or reviews are positively associated with product sales [15,20,24], and although consumers are somewhat ambivalent about whether to trust ratings and reviews, expressing concern that such information can be easily skewed, they paradoxically find them useful in evaluating product claims [65].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, although studies confirm that higher ratings or reviews are positively associated with sales [15,20,24], it is unclear whether higher ratings are similarly related to perceptions of product quality, although this would seem reasonable.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In addition, a growing body of research has explored the relationship between product quality and purchase intention in the context of ecommerce, and found that ratings (e.g., [15,20,27,74,89]), website quality [41], and the perceived credibility of electronic word-of-mouth messages [17] all positively impact purchase decisions. Moreover, the perceived valence and credibility of product recommendations have been shown to have a significant impact on purchase intention, across a variety of consumer goods [38].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Mitigating risk in ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention

Flanagin

Metzger

Pure

et al. 2014

Electron Commer Res

208

116

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Although extremely popular, electronic commerce environments often lack information that has traditionally served to ensure trust among exchange partners. Digital technologies, however, have created new forms of "electronic word-of-mouth," which offer new potential for gathering credible information that guides consumer behaviors. We conducted a nationally representative survey and a focused experiment to assess how individuals perceive the credibility of online commercial information, particularly as compared to information available through more traditional channels, and to evaluate the specific aspects of ratings information that affect people's attitudes toward ecommerce. Survey results show that consumers rely heavily on web-based information as compared to other channels, and that ratings information is critical in the evaluation of the credibility of online commercial information. Experimental results indicate that ratings are positively associated with perceptions of product quality and purchase intention, but that people attend to average product ratings, but not to the number of ratings or to the combination of the average and the number of ratings together. Thus suggests that in spite of valuing the web and ratings as sources of commercial information, people use ratings information suboptimally by potentially privileging small numbers of ratings that could be idiosyncratic. In addition, product quality is shown to mediate the relationship between user ratings and purchase intention. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are considered for ecommerce scholars, consumers, and vendors.Keywords Ecommerce · Credibility · User-generated content · Amazon · Product ratings · Electronic word of mouth · Information credibility · Purchase intention · Product quality · User ratings People are increasingly relying on web-based commercial information for electronic commerce ("ecommerce") transactions that range from small personal items to home purchases [45]. Retail ecommerce sales in the U.S. currently constitute roughly 4 % of total retail sales, which translates to almost 40 billion dollars annually [10]. The number of Americans who have purchased a product online has steadily increased since 2000, and a majority (66 %) now report having made at least one online purchase [46]. An even larger percentage (93 %) has used the Internet for ecommerce-related activities, including researching information about a product they are thinking of buying, with more than a quarter of Americans reporting they do this on a daily basis [49]. In fact, over the last decade the number of people either researching or buying a product or service online has nearly doubled, a trend that holds true across a wide range of ecommerce-related activities [45].Despite its popularity, online commercial transactions often lack elements that have traditionally served to ensure trust and credibility among exchange parties. Indeed, varying "patronage modes" embody different levels of risk for the consumer, which incr...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Mitigating risk in ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention

Flanagin

Metzger

Pure

et al. 2014

Electron Commer Res

208

116

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“…Interestingly, previous research reports mixed empirical results regarding the effect of online buzz valence, which could result from the fact that researchers used only aggregate ratings as a proxy of online buzz valence [15]. Indeed, shoppers are often strongly affected by aspects of online texts such as wording (e.g., inexpressive slang, extreme emotion words) [59].…”

Section: E-sentiment Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of online buzz for leader versus challenger brands: the case of the MP3 player market

Shin

Hanssens

Kim

2016

Electron Commer Res

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How online word‐of‐mouth impacts receivers

Moore

Lafreniere

2019

Consumer Psychology Review

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Online word‐of‐mouth (WOM) can impact consumers’ product evaluations, purchase intentions, and choices—but when does it do so? How do those receiving WOM know whether to rely on a particular message? This article suggests that the multiple players involved in online WOM (receivers, senders, sellers, platforms, and other consumers) each have their own interests, which are often in conflict. Thus, receivers of WOM are faced with a judgment task in deciding what information to rely on: They must make inferences about the product in question and about the players who provide or present WOM. To do so, they use signals embedded in various components of WOM, such as average star ratings, message content, or sender characteristics. The product and player information provided by these signals shapes the impact of WOM by allowing receivers to make inferences about (a) their likelihood of product satisfaction, and (b) the trustworthiness of WOM players, and therefore the trustworthiness of their content. This article summarizes how each player changes the impact of online WOM, providing a lens for understanding the current literature in online WOM, offering insights for theory in this context, and opening up pathways for future research.

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All Reviews are Not Created Equal: The Disaggregate Impact of Reviews and Reviewers at Amazon.Com

Cited by 169 publications

References 20 publications

Mitigating risk in ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention

Mitigating risk in ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention

The role of online buzz for leader versus challenger brands: the case of the MP3 player market

How online word‐of‐mouth impacts receivers

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