Consumer perceptions of online review deceptions: an empirical study in China

Abstract

Purpose To influence consumer perceptions, firms often manipulate online product reviews on their own websites or third-party forums by anonymously adding positive reviews, deleting unfavorable reviews or offering rewards to encourage favorable reviews. This study aims to investigate consumer perceptions of online review deceptions and how these perceptions influence their subsequent purchase behavior. In particular, consumers’ awareness, suspicion and detection are studied and specific manipulation tactics are evaluated. Design/methodology/approach Both qualitative and quantitative studies are relied upon to understand consumer perceptions of online review deceptions. In-depth interviews with 16 experienced online shoppers were conducted to collect the illustrative accounts concerning consumer awareness of online review deceptions, their suspicion, detection and evaluation of different manipulation tactics. A survey of 199 consumers was then followed to validate and corroborate the findings from the qualitative study and generalize the interview results onto the general public. Findings The results from in-depth interviews suggest that consumers take a negative view toward online review deceptions, but the degree of negativity varies across different manipulation tactics. Moreover, different types of manipulations vary in terms of perceived deceptiveness, ease of detection and unethicality, as well as their effect on consumer purchase intention and perceived helpfulness of online product reviews. The findings from the survey further confirmed the qualitative findings. Practical implications The findings have a number of meaningful managerial implications for industry associations and policymakers on whether and how to regulate online review deceptions. Originality/value This study applies and extends information manipulation theory and deception detection literature to an online context to increase the richness of the relevant theories. It is among the first to empirically investigate online review deceptions from a consumer’s perspective, as opposed to a firm’s perspective as previous studies have done.

Online Information Review Research and Its Future Direction: A Literature Review

“…This keyword-based sentiment analysis, although reduces the volume of reviews, could have its flaws in the form of wrong interpretation or incomplete feedback. There could be more trials to ameliorate this challenge to avoid mistrust in reviews as shown by some respondents in (Jin Ma and Lee, 2014;Peng et. al., 2016).…”

“…Studies into these challenges have been investigated as follows: information quality (Lee et al, 2008;Blooma et al, 2012;Yagci and Das, 2018), sentiments (Brody and Elhadad, 2010; Yang and Chao, 2018), exaggerations (Baker and Kim, 2019), manipulations (Jin Ma and Lee, 2014;Peng et al, 2016).…”

“…Jin Ma and Lee (2014) revealed that review manipulations largely affect consumer trust. Peng et al (2016) tested consumer-knowledge on review manipulations by sellers. It finds that, consumers are aware of manipulation tactics to some extent, and this sometimes creates disinterest in reviews.…”

Beyond self-selection: the multilayered online review biases at the intersection of users, platforms and culture

“…offering cashback in exchange of favorable reviews, Li and Li, 2016) or "crook" (e.g. falsifying JHTI 4,1 positive reviews, deleting unfavorable reviews and harassing customers who left negative feedback, Peng et al, 2016). Platform business models that tie business sales with platform commissions may be responsible for inducing some of the above practices (Schoenm€ uller et al, 2019).…”

Çevrimiçi Yorumdan Algılanan Fayda: Ürün Kullanım Süresinin ve Yorumun İnandırıcılığının Rolü

“…Mevcut araştırmanın temel motivasyonu günümüzde çevrimiçi tüketici yorumlarının her geçen gün inandırıcılığını yitirmesi ve çevrimiçi tüketici yorumlarına yönelik şüphelerin artmasıdır. Artık web sitelerinde çevrimiçi tüketici yorumlarının manipüle edildiği, olumlu yorumların ön plana çıkarıldığı, olumsuz yorumların yorum sitelerinden silindiği bilinen bir gerçek haline gelmiştir (Peng, Cui, Zhuang ve Li, 2016). Böyle bir ortamda çevrimiçi tüketici yorumlarının inandırıcılığını arttırmak, gerçek kullanıcılar tarafından yazıldığını vurgulamak ve bu yorumları okuyucular için faydalı hale getirmek firmalar için ihtiyaç haline gelmiş; araştırmacılar tarafından ise bu konuların incelenmesi önem kazanmıştır.…”