The Impact of Online Additional Comments on Consumers’ Information Adoption

Abstract

Online additional reviews, as an effective complement to network commentary system, provide an important reference during the process of consumers' purchase and businesses' operation decision-making. In this paper, we explored the impact of additional comments on consumers' information adoption in different comment combinations. At the same time, we also analyzed the moderating role of consumers' ambivalent attitude. The results show that, when initial comment is positive, compared with the consistent comments (positive initial comments and positive additional comments), consumers have a higher degree of adoption of inconsistent comments (positive initial comments and negative additional comments). On the contrary, when initial comment is negative, consistent comments (negative initial comments and negative additional comments) are more easily adopted by the consumer. Compared with the low ambivalent attitude consumers, customers with high ambivalent attitude tend to adopt negative comments.

The effect of emotional changes in composite reviews on consumers' information adoption from a dual perspective

“…There is a consensus that additional reviews are perceived as more beneficial and elicit more positive consumer attitudes than initial reviews do (Shen et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2023). Some research has investigated the consistency and ambivalence between initial and additional reviews to understand their interplay and effects on purchase intentions (Zhou and Li, 2017;Wang et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2023). Only Chen et al (2019) has highlighted that the sequence of emotional shifts in composite reviews (positive-negative, negative-positive) influences purchase intentions and that product involvement plays a moderating role.…”

“…In essence, the difference between the effects of positive-negative reviews and negative-positive reviews on consumers' perceived empathy is further magnified. Conversely, when emotions were diminishing, the overall sentiment of positive-negative composite reviews reflects the reviewer's negative perception of the product (Zhou and Li, 2017). However, if the intensity of the negative emotions in the additional reviews is relatively low, this leads to less attention and reduced consumer empathy.…”

“…, 2023). Some research has investigated the consistency and ambivalence between initial and additional reviews to understand their interplay and effects on purchase intentions (Zhou and Li, 2017; Wang et al. , 2021; Chen et al.…”

“…single reviews). Recently, to increase the objectivity and authenticity of single reviews, e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD added an additional the same product, based on their initial review, forming a composite review (Zhou and Li, 2017; Wang et al. , 2021).…”

“…, 2020; Zhang et al. , 2023) and the interaction between the initial review and the additional review (Zhou and Li, 2017; Wang et al. , 2021; Chen et al.…”