ABSTRACT OR CONCRETE MESSAGES? WHICH REVIEWS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE TO CONSUMERS ON ONLINE SHOPPING PLATFORMS?
pp.664-665
This study examines the impact of others' reviews (reviews, product ratings) on consumer responses (helpfulness & buying intention) in an online shopping platform. We propose that review features, such as review message construal and review inconsistency between review message valence and rating, determine review credibility as product-related information, which in turn influences helpfulness of review and buying intention toward the product. Specifically, low- level construal review messages will be perceived as more credible than high-level construal review messages, which affect helpfulness and buying intention. In addition, the effect of review message construal will be moderated by review inconsistency. The effect of the review message construal will be enhanced in the condition of review consistency (positive content-high rating & negative content-low rating), but it will be disappeared or attenuated in the condition of inconsistency (positive content-low rating, negative content-high rating).