Sources and impacts of social influence from online anonymous user reviews |
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Authors: | Kexin Zhao Antonis C Stylianou Yiming Zheng |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Business Information Systems & Operations Management, The Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA;2. 904 Wellbrook Station Rd, Cary, NC, 27519, USA |
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Abstract: | Consumers increasingly rely on online reviews to make purchase decisions. However, the process through which consumers are influenced by online reviews is not well understood. To fill the gap, we apply the social influence theory to theoretically explain and analyze this opinion change process. Specifically, we identify antecedents and consequences of two types of social influence from online user reviews: informational and value-expressive influence. From a survey conducted in a controlled laboratory environment, we found that perceived review quality positively impacts informational influence, while perceived review quality, consistency, and social presence jointly impact value-expressive influence. Interestingly, informational influence impacts both perceived decision quality and perceived usefulness of the website, while value-expressive influence only impacts perceived usefulness of the website. Surprisingly, consumer characteristics, including prior product expertise and self-monitoring, do not have significant effects on the formation of social influence online. |
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Keywords: | Social influence Online user reviews Review quality Review consistency Social presence |
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