The credibility and attribution of online reviews. Differences between high and low product knowledge consumers
| Date | 10 September 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-06-2017-0197 |
| Published date | 10 September 2018 |
| Pages | 630-646 |
| Author | Jyh-Shen Chiou,Cheng-Chieh Hsiao,Tien-Yi Chiu |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
The credibility and attribution of
online reviews
Differences between high and low product
knowledge consumers
Jyh-Shen Chiou
Department of International Business,
National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
Cheng-Chieh Hsiao
Department of Public Relations and Advertising,
Shih Hsin University, Taipei, Taiwan, and
Tien-Yi Chiu
Department of International Business,
National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –To understand the effectiveness of electronic word of mouth, the purpose of this paper is to
examine how high- vs low-knowledge consumers judge and attribute the credibility of positive and negative
online reviews by drawing upon accessibility–diagnosticity theory and attribution theory.
Design/methodology/approach –This study conducts an observation-based study in an online forum and
a 2 (review valence) ×2 (consumer knowledge) between-participants factorial experiment to examine the
proposed hypotheses.
Findings –High-knowledge consumers elicit less perceived credibility and make more non-product-relevant
attribution than low-knowledge consumers in negative online reviews. Consumer attribution is also found to
mediate the effects of the review valence by consumer knowledge interaction on review credibility.
Originality/value –This study addsto extant research by examining howconsumer knowledge plays a key
role in determining consumer perception of online review credibility. This study also advances the
understandingof different casualinferences about onlinereviews between high- andlow-knowledge consumers.
Keywords Attribution, Electronic word of mouth, Consumer knowledge, Review credibility
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the advance of Web 2.0 technologies, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has become
more and more influential in internet marketing communication (Abubakar et al., 2016;
Luo et al., 2013; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). For example, approximately 79 percent of
consumers are likely to trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
(BrightLocal, 2013). From an internet marketing perspective, effective management of online
consumer reviews helps companies maintain a preferred brand image and eventually
increase product sales.
Although online consumer reviews may present either positive or negative comments
about a product or brand, consumers typically put more weight on the negative information
than the positive one (Kanouse and Hanson, 1972; Skowronski and Carlston, 1989). Because
negative eWOM information appears to be more diagnostic and influential than positive
information (Chiou and Cheng, 2003; Qiu et al., 2012; Sparks et al., 2016), the former cannot
be easily offset by the latter on the internet. Negative eWOM is found to exert stronger
influences on overall product evaluation (Lee et al., 2008), review trustworthiness (Pan and
Chiou, 2011), review attitude (Sen and Lerman, 2007) and purchase intention (Park and Lee,
2009). As online reviews become more and more accessible to internet users, managers not
Online Information Review
Vol. 42 No. 5, 2018
pp. 630-646
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-06-2017-0197
Received 27 June 2017
Revised 28 December 2017
Accepted 3 July 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
630
OIR
42,5
only need to promote positive online information of their brands/products but also need to
alleviate the undesirable impact of negative online information on their brands/products.
Since most consumer-generated reviews on the internet are often posted by anonymous
reviewers, this may cause the online information recipient’s suspicions about the reviewers’
true intention to write online reviews. According to attribution theory (Folkes, 1988; Kelley,
1967, 1973), these casual inferences are likely to influence consumer judgment toward the
credibility of online reviews regardless of the accuracy of the inferences. Past research has
suggested that the persuasiveness of online reviews is affected by the review and reviewer
factors, such as review valence (Lim and van Der Heide, 2015), argument quality (Cheung
et al., 2012; Shan, 2016), reviewer expertise (Chiou et al., 2014) and perceived reviewers’social
relationship (Pan and Chiou, 2011). However, less attention has paid to how review
credibility is influenced by the information recipient’s attribution toward positive or
negative online reviews.
Furthermore, consumer judgment toward an online review depends not only on external
eWOM information but also on internal cognitive resources (Kim et al., 1991; Sujan, 1985).
When reading and evaluating online reviews, high vs low product knowledge consumers
may possess different cognitive abilities and utilize dissimilar information-processing
strategies (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987; Brucks, 1985; Sujan, 1985). Consumers with high
product knowledge normally have higher cognitive capability in discerning the contents of
the online information than consumers with low product knowledge. Therefore, this study
further considers consumer knowledge in the model to explore how consumer product
knowledge interacts with online review valence on the credibility and attribution of the
online review information.
Only a few past studies have examined the moderating role of consumer product
knowledgein evaluating online reviews(Cheung et al., 2012; Park andKim, 2008). Importantly,
little research has focused on the impact of consumer knowledge on consumer causal
attributionabout different online reviews. Thisstudy argues that, when encountering eWOM
information, high- vs low-knowledge consumers are very likely to make dissimilar casual
inferences regarding a reviewer’s motivation of posting an online review, which, in turn,
affects their judgment toward the credibility of the review.
In sum, this study intends to draw upon accessibility–diagnosticity theory (Feldman and
Lynch, 1988; Herr et al., 1991) and attribution theory (Folkes, 1988; Jones and Nisbett, 1972;
Kelley, 1967, 1973) to examine the interplay between review valence (positive vs negative)
and consumer knowledge (high- vs low-knowledge) on online review credibility and
consumer attribution about the online reviews.
2. Literature review
This study is based on accessibility–diagnosticit y theory and attribution theory.
Accessibility–diagnosticity theory suggests that the possibility that any piece of
information is likely to serve as an input for judgment or choice depends on the
accessibility of the input, the accessibility of alternative input and the diagnosticity or
perceived relevance of the inputs (Feldman and Lynch, 1988; Herr et al., 1991). In other
words, consumer judgment is influenced by factors that increase or decrease the levels of the
accessibility and diagnosticity of particular information used for the judgment. The
accessibility becomes high whenever particular information is easy for a consumer to
retrieve, and the diagnosticity is high when certain information helps the consumer to
assign a product to a specific cognitive category or form a specific overall evaluation of a
target (Feldman and Lynch, 1988; Filieri, 2015).
Furthermore, attribution theory suggests that people often make causal inferences by
using their common sense explanations of the world when facing a particular situation
(Kelley, 1967, 1973). Regardless of the accuracy of causal inferences, they are very likely to
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Credibility and
attribution of
online reviews
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