Online customer reviews and consumer evaluation: The role of review font

A multi-dimensional analysis of CBEC English genre variation in South Asia: Based on Daraz

The purpose of this study is to investigate how genres vary and figure out the factors that generate genre variation. The quantitative multi-dimensional analysis is used to examine genre variation of cross-border e-commerce English in South Asia. The texts in the observed corpus collected from four country websites of Daraz, a significant cross-border e-commerce platform, were tagged and analyzed using Multidimensional Analysis Tagger and SPSS statistical software. The results of linear regression analysis, independent sample t-test and Analysis of Variance show salient differences between the observed corpus and reference corpus. The research also indicates that four sub-corpora from country Websites are brought into line with each other. They show salient differences (p<0.05) with the general corpus in two dimensions of linguistic variation. The findings indicate that variables that lead to the cross-border e-commerce English genre variation might be attributable to cultural backgrounds, regional market sizes, and fundamental internet facilities. In conclusion, these findings lend significant empirical support to systemic functional theories and suggest further research in the application of a multi-dimensional analysis approach in the cross-border e-commerce English genre.

Nudge with interface designs of online product review systems – Effects of online product review system designs on purchase behavior

Purpose

Although considerable evidence shows that online product reviews (OPRs) can greatly affect consumers, how interface designs of OPR systems (i.e. websites where consumers read and write OPRs) impact online buying behavior has not yet been well investigated. Using research on confidence in judgment and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, this study aims to develop a model of the effects of OPR system design on consumer purchase behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

A study using a two by two by two factorial experimental design was conducted. The structural model with AMOS 23 based on 319 useable data points was tested.

Findings

Findings are very interesting. First, designs that manipulate positions of reviews impact perceived value but surprisingly have no effects on confidence in judgment. Second, designs using default display order based on helpfulness votes rather than on recency of reviews increase confidence to a higher level. Third, although unstructured organization methods are used by many major OPR systems, they are inferior in enhancing consumers’ emotional reactions to structured ones.

Research limitations/implications

This paper highlights the need for more academic research on how interface designs of online product review systems impact purchase behavior. Additionally, this study emphasizes the need for examining how confidence in judgment is impacted in the online environment.

Practical implications

For practitioners, this research provides them with design implications on how to increase consumer purchase behavior.

Originality/value

This research enhances the understanding of the effects of OPR system interface design on purchase behavior. In addition, the current paper sheds light on how confidence in judgment, given its importance in reducing online consumer’s hesitance to buy, is impacted by various interface designs of OPR systems. Furthermore, this study applies the SOR framework to the context of OPR system designs.

Exploring the Moderating Role of Readers’ Perspective in Evaluations of Online Consumer Reviews

Drawing upon the heuristic–systematic model (HSM) and considering the readers’ perspective, this study predicts that readers’ involvement and homophily between the reader and the review author (source) moderate the relationships between the credibility perception of online reviews and its antecedent factors. To test our hypotheses, we performed a user study on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. The results show that reader’s involvement moderates source credibility, internal consistency, review objectivity, and review sidedness on review credibility. In addition, homophily between the reader and the source also moderates the relationship between review credibility and its source. Our study contributes to information processing literature, especially in the context of online reviews, and suggests a better classification of the attributes related to online reviews using the HSM. Besides, it helps e-commerce platforms to customize online reviews for each reader to satisfy their information need and help them to make a better purchasing decision.

Reviewing Before Reading? An Empirical Investigation of Book-Consumption Patterns and Their Effects on Reviews and Sales

Prior research on online reviews has taken for granted that consumers submit reviews only after they have fully consumed purchased products or services. Contrastingly, this study uncovered the hidden truth that many book consumers post assessments before, during, and after consumption. Interestingly, many provide numerical review ratings, even with no consumption at all. We also found that review comments formed after incomplete product engagement adversely affect subsequent sales. Consequently, online evaluations crafted on the basis of fragmentary encounters can become a new source of challenges to managers and policymakers who are responsible for preserving the accuracy and informativeness of product critiques. Digital platforms may leverage our findings to improve their design of review systems and policies in ways that enhance the trustworthiness of peer evaluations and correct potential inaccuracies from inadequately informed assessments. For example, managers can revise their review “sorting” structure so that consumers can flexibly reposition text-based reviews in accordance with a consumption index. Managers can likewise take advantage of these study’s insights to effectively re-establish review-posting policies and schemes that encourage consumers to submit reviews after a sufficient amount of products have been consumed.

Exploring gamified persuasive system design for energy saving

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore user-centered design possibilities at the intersection of gamification and persuasive technology to foster energy saving behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

We performed a large-scale empirical study of 480 participants and analyzed how different HEXAD gamification user types perceive selected persuasive strategies embedded in an energy saving prototype. Furthermore, we investigated the role of existing energy saving behaviors (pro-environmental behavior scale–e.g. regularly turning the lights off) and their effect on the perceived persuasiveness of the proposed persuasive strategies, which may has an impact on the overall design process. Furthermore, we applied partial least squares path modeling and conducted a one-way and repeated measure ANOVA.

Findings

Results show that user types play an important role in the design of persuasive systems for energy saving. For instance, people with a high tendency toward the Socializer user type were motivated by almost all of the employed persuasive strategies, whereas Philanthropists and Players only to a limited number of strategies. Furthermore, our study reveals that existing behaviors like the individual level of energy conservation influences the perceived persuasiveness of certain strategies and therefore should be considered in the design of such applications.

Research limitations/implications

Using storyboards to obtain feedback about the perceived persuasiveness of employed strategies has limitations compared to the actual use of a functional prototype. However, to offset that limitation the mock-ups used in the storyboard reflected the actual designs for a real-world prototype.

Originality

This is the first study that explores how HEXAD gamification user types can be used to inform the design of persuasive applications for energy saving (RQ1). Furthermore, and in particular, this study draws on the challenges when using user types within gamified persuasive systems by highlighting the impact and the importance of considering existing energy saving behaviors (RQ2), which has not been addressed so far.

What about “U”? The influence of positive online consumer reviews on the individual's perception of consumption benefits

Purpose

This study examines the influence that the positive valence intensity of online consumer reviews (OCRs) has on the benefits that individuals perceive they have derived from consumption. A distinction is made based on whether the performance obtained during the consumption was high or low, that is, whether the product/service met the objectives set by the consumer.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a between-subjects experiment with two manipulations: the positive valence intensity of OCRs (highly positive vs neutral-indifferent) and the performance obtained by the consumer (high vs low). The manipulations were measured on 11-point Likert-type scales, the lowest perception being scored at 0 (strongly disagree) and the highest at 10 (strongly agree). A total of 249 useable questionnaires were returned.

Findings

The results demonstrated that the influence of positive OCRs on the consumer's perception of consumption benefits follows concave curvilinear functional forms for low performance (inverted U-shaped) and convex for high performance (U-shaped). Thus, highly positive OCRs not corroborated by performance lead to negative perceptions, whereas neutral-indifferent OCRs verified by performance create positive perceptions.

Originality/value

This study goes beyond the immediate influence of positive OCRs on purchases and argues that their influence remains important for the individual's final perception of the consumption benefits that she/he, in the event, received. In addition, the results of the present study show that OCRs are important reference points from which individuals make social judgments and comparisons during consumption. Finally, this study provides theoretical and empirical support to explain the U-shaped functional forms associated with the influence of OCRs.

Large Online Product Catalog Space Indicates High Store Price: Understanding Customers’ Overgeneralization and Illogical Inference

Although e-commerce has been around for more than two decades, it is still so relatively new to most consumers that they often draw parallel from the bricks-and-mortar world to make (sometimes illogical) inference about the online world. This study demonstrates how one such illogical inference can affect customers’ price perception. Through a series of five experiments, we show that an online store with larger online product catalog space is perceived to be selling more expensive products, and thus customers who care more about quality (price) evaluate it more (less) positively. This is because customers have learned that large interstitial space among products in a bricks-and-mortar store is associated with high price, and they simply use this association without thinking that online space is not costly and should not signal high price. Therefore, when an online store is price oriented and would like to attract customers who place great importance on price, it should not present large space around their products in the product catalog. On the contrary, if an online store would like to attract customers who care more about quality, it should show a loose product catalog that is not at all costly but transmits a high-price store image.