The effect of negative online consumer reviews on product attitude: An information processing view

• Published in: Electronic commerce research and applications Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 341 - 352
• Main Authors: Lee, Jumin, Park, Do-Hyung, Han, Ingoo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.09.2008; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Consumer attitudes; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Electronic commerce; Experimental methods; Hypothesis testing; Information processing; Online communication; Online consumer reviews; Product quality; Studies; Korea; Experimental methods; Online communication; Consumer behavior; Online consumer reviews; Electronic commerce
• ISSN: 1567-4223; 1873-7846
• DOI: 10.1016/j.elerap.2007.05.004

Online consumer reviews provide product information and recommendations from the customer perspective. This study investigates the effects of negative online consumer reviews on consumer product attitude. In particular, it examines the proportion and quality of negative online consumer reviews from the perspective of information processing. The elaboration likelihood model is used to explain the persuasive effect of the proportion and quality depending on product involvement. A high proportion of negative online consumer reviews elicits a conformity effect. As the proportion of negative online consumer reviews increases, high-involvement consumers tend to conform to the perspective of reviewers, depending on the quality of the negative online consumer reviews; in contrast, low-involvement consumers tend to conform to the perspective of reviewers regardless of the quality of the negative online consumer reviews. The experiment in this study uses 248 college students in Korea. The proposed hypotheses are tested by three-way analysis of covariance.