Impact of Online Product Reviews on Purchasing Decisions

Efthymios Constantinides, Nina Isabel Holleschovsky

2016

Abstract

Online consumer reviews, product and services recommendations and peer opinions play an increasingly growing role in the customer’s decision making process. The various online product review and recommendation platforms differ in their objectives, function and characteristics. The literature has so far paid little attention on function characteristics of these platforms as an element of customer adoption and preference. Given the importance of this form of customer generated content on business sales and profitability the monitoring and often responding to customer reviews by business organizations has become a major managerial challenge and an important reputation management issue. In order to respond efficiently to customer reviews companies need to identify consumer reviews platforms, understand their characteristics and continuously assess their impact on consumer purchasing decisions. This study identifies four main types of online review platforms: retail websites, independent reviewing platforms, video-sharing platforms and personal blogs. These platforms present product reviews in different formats with accent on various review function characteristics. An online survey analyzed consumer opinions about the various platforms and review mechanisms and the impact of those on consumer buying behavior. The results underline the importance of platform credibility and usability on consumer trust and reliance in reviews as input in the decision-making process.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Constantinides E. and Holleschovsky N. (2016). Impact of Online Product Reviews on Purchasing Decisions . In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST, ISBN 978-989-758-186-1, pages 271-278. DOI: 10.5220/0005861002710278

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist16,
author={Efthymios Constantinides and Nina Isabel Holleschovsky},
title={Impact of Online Product Reviews on Purchasing Decisions},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,},
year={2016},
pages={271-278},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005861002710278},
isbn={978-989-758-186-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,
TI - Impact of Online Product Reviews on Purchasing Decisions
SN - 978-989-758-186-1
AU - Constantinides E.
AU - Holleschovsky N.
PY - 2016
SP - 271
EP - 278
DO - 10.5220/0005861002710278