• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2023

This study aims to determine the direct effect of positive online reviews, negative online reviews, the usefulness of online reviews, reviewers' expertise, timeliness of online reviews, the volume of online reviews, and comprehensiveness of online reviews on accommodation booking intentions and also the indirect effect of positive online reviews on the intention of booking accommodations through trust as mediation. Research respondents are users of the accommodation booking application in Yogyakarta. Hypothesis testing was carried out using SEM (Partial Least Square). Data was collected by distributing questionnaires to 135 respondents. The results of this study indicate that the Usefulness of Online Reviews, Volume of Online Reviews, and Comprehensiveness of Online Reviews have a direct positive and significant influence on the accommodation booking Intention of booking application users in Yogyakarta. The variables of Negative Online Reviews and Timeliness of Online Reviews have negative and significant influences on the accommodation booking Intention of booking application users in Yogyakarta. Positive Online Reviews and Reviewer Expertise variables are not significant in this study. At the same time, the Trust variable has a full mediation relationship in an indirect relationship between the Positive Online Reviews variables and the accommodation booking Intention of booking application users in Yogyakarta.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.994-1009
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• 2016

Applying the S-O-R Model within an online context, a hypothesized model incorporates three review characteristics (perceived concreteness, exaggeration, and sufficient quantity of reviews) for apparel products in order to present their impact on consumer perceptions of review usefulness and consumer attitude toward and patronage intent for the online stores hosting the reviews. An online survey of Korean women (N=299) reported their experiences in purchasing apparel products online and reading apparel reviews on a regular basis. Testing of the hypothesized model showed the usefulness of reviews were determined by two review characteristics (S: perceived concreteness and sufficient quantity of reviews); however, the negative effect of exaggerated reviews were insignificant. In addition, the perceived usefulness of reviews (O-cognitive) hosted by an online store influenced online store attitude (O-affective) which subsequently led to online store patronage intent (R). This study systemically advances online retail literature by showing how the characteristics of online reviews (as a part of the online store environment) can influence attitude toward online stores and patronage intent for online stores. Long term relationships with consumers can be achieved through the building of mechanisms to enhance the perceived usefulness of reviews by employing the strategies of hosting concrete reviews and offering a sufficient quantity of reviews. This study addresses removes research gaps by testing an adapted the S-O-R Model that frames review information as an element of an online store environment using a large sample.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.21-32
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• 2017

This study analyzes the variable consumer characteristics that influence the intention to use online product reviews. In online e-commerce, where purchases take place without consumers seeing the products in person, the product reviews left by other consumers who have already purchased the product are believed to be valuable information. However, when different consumers read the same product review, their responses to it may vary. This study analyzes the characteristics of consumers who utilize product reviews for their purchases. Consumer characteristics are categorized into personal information, personality, purchasing tendency, and experience related to product reviews. These factors are examined to see if they have direct or indirect effects on a consumer's intention to use product reviews when making online purchases. We surveyed a total of 240 consumers who had experience using e-commerce and knew about online product reviews. Once the data was collected, path analysis was conducted using the statistics tool AMOS. The study results reveal that consumers who are female, extroverted, and have higher price sensitivity think that product reviews left by others are useful, and that this "perceived usefulness" has a positive effect on the intention to use product reviews for making online purchasing decisions. In addition, consumers who are agreeable to others, have high brand sensitivity, and who have left numerous reviews themselves demonstrated the tendency to trust reviews left by others more. Thus, we conclude that this "perceived reliability" makes it more likely that a consumer will use product reviews when making online purchasing decisions. Future research can be done to develop this study further by analyzing whether providing online product reviews corresponding to the personal characteristics of consumers enhances the effect of product reviews on online purchasing decisions.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.440-451
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• 2013

Because of the e-shopping market consumers now have diverse options to choose when placing their orders, and find it easy to obtain the required information through the Internet. Especially, for consumers, product reviews posted on an e-tailer's website have become more important criteria than such information available elsewhere. Hence, this study investigated the influence of the direction and evaluative contents of online reviews on consumer attitudes toward clothing products. Four types of online reviews based on direction (positive/negative) and evaluative content in review information (objective/subjective) were used in the experimental design. Further, stimulus reviews were developed. Credibility, usefulness of reviews, product preference, and purchase intention were the measured dependent variables in each of the four situations of online review presentations. The results indicated that, overall, positive and objective online reviews resulted in a higher level of consumer attitude. The content in these reviews had a relatively stronger influence than the direction on attitudes toward online reviews. Overall, objective reviews generated a higher level of credibility and usefulness of information than subjective reviews. Regarding subjective reviews, negative information was more related to credibility, whereas positive information was more related to usefulness. Further, positive information had a higher influence than negative information on consumer attitudes.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.21-34
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• 2018

Purpose - The objective of this research is to a) examine the effects of online reviews, posted on online distribution channels, on the change of consumers' attitudes and booking intention by distinguishing three types of online review valence: positive, negative and neutral review valence, and b) to investigate the combined effect of the inclination of online review and perceived usefulness of reviews on consumers' attitude change. Research design, data, and methodology - An experimental design was used by creating a mimicked hotel company's website and online reviews extracted from several online distribution channels such as online travel agencies (OTAs). A total of 414 respondents were randomly assigned to a type of review valence. Results - The results showed that the valence of positive reviews has a significant effect on the positive change of attitude and booking intention. However, the effect of the valence of negative reviews on the change of booking intention was not statistically significant compared to that of the valence of neutral reviews. Conclusions - The results offer some insights into the effect of online reviews on consumers' decision making processes and have important managerial implications for companies that operate online distribution channels in terms of their online marketing and the distribution of service products.

• Journal of Smart Tourism
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.29-40
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• 2023

This research aims to understand the role of online reviews in the local search context by examining the effects of reviews on the representation of tourism businesses on local search platforms (LSPs). By simulating tourists' local searches for restaurants on three LSPs, namely Google, Bing, and Yelp, this study examines how different ranking results are generated across the platforms and how online reviews contribute to the differences. The findings suggest that online reviews are incorporated into LSPs as ranking factors and, thus, affect tourists' decision-making by influencing the information search results in the local search context. As one of the earliest studies on local search, this study discusses how the existing knowledge about the role of online reviews in tourists' decision-making needs to be reevaluated in mobile and more dynamic environments, and offers practical implications for tourism businesses' search engine marketing.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.89-108
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• 2018

This paper aims to explore the analysis of the meanings and processes of reading online consumer reviews and to construct a substantive theory that explains the process involved with the phenomenon of reading consumer reviews. In order to explore the phenomenon, this study employs a qualitative methodology. Following the grounded theory perspective, the researcher conducted interviews with 17 participants, who have subsequently shopped online and utilized online consumer reviews for shopping, and decidedly employed in-depth interviews with those participants. Through coding and making constant comparison, several themes emerged: improving confidence, trusting reviews, getting a sense of who reviewers are, seeking balance, processing and handling negative reviews, experiencing vicariously, increasing searchability, getting a sense of who they are in terms of similarity, and seeking benefits and the usage situations from consumer based reviews. Among the emerging themes, improving confidence can be considered a core category, which is influenced by the analysis of trusting reviews and the consumer vicarious experiences with a product. Moreover, this study discusses the relationships among the themes. This study concludes with a discussion of the results, implications, and limitations.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.281-289
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• 2024

Online consumer reviews have become the most important basis for online shopping and product sales. Fake reviews are generated to boost sales because online consumer reviews play a vital role in consumers' decision making. The prevalence of fake reviews violates the regulations of the online business environment and misleads consumers in decision making. Thus, the present research investigates the effects of reviews' linguistic characteristics (i.e., analytical thinking, authenticity) on review fakeness. Specifically, this research examines whether (1) the level of analytical thinking is lower for fake (vs. genuine) reviews (hypothesis 1) and (2) the level of authenticity is lower for fake (vs. genuine) reviews (hypothesis 2). This research analyzed user-generated hotel reviews (genuine reviews, fake reviews) collected from MTurk. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) 2022 was adopted to code review contents, and the hypotheses were tested using logistic regression. Consistent with the hypotheses 1 and 2, the results indicate that (1) analyticial thinking is negatively associated with review fakeness; and (2) authenticity is negatively associated with review fakeness. The findings provide important implications to identify fake reviews based on linguistic characteristics.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.16-23
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• 2018

Although there have been studies regarding the influence of customer reviews on consumer decision making at online shopping sites, research on factors affecting the perceived customer review quality for online shopping sites is limited. This study posits that sociability, which is one of the environmental factors of an online shopping site, can affect the quality of customer reviews. Sociability is a key factor in building a collaborative environment online, but studies have been limited to applying sociability to customer reviews that are the result of a collaborative environment. This study expects that sociability affects the performance of online shopping sites through the perceived information quality of customer reviews, and customers' efficacy. More specifically this study investigates the structural relationship between sociability, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and the perceived information quality of the reviews in an online shopping context, regarding the patronage intention of customers. This study was conducted using a survey of 361 college students. The structural equation model results indicate that user perception of sociability increases self-efficacy and collective efficacy. The improved efficacy enhances the perceived information quality of reviews for online shopping sites, which increases patronage intention of customers. This study found that online shopping sites require a platform for customers to engage in social interaction to enhance their customers' loyalty and lifetime value.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.3-17
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• 2013

As electronic marketplaces grow and a large number of consumers exchange their opinions on products and services on the Internet, many studies have been conducted in the area of online consumer reviews. This paper analyzes the research trend of the online consumer reviews by investigating those studies in an attempt to provide future research directions. Many researchers have focused on the effects of online reviews on consumer behaviors as well as the usefulness of the online reviews. In particular, review contents, characteristics of reviewers/consumers and features of products/services have been identified as influencing factors on the effects of the online consumer reviews. For the review contents, the number and the volume of the contents have increasing effects on the online reviews, while the direction (positive vs. negative) of the contents has resulted in conflicting effects of the review. The reputation and trustfulness of reviewers, consumers' prior knowledge on the products, consumers' product involvement, and types of the products were investigated as these factors influence the effectiveness of the online consumer reviews. Social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) nowadays play an important role to disseminate online reviews among consumers. Thus, it is necessary to study how social media influence the effects of online reviews on consumers. Since some firms abuse the online reviews for their own sakes, we recognize the necessity for empirical studies on the side effects of the online reviews.