• 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.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2019

Prior studies on the effects of online consumer reviews have mainly focused on review valence, but little research has investigated how two-sided (both positive and negative) and one-sided (only positive) reviews influence consumers' response to online review. In addition, little attention has been paid to how sponsorship presence (firm-sponsored reviews vs. consumer-voluntary reviews) influences individuals' attitude toward online review. Unlike consumer-voluntary reviews without any monetary incentive, firm-sponsored reviews include messages about brands providing monetary compensation. This study examines whether review valence (two-sidedness vs. one-sidedness) influences attitude toward online review via its influence on review credibility. Further, this study examines whether sponsorship presence affects when review valence influences attitude toward review. Thus, this research investigates the effect of review valence on attitude toward review and the moderating role of sponsorship presence in the relationship between review valence and attitude toward review. The first experiment reveals that attitude toward review is more favorable when the review is two-sided (vs. one-sided). The second study demonstrates that differences between the two-sided and the one-sided review occur only for firm-sponsored reviews, not for consumer-voluntary reviews. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

• 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 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.729-743
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• 2024

This research explores consumer preferences for materials in different clothing product categories, using web-crawling and text mining techniques. Specifically, the study focuses on the material-related terms found in consumer reviews across three distinct product categories: functional clothing, formal shirts, and knit sweaters. Top-selling products within each category were identified on the Naver Shopping website based on the volume of reviews, and the four most-reviewed products were selected. Six hundred reviews per product were analyzed using the Textom big-data analysis software to determine the frequency of material-related mentions and word associations. The analysis utilized two comparative metrics: product category and usage duration. Our findings reveal notable variations in the material preferences mentioned by consumers across different product categories. The study suggests a need to re-evaluate existing standardized review criteria to better reflect consumer interests specific to each product category. Additionally, an increase in material-related terms in reviews over one month indicates the potential importance of extending the duration of product reviews to enhance the accuracy of information that reflects longer-term consumer experiences with material quality.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.139-148
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• 2024

In the post-pandemic era, the demand for online education platforms has surged, leading to increased consumer reliance on online reviews for decision-making. This study investigates the impact of Chinese online customer reviews on consumer purchase behavior in online education. By examining the role of trust, review sentiment, and the quantity and timeliness of reviews, the research aims to understand how these factors influence consumer decisions. By using regression model, findings reveal that negative reviews, timely feedback, and a higher volume of reviews positively affect consumer purchase decisions, while course pricing demonstrates an inverse relationship. Furthermore, cognitive and affective trust mediate the relationship between reviews and purchase behavior, highlighting a reverse U-shaped effect on consumer decision inclination. These insights provide valuable implications for online education providers, emphasizing the need to manage and leverage online reviews to foster consumer trust and improve sales performance.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2018

This study explores the effect of information direction and order of cosmetics power bloggers on consumer responses. A total of 488 undergraduate students participated in experiments with mock-up stimuli of sunscreen product reviews by power bloggers. The study was conducted with four stimuli of product review posts (i.e., positive reviews only, positive-negative reviews in order, negative-positive reviews in order, negative reviews only) of the power bloggers. The results showed a significant difference in consumer responses according to information direction and order of product reviews of the power bloggers. Specifically, negative reviews were considered more objective and more useful than positive reviews were. However, positivity of reviews is crucial in generating more positive attitudes toward products, greater purchase intention, and greater word-of-mouth intention. In regard to information order, the negative-positive reviews generated more positive attitudes toward the product and greater purchase intention than did the positive-negative reviews, emphasizing the importance of ending product reviews with positive information so as to create positive responses. Referring to the findings, power bloggers and marketers using bloggers as a promotional tool would benefit by carefully designing information content in consideration of an appropriate direction and order of information to better fit their purpose.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.177-190
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• 2016

On-line consumer reviews are good references for consumers to evaluate and buy apparel products. The objective of this study is to facilitate communication about performance textiles between consumers and merchandisers who buy and sell apparel products on online. The survey was based on standardizing words used in consumer reviews written after purchase of summer knit t-shirts at internet shopping mall and evaluating the performance textiles including cellulose fibers. We collected reviews of five sorts of the clothing products including cotton/modal, tencel/polyurethane, polyester/rayon, linen, cotton and selected 1000 reviews related to textiles. For classifying each word used in the reviews by the performance textiles, they were quantified applying same standards. The results were as follow: First, the standard for consumer to consider importantly was tactile sensation, appearance, pilling, thickness, dimensional stability in washing. Second, the important category of performance textiles was healthy-comfort and psychological-comfort. Third, there were difference performance textiles for consumer to recognize, e.g. cotton/modal was important to air-permeability, tencel/polyurethane was noticed about tactile sensation, polyester/rayon was perceived about pilling unlike other things, linen had a problem of clothing care-convenience, then cotton was familiar fiber to important for appearance. The last, consumers usually focused on writing the most positive or negative online reviews. Although not familiar with professional terminologies, consumers are sensitive to physical properties of textiles. Therefore, standardizing and evaluating performance textiles are expected to improve satisfaction as providing objective information to consumers considering in buying apparel products at online shopping mall and increase in revenue to manufacturer.

• 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.