Consumer's Reliance on Word of Mouse: Influence on Consumer's Decision in an Online Information Asymmetry Context
Year: 2013
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Intangibility of products in online environment results in higher information asymmetry. To overcome this asymmetric information issue, consumers may rely upon online reviews, i.e. word of mouse as a signal of quality. Two models were chosen to measure the impact of word of mouse characteristics on consumer's decision for this study. An objective data (proxy measures) as well as subjective data (questionnaire measures) was collected for the reviews available at Epinions.com. Results revealed that reviewer's reputation, expertise and message comprehensiveness are the most influential characteristics of word of mouse information. Identity disclosure, message timeliness and message accuracy were not significant predictors of information usefulness.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Raja Ahmed Jamil, Syed Amjad, Farid Hasnu
Institution: University of Haripur
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2181923957