Effects of Explanation Type on Consumers＇ Perceived Usefulness of Online Reviews and Their Boundary Conditions

摘要

In making purchasing decisions, consumers look to online reviews posted by others who have used or experienced the product/service. Most existing studies on online reviews only focused on their content without addressing how their explanation type influences purchasing decisions, not to mention the boundary conditions for such effects. Based on three experimental studies, this paper examines how explanation type affects the perceived usefulness of online reviews and purchasing decisions, and discusses the boundary conditions for such effects. Our findings show that positive explanation type has a positive effect on the perceived usefulness of online reviews, while negative explanation has an insignificant impact. For search products, there is a positive correlation between the online reviews of explained actions and the perceived usefulness of consumer reviews. For experience products, there is a positive correlation between the online reviews of explained reactions and the perceived usefulness of consumer reviews. Further research found that temporal distance may moderate the effects of explanation type and product type on the perceived usefulness of online reviews. This study also provides a new approach for research on the word-of-mouth(WOM) with meaningful implications for e-commerce firms.