The effect of author and good type on perceived helpfulness of online reviews
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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en
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60 + app. 24
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Abstract
This paper contributes to past research by conducting an experimental study which examines perceived review helpfulness in an online context and manipulates both review author type and good type. The two review author types are consumer and professional. The good types are search goods and experience goods. The quality of search goods can be predicted prior purchase while the quality of experience goods cannot. Only partial evidence was found for the effect of author type on perceived review helpfulness. The results showed that if the review was allegedly written by a professional the review was per-ceived more credible. Evidence was found to support prediction of search goods reviews being more helpful than expe-rience good reviews. This finding contributed to the theory by providing evidence to the prediction of search goods being less prone to information asymmetries. Search good reviews had also a stronger effect on purchase intention. Especially the purchase intention based on a single review was higher if a search good was in question.Description
Thesis advisor
Kajalo, SamiFalk, Tomas