The Influence of Credibility of Online Reviews on Consumers' Trust: The Moderating Role of Uncertainty

Abstract

Abstract:

With the rapid development of Internet in recent years, consumers are relying more on the online reviewer comments than on the offline comments. Online reviews, as an important source of information during the process of attaining products knowledge, have reduced perceived risk and played an increasingly vital role in consumer purchase decisions. However, until now, there is no research systematically exploring the antecedents of the credibility of online reviewers' comments as well as the consequences on customers' online trust. The present research aims to explore the effects of three online review characteristics (i.e., review commentators' expertise, the objectivity of e-commerce platform, and the information quality) on consumer perceived credibility of online reviews as well as the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance, which subsequently affect consumer trust including ability, integrity and benevolence. We build and test a causal model based on data from Chinese consumers in the online industry. By conducting the data analyses through structural equation modeling, we find that review commentators' expertise, the objectivity of e-commerce platform, and the information quality have significant effects on the credibility of online reviews; and the credibility of online reviews have positive effects on the consumers' trust. Besides, culture values such as uncertainty avoidance moderate the relationships between commentators' expertise, quality of the information, and the credibility of online reviews. We also discuss the theoretical and managerial implications, and suggest future research directions.

Key words: online reviews, perception of credibility, consumers' trust, uncertainty avoidance

Sun Jin, Zheng Yu, Chen Jing. The Influence of Credibility of Online Reviews on Consumers' Trust: The Moderating Role of Uncertainty[J]. , 2020, 32(4): 146-159.

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