Abstract
This chapter investigates how online customer reviews affect consumer decision-making (willingness to buy) during their first purchase of services or products using brand trust as a mediating variable. A brief literature review, rationale and significance, and methodology are discussed, and a conceptual framework based on the relationships between the stated variables is adopted in this empirical study to demonstrate linkages and insights. The findings demonstrate that the "reliability dimension" of brand trust had a mediating effect on online customer reviews' valence to willingness to buy, while the "intentionality dimension" of brand trust had little effect. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that online customer reviews generated by in-group and out-group reviewers have little effect on purchasing decisions (willingness to buy). These results suggest that marketers should focus more on managing negative online customer reviews that have a damaging effect on brand trust.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Strategic E-Commerce Systems and Tools for Competing in the Digital Marketplace |
| Editors | Mehdi Khosrow-Pour |
| Place of Publication | Hershey, PA |
| Publisher | IGI Global |
| Pages | 139-161 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781466681347 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781466681330 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 28 Feb 2015 |