Along with the growth of Internet and electronic commerce, online consumer reviews have become an important source of information that assists consumers to make purchase decision. However, ...theoretical development and empirical testing in this area of research are still limited, which greatly hinder us from understanding the influence of online reviews. Drawing upon the heuristic–systematic model from the literature of dual-process theories, we develop a research model to identify factors that are important to consumers' purchase decision-making. The model is empirically tested with 191 users of an existing online review site. We find that argument quality of online reviews (systematic factor), which is characterized by perceived informativeness and perceived persuasiveness, has a significant effect on consumers' purchase intention. In addition, we find that source credibility and perceived quantity of reviews (heuristic factors) have direct impacts on purchase intention. The two heuristic factors further demonstrate positive influences on argument strength. This result is consistent with the proposition of bias effect in the heuristic–systematic model, which elucidates the interrelationship between heuristic and systematic factors. Based on the findings, we discuss implications for both researchers and practitioners.
•We develop a heuristic–systematic model to examine the influence of online reviews.•Three systematic and heuristic factors are proposed to affect behavioral intention.•Argument quality is defined with informativeness and persuasiveness dimensions.•Source credibility and perceived quantity of reviews are the two heuristic factors.•The two heuristic factors produce significant bias effects on argument quality.
The advance of the Internet facilitates consumers to share and exchange consumption-related advice through online consumer reviews. This relatively new form of word-of-mouth communication, electronic ...word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication, has only recently received significant managerial and academic attention. Many academic studies have looked at the effectiveness of positive eWOM communication, examining the process by which eWOM influences consumer purchasing decisions. eWOM behavior is primarily explained from the individual rational perspective that emphasizes a cost and benefit analysis. However, we felt there was a need for an extensive study that examines consumers' motives for eWOM. In this paper, we focus on the factors that drive consumers to spread positive eWOM in online consumer-opinion platforms. Building on the social psychology literature, we identified a number of key motives of consumers' eWOM intention and developed an associated model. We empirically tested the research model with a sample of 203 members of a consumer review community, OpenRice.com. The model explains 69% of the variance, with reputation, sense of belonging and enjoyment of helping other consumers significantly related to consumers' eWOM intention. The results of this study provide important implications for research and practice.
► In this study, we developed a model examining motives of consumers’ eWOM intention. ► We tested the model with a sample of 203 members of a consumer review community. ► The model explains 69 percent of the variance. ► Reputation, sense of belonging, and enjoyment of helping are significant factors.
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•Chlorpyrifos is found worldwide in up to 1/3 of all conventionally citrus fruits.•Potential neurotoxicity of CPS in food from both China and Denmark.•Remediation using photoreactive ...nanoparticle is recommended.•Water, mechanical and heat treatment reduce the hazard quotients.•More research needed on health risks and socioeconomic impacts.
Pollution with pesticides is a widespread global problem and biomonitoring of the environment and human populations is necessary to assess potential harmful biological effects. One of the pesticides that are showing up in vegetables and fruit is chlorpyrifos (CPS). CPS is a nerve-poisoning organophosphorus insecticide, which is in up to 1/3 of all conventionally produced citrus fruits. Our review shows that CPS is a hazardous material that poses risks to human health and also pollutes the environment. There is numerous risk assessment of CPS reported, however, the assessment is easily affected by factors such as climate change, exposure period and CPS concentration. Therefore, rigorous update of the hazardous level of CPS is needed to determine the threshold level safe for humans and animals. There is a need for remediation using for example photoreactive nanoparticle methods and microbial degeneration possessing high degradation efficiency (73–97%). In addition, stringent biomonitoring of food, environment and human exposure should occur to avoid exposure to chemicals via citrus fruits and vegetables. This is necessary to assess health risks and socioeconomic impacts which also require collaboration between private and public sectors to facilitate the growth, sale and manufacturing of biopesticides.
•Task-related features affect perceived usefulness.•Mood-related features affect perceived enjoyment.•Social-relevant features determine users’ parasocial interaction (PSI).•PSI affects impulse ...buying tendency.•Perceived enjoyment and impulse buying tendency affect urge to buy impulsively.
Social commerce, a recent branch of e-commerce, has made the experience of consumers on social commerce platform (SCP) different from other contexts, as the consumers have social interactions with each other. Growing evidence also shows that consumers on these platforms are prone to impulse buying behavior owing to the social interactions. However, existing research on online impulse buying was limited when illustrating the behavior of consumers on SCPs as social relationship constructs were not included. New theoretical developments are needed in regard to fill the research gap. In this research, parasocial interaction (PSI) theory is introduced in this research to examine the influence of social relationship factors on the formation of impulse buying behavior. An empirical research has been conducted on Mogujie (www.mogujie.com), one of the most popular image-sharing SCPs in China. Results indicate that PSI exerts an impact on impulse buying tendency, the social-relevant features of the SCP determine PSI, and perceived usefulness and PSI both significantly affect perceived enjoyment. In addition, consumers’ perceived enjoyment and impulse buying tendencies significantly affect their urge to buy impulsively. The implications, limitations, and discussions are provided.
•Consumers’ brand trust can be transferred from their trust in other consumers and marketers in social media brand community (SMBC).•Consumer engagement partially mediates the process of trust ...transfer.•Consumer engagement in SMBC has a positive effect on brand trust. This effect is moderated by consumers’ device preference to access SMBC.
Social media brand communities (SMBCs) provide firms with a potential tool to develop brand relationships. The goal of this study is to understand the value of an SMBC to that brand by examining how the community contributes to one of the central brand relationship variables—brand trust. From the perspective of trust transfer, this study considers whether and how consumer trust in a brand can be transferred from other trusted parties in the SMBC, and the mediation of consumer engagement in this process. Based on a survey of 279 SMBC participants, this study demonstrates that consumer-to-consumer trust and consumer-to-marketer trust have positive impact on consumer engagement, which subsequently influence brand trust. Also the device usage was found to moderate the impact of consumer engagement on brand trust.
Online social networks (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the like) have become truly significant new phenomena in human communication and interaction patterns and may have a profound impact in the way ...people communicate and connect with each other. In this study, the decision to use an online social network is conceptualized as intentional social action and the relative impact of the three modes of social influence processes (compliance, internalization, and identification) on intentional social action to use (collective intention) is examined. An empirical study of Facebook users (
n
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389) found that collective intention to use a social networking site is determined by both subjective norm and social identity. Further, social identity is found to be a second-order latent construct comprised of cognitive, evaluative, and affective (first-order) components. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of user engagement in the context of online brand communities. A research model is proposed to explain how brand loyalty is developed ...through user engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
– The research model was empirically tested with an online survey study of 185 current Facebook users.
Findings
– Results revealed that user engagement influenced brand loyalty both directly and indirectly through online community commitment. Users tend to focus on the benefits (rather than the costs) derived from the usage when they engage in an online brand community.
Research limitations/implications
– The selection of respondents is bound to the Hong Kong area, while Facebook members are globally distributed. In addition, this study involved a cross-sectional design instead of investigating the development of brand loyalty from a long-term perspective.
Practical implications
– The results inform e-marketers the importance of user engagement behaviors for building brand loyalty through online communities. Strategies that encourage members to engage in online brand communities on social networking sites such as Facebook are also provided.
Originality/value
– The concept of user engagement in online brand communities is still poorly understood, underscoring the need for theoretically based research of user engagement. This paper enriches the knowledge in the area of brand engagement by presenting a research model that introduces the concept of user engagement in social media research and empirically examines its role in building brand loyalty in online brand communities.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that problematic use of social media has become prevalent among a large proportion of users and led to significant behavioral and psychological problems. Nevertheless, ...theory-driven investigation into this issue is still relatively scarce, and the few existing studies tend to adopt only a conceptual or descriptive approach. This study uses a theory-guided approach and seeks to clarify the development of psychological dependence in the context of social media, with a particular focus on microblogging. Building on the theory of rational addiction, this study hypothesizes that dependence is initially developed from habit. Furthermore, the study draws on the cognitive–affective–behavioral modeling paradigm to hypothesize that maladaptive cognition and affect tend to distort habit into psychological dependence. We conduct a longitudinal empirical test to validate the underlying mechanism of social media dependence as theorized in our study. The study concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.
•This study seeks to clarify the development of psychological dependence in social media.•We use a longitudinal study to theorize and validate the mechanism of social media dependence.•Habit induces dependence by distorting individuals' cognition and affect.•Deficient self-regulation has a positive influence on social media dependence.
Although omnichannel retailing has gained significant interest among academics and practitioners, the mechanisms through which customers react to Cross-Channel Integration (CCI) in omnichannel ...retailing remain unclear. To this end, this study builds on the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) framework to unpack the processes through which uncertainty, identity attractiveness, and switching costs of omnichannel retailers play pushing, pulling, and mooring roles in shaping customers' reaction to CCI. We further explore the moderating influence of showrooming in these relationships. Survey findings reveal that uncertainty, identity attractiveness, and switching costs of omnichannel retailers partially mediate the effect of CCI on customer retention while fully mediating the relationship between CCI and interest in alternatives. We also uncovered that customer showrooming strengthens the negative relationship between CCI and retailer uncertainty. We conclude this paper with theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
•The effect of CCI on customer retention is partially mediated by the PPM factors.•The effect of CCI on interest in alternatives is fully mediated by the PPM factors.•Customer showrooming strengthens the negative relationship between CCI and retailer uncertainty.
•This study examines the role of inconsistent reviews in online shopping decision.•We examine its moderating effect and gender differences in a trust-based model.•Cognitive trust affects emotional ...trust, which further leads to purchase intention.•Emotional trust affects purchase intention more in the inconsistent review context.•The moderating effect of inconsistent reviews is stronger for female consumers.
The prevalence of social media has provided consumers with many opportunities to post online reviews on a wide range of products on the Internet. In this study, we attempt to investigate the moderating effect of inconsistent reviews (i.e., a mix of positive and negative reviews) on consumers’ purchase decision. We further examine whether the effect will differ from female to male consumers.
We explain the moderating effect and its gender differences based on the theory of reasoned action, trust literature, and information processing literature. The research hypotheses are empirically tested in a laboratory experiment using structural equation modeling approach. Our findings show that consumers’ cognitive trust to online retailers affects emotional trust, which further leads to purchase intention. When consumers are exposed to inconsistent reviews, the influence of emotional trust on purchase intention is significantly stronger. Moreover, the moderating effect of inconsistent reviews is stronger for female consumers than for male consumers. We expect that this study can enrich the understanding of how inconsistent reviews play a role in consumers’ online shopping decision. Online retailers may apply our findings and leverage the influence of online consumer reviews in social media. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.
