Online customer reviews or peer
opinions?
Research on their effects on the purchase intention of sportswear
products and the moderating role of the strength of brand image
Master Thesis’ Defence
Marketing Management
Student: Stefano Giolito
First supervisor: Dr. J.A. Voerman
Table of contents:
• Introduction
• Research question and other goals of this study
• Theoretical framework
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusions
• Managerial implications
Introduction
• OCRs and peers have been recognised as the most trusted source of information among British consumers (Deloitte, 2014)
• Valence of OCRs is represented most frequently by an average rating measure. The most typical rank can be on 1–5 or 1–7 Likert scales. (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006)
• Peers are siblings, friends, acquaintances and reference groups (Pilgrim,2001)
• Reflexive evaluation is a form of information integration in which the consumer tries to adapt his/her self-concept in order to be in line with behaviors of group members (Bearden and Rose,1990)
Research question and other goals:
How does the valence of online customer reviews written by
unknown consumers and the valence of peer opinions impact the
purchase intention of sportswear products, and how is this effect
moderated by the strength of brand image?
• What is the main direct effect of the two independent variables on purchase intention? Can we consider one variable to be more important than the other one?
• How does valence of peer opinions prevail over the effect of the valence of OCRs on the purchase intention of a sportswear product?
Theoretical framework and Conceptual framework
• Review mechanism
• Studies on the valence of the
OCRs
• Differences in direction and in size
• Studies on the valence of peer
opinions
• The valence of peer opinions
prevail over the valence of OCRs
• Studies on the strength of the
Methodology #1
• Research Design
• 2x2x2 between participants • Survey spread through social
media. 291 respondents.
Methodology #2
• Plan analysis:
• Factor Analysis and Reliability analysis performed in order to validate the number of factors and check the internal consistency of each construct.
• Dummy coding, ANOVA and regression analyses (6 models) • Main effects
• Main effects and their interactions
Main findings #1
• The valence of the OCRs and the valence of peer opinions exert a significant direct effect on purchase intention.
• It is important to note that the valence of OCRs is significant only in the ANOVA analysis and in model 1
• Brand image is always not significant, thus there are no moderations on the valences and no direct effect on purchase intention of sportswear products
• Informational influence moderates the direct effect of the valence of peer opinions on purchase intention
Main findings #2
• The valence of peer opinions has a stronger direct effect on purchase intention than the valence of OCRs
• The valence of peer opinions prevails over the valence of the OCRs
Therefore when valences have a similar direction (positive vs. positive or negative vs. negative) peer opinions reinforce the OCRs
Conclusions
• Unique study because it compares two types of social information cues. • The main findings of this paper are that in sportswear domain:
• the valence of OCRs influences purchase intention
• family and friends can affect the consumer’s decision regarding the purchase intention.
• consumers tend to rely more upon suggestions coming from family and friends because the close relationship plays a key role regarding the trustworthiness, the credibility of the sources.
• The informational influence moderates the direct effect of the valence of peer opinions
Managerial implications
This study provides 3 main insights:
1. The valence of the OCRs influences the purchase intention
i. respond to negative reviews (Ekiz, 2007 and Park et al. 2013) 2. The valence of the OCRs influences the purchase intention
i. Try to leverage peers importance through advertising. (Bearden et al. 1982). ii. Incentivise peer communication on social media.
Limitations and recommendations for
future researches
There are some clear limitations which lead to possible suggestions for future studies:
1. No pre-tests: Although stimuli were perceived correctly, probably a pre-test would have lead to a different
results, especially regarding the brand image effects. A possible future direction may be to try to repeat this study including some pre-tests of the stimuli and/or trying to change the stimuli
2. Low familiarity with technical terms: low level of knowledge with some technical words, for example
participants were not familiar with the word “valence”. Thus, it could be interesting try to repeat the survey only English in order to avoid any type of misunderstanding.
3. New variables: future studies may investigate the influence of other variables such as the brand familiarity, the
