The impact of online consumer reviews
and trust at price comparison sites
The case of a price comparison site for health insurances
Thesis defense - Albert Koller
Thesis MSc. Marketing Intelligence and Marketing Management
First supervisor: dr. H. Risselada
Table of contents
› Introduction and motivation
› Theoretical framework
Conceptual model
Hypotheses
› Methodology
› Results & Discussion
Introduction and literature review
› Relevance of e-commerce for consumers
› Popularity of price comparison sites, especially for health insurances
(Bodur, Klein and Arora, 2015).
› Growing importance of online reviews for customers (De Langhe,
Fernbach and Lichtenstein, 2015).
› Possible marketing strategy of buying a price comparison site
(Leeflang et al., 2014)
› Perceived trust important for online success.
Research question:
What is the effect of online consumer reviews on the choice and
purchase intention of displayed products on price comparison sites
Theoretical framework
› What are the main effects of price ranking, review volume, review valence
and trust on consumer choice and purchase intention? What influences the
decision of respondents most?
› Do review characteristics interact with price ranking?
› Does trust moderate the impact of review characteristics and/or price
ranking?
Hypotheses
Hypothesis
number
Hypothesis
H1
A relative low price (high ranked price) leads to a higher purchase intention and choice
probability of that product.
H2a
The volume intensity of online consumer reviews is positively associated with the
purchase intention and choice probability of the displayed product.
H2b
The valence intensity of online consumer reviews is positively associated with the
purchase intention and choice probability of the displayed product.
H3a
A higher volume intensity of online consumer reviews diminishes the effect of price
rating on choice and purchase intention
H3b
A higher valence intensity of online reviews diminishes the effect of price rating on
choice and purchase intention
H4
Price ranking has a significant bigger influence for customers in choosing a health
insurance than review characteristics.
H5
High perceived trust when visiting a PCS increases the purchase intention of the
displayed product.
H6a
High perceived trust positively moderates the effect of review characteristics.
H6b
High perceived trust negatively moderates the effect of price ranking.
Methodology
› Choice based conjoint design to discover drivers of
choice.
› Follow-up question to capture actual purchase
intention.
› Within-subject design.
Results & Discussion (1)
Results & Discussion (2)
› Valence interacts with price: better rated product more
negative utility from a higher price.
› Higher trust higher purchase intention.
› Relatively low level of perceived trust
› Higher trust review valence more important.
Results & Discussion (3)
› Latent class analysis to discover potential heterogeneity in
the sample > 2-segment solution.
› Significant differences:
Overview of the results
Hypothesis number Hypothesis Supported? H1A relative low price (high ranked price) leads to a higher purchase intention and choice probability of that product.
Yes
H2a
The volume intensity of online consumer reviews is positively associated with the purchase intention and choice probability of the displayed product.
Yes
H2b The valence intensity of online consumer reviews is positively associated with the purchase intention and choice probability of the displayed product.
Yes
H3a A higher volume intensity of online consumer reviews diminishes the effect of price rating on choice and purchase intention
No
H3b A higher valence intensity of online reviews diminishes the effect of price rating on choice and purchase intention
No
H4 Price ranking has a significant bigger influence for customers in choosing a health insurance than review characteristics.
No
H5 High perceived trust when visiting a PCS increases the purchase intention of the displayed product.
Yes
H6a High perceived trust positively moderates the effect of review characteristics. Partly
H6b High perceived trust negatively moderates the effect of price ranking. No
