THE IMPACT OF SOURCE CREDIBILITY ON REVIEW
USEFULNESS: THE MODERATING ROLE OF
CUSTOMER AND FIRM RESPONSE
Master Thesis Defense
Background & research question
‘’To what extent does a customer/ firm response affects the
relationship between negative OCR provided by highly credible/
low credible sources and review usefulness?’’
• Increasing number of online customer reviews (OCR)
• Less research has been done regarding negative OCR
• E-commerce sites have developed a new tool, a form of
reputation mechanism
Conceptual Model
Research design
•
Choice-based conjoint analysis
•
235 respondents
•
Online questionnaire
Attribute Attribute levels
Source credibility Low
Moderate High
Response Yes
No
Consumer response Positive
Negative Firm response Positive
Negative
Example choice set
Results
• Source credibility has a positive significant effect on review usefulness
• A response is positively related to review usefulness compared tot a
non-response
• A customer response has a stronger influence (positive and negative) on
review usefulness compared to a firm response
Relative importance: Attribute Range Source credibility 0.5946 Response 1.6862 Firm response 0.5534 Consumer response 0.8666
Results
Table 3: Full model
Results
Table 5: positive consumer response*source credibility
• A positive consumer response (disconfirming response) compared to a negative consumer response (confirming response), decreases the impact of source credibility on review usefulness.
• High vs. Low source credibility
• A negative consumer response compared to a positive consumer response increases the impact of source credibility on review usefulness.
Contradicting results for firm responses:
• A positive as well as a negative firm response increase the impact of source credibility on review usefulness
Theoretical implications
• This research shows and confirms that people are more likely to
accept information provided by credible sources, with a special focus
on negative OCR (Reichelt, Sievert & Jacob, 2014).
• The added value of a response to increase the perceived review
usefulness.
• People prefer a customer response over a firm response.
• INTERACTION EFFECT OF RESPONSE
• Disconfirming (positive consumer response) information affects the
Managerial implications
• Managers should be aware of the influential power of source
credibility on review usefulness for customers.
• The used cue for source credibility in this research can be
incorporated on e-commerce websites.
• Managers can stimulate people to write disconfirming responses if a
negative OCR is written by a high credible source.
• Adding the reputation mechanism increases perceived trust and
Limitations & Further research
• Number of used attributes
• The sample
Thank you for your attention!
References
• Reichelt, J., Sievert, J., & Jacob, F. (2014). How credibility affects
eWOM reading: The influences of expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity on utilitarian and social functions. Journal of Marketing
