Effect of Online Review Sentiment on Product Sales: The Moderating Role of Review Credibility Perception

Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 133, 2022, 107272

41 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2023 Last revised: 28 Aug 2023

See all articles by Qiang Wang

Qiang Wang

Beijing University of Technology - College of Economics and Management

Wen Zhang

Beijing University of Technology - College of Economics and Management

Jian Li

Beijing University of Technology - College of Economics and Management

Feng Mai

University of Iowa - Department of Business Analytics

Zhenzhong Ma

University of Windsor - Odette School of Business

Date Written: March 19, 2022

Abstract

Online reviews are of great importance in supporting the purchasing decision making of online consumers. With the prospering of e-commerce, increasingly fraudulent reviews are appearing on e-commerce platforms to mislead consumers, and an increasing number of consumers are worrying about being deceived in online shopping. However, little research effort has been invested in studying the impact of review credibility perception caused by online review fraud on product sales. To fill this research gap, this paper conducts empirical research on the moderating effect of consumers' credibility perception of online reviews. Here, review credibility perception, or consumers' credibility perception of online reviews, refers to the credibility or trust that consumers have in the reviews they are reading. Building on dual-process theory, this paper develops two hypotheses to understand why and how review credibility perception influence consumer decision-making behaviors. The empirical studies in this paper demonstrate that consumers' credibility perception of online reviews moderate the effect of review sentiment on product sales. This work also found that consumers' credibility perception of online reviews have a heterogeneous effect on product sales. The effect shifts the relationship between review sentiment and product sales from an inverted U-shape relationship to a monotonous positive relationship with the improvement of consumers’ credibility perception of online reviews. This study has great managerial implications for platforms and vendors to improve online review management.

Keywords: online review; deceptive review; review credibility

JEL Classification: M31

Suggested Citation

Wang, Qiang and Zhang, Wen and Li, Jian and Mai, Feng and Ma, Zhenzhong, Effect of Online Review Sentiment on Product Sales: The Moderating Role of Review Credibility Perception (March 19, 2022). Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 133, 2022, 107272, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4318762

Qiang Wang

Beijing University of Technology - College of Economics and Management

Wen Zhang

Beijing University of Technology - College of Economics and Management

Jian Li

Beijing University of Technology - College of Economics and Management

Feng Mai

University of Iowa - Department of Business Analytics ( email )

Iowa City
United States

Zhenzhong Ma (Contact Author)

University of Windsor - Odette School of Business ( email )

401 Sunset
Windsor N9B 3P4, Ontario
Canada
519-253-3000 ext 4251 (Phone)
519-973-7073 (Fax)

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