Title
Is This Review Believable? A Study of Factors Affecting the Credibility of Online Consumer Reviews from an ELM Perspective.
Abstract
With the ever-increasing popularity of online consumer reviews, understanding what makes an online review believable has attracted increased attention from both academics and practitioners. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study examines four information cues used to evaluate the credibility of online reviews: Argument quality, source credibility, review consistency, and review sidedness, under different levels of involvement and expertise. We conducted an online survey that involved users of Epinions.com, a popular online consumer review website, to test the research model empirically. Consistent with previous research, the results reveal that argument quality, a central cue, was the primary factor affecting review credibility. Participants also relied on peripheral cues such as source credibility, review consistency, and review sidedness when evaluating online consumer reviews. Review sidedness had a stronger impact on review credibility when the recipient had a low involvement level and a high expertise level. However, the other interaction effects were not significant. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.
Year
Venue
Keywords
2012
JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Online Consumer Reviews,ELM,Review Credibility,Argument Quality,Source Credibility,Review Consistency,Review Sidedness
Field
DocType
Volume
Source credibility,Credibility,Public relations,Psychology,Marketing
Journal
13
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
8
1536-9323
10
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.48
4
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Cindy Man-Yee Cheung1100.48
Choon-ling Sia280042.96
Kevin K. Y. Kuan333113.37