THE REVIEWER MATTERS: TWO STUDIES ON ONLINE PICTORIAL REVIEWS

Abstract

WITH THE EMERGENCE OF ONLINE PICTORIAL REVIEWS, REVIEWER?S IMAGE BECOMES AVAILABLE INFORMATION FOR LATER-BUYERS. BUT WHETHER AND HOW REVIEWER?S IMAGE WOULD INFLUENCE CONSUMERS? PRODUCT EVALUATION OR PURCHASE BEHAVIOR STILL REMAINS UNCLEAR. IN THIS THESIS, WE DESIGN TWO STUDIES TO INVESTIGATE HOW REVIEWER ATTRACTIVENESS, A NEWLY AVAILABLE REVIEWER ATTRIBUTE ENABLED BY PICTORIAL REVIEWS, WOULD INFLUENCE CONSUMERS? PURCHASE BEHAVIOR. IN PARTICULAR, STUDY ONE FOCUSES ON THE DIRECT EFFECT OF REVIEWER ATTRACTIVENESS ON CONSUMERS? PRODUCT EVALUATION; STUDY TWO FOCUSES ON THE INTERACTION EFFECT OF REVIEWER ATTRACTIVENESS WITH OTHER IMPORTANT REVIEW DIMENSIONS AND JOINTLY INFLUENCE ON CONSUMERS? PURCHASE BEHAVIOR. LAB EXPERIMENTS ARE DESIGN AND CONDUCTED. OVERALL, THIS STUDY CONTRIBUTES TO THE ONLINE REVIEW LITERATURE BY INVESTIGATING REVIEWER ATTRACTIVENESS EFFECT IN ONLINE PICTORIAL REVIEW CONTEXT, AND IT PROVIDES IMPORTANT PRACTICAL IMPLICATION FOR ONLINE REVIEW PARTICIPANTS.