Generating Trust in Online Consumer Reviews through Signaling: An Experimental Study

With the availability of online consumer reviews, consumers´ consumption behaviors are gradually changing. They are increasingly relying on reviews for information prior to purchase. The influences of reviews on sales have been identified and verified by many empirical studies. However, little research has explored how review content characteristics affect the trustworthiness in online consumer reviews (TIOCR) and consumers´ willingness to purchase (WTP) experience goods. Based on signaling theory and related literature, we construct a model to explain the TIOCR and WTP for experience goods. We hypothesize that TIOCR and WTP are influenced by review content characteristics, i.e., Prevalence of negative statements, prevalence of conflicting information, and availability of emotions. A pilot laboratory experiment is carried out to test the hypotheses. Preliminary results are discussed. The results will be validated in a large scale experiment.