Do Textual Comments and Existing Orders Affect Consumer Participation in Online Group-Buying?

In group-buying auctions on the Internet, the number of existing orders and feedback to bidding consumers are information sources for evaluating the bidding risk they face and the trust they have for the mechanism. Feedback is often presented as ratings and textual comments. We evaluate comments and existing orders as drivers of how consumers´ perceived risk and trust change. Our experimental results indicate that comments affect these two things, but the number of existing orders only impacts perceived trust. In addition, a consumer´s intention to join a group-buying auction is impacted by both the perceived risk and trust. We develop additional results that refine our understanding of the value of comments and why they cannot be replaced by ratings.