AUTHORS: Yingtao Shen, Shenyu Li, Jidong Han

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ABSTRACT: Online buyers rely heavily on information delivered online to make their purchase decisions. In a typical online marketplace, multiple sellers are often selling items of the same brand. Prospective buyers who are interested in buying one item of a specific brand have access to two typical types of information: (1) product information provided by the sellers; and (2) seller reputation scores provided by other buyers (electronic word-of-mouth or eWOM). Prior studies have shown that involvement can moderate the effects of eWOM on consumer information processing and decision-making process. In this study, we aim to answer two important research questions. First, when product information from sellers and eWOM of the sellers are both presented, which information has the greater impact on online shoppers’ final preferences? Second, how does involvement with a specific product affect the relative importance of these two types of information? We conducted a conjoint experiment to answer these research questions. We used opera ticket as a low-involvement product and used bicycle as a high-involvement product and designed eight hypothetical seller profiles for each of the two products. These eight seller profiles were ranked and rated by the participants based on their preferences. The results show that when a product is perceived as a high-involvement product, seller reputation is more important than the product information offered by the seller and even price. On the other hand, if a product is perceived to be a low-involvement one, product information offered by the seller is more important than the seller’s reputation. Therefore, we conclude that that product involvement moderates the relative impacts of word-of-mouth and product information on consumers’ preferences. For both products, price is the least important factor.

KEYWORDS: word-of-mouth, involvement, conjoint analysis

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WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1109-9526 / 2224-2899, Volume 14, 2017, Art. #18, pp. 163-169


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