PROJECT TITLE:

The Impact of Review Environment on Review Credibility - 2016

ABSTRACT:

Research drawback: Increasingly, skilled and technical communicators analyze, synthesize, and reply to user-generated content, including on-line consumer reviews of product, as the influence of user-generated content on consumers' getting decisions grows. However product reviews vary in the degree to which folks perceive them to be credible. Research queries: (1) To what extent does a product review's setting-a retailer or whole website-affect review users' ratings of that review's credibility? (a pair of) To what extent does review valence (positive versus negative) have an effect on review users' ratings of review credibility? (3) What is the strength of the link among credibility and its 2 main elements, trustworthiness and experience? Literature review: Recent research has created clear the spread and therefore the influence of user-generated comments and, so, the need for sophistication in handling it. Review credibility has 2 main components: trustworthiness (that equates to honesty or sincerity) and experience (which equates to accuracy). Prior analysis also shows the results of valence (positivity or negativity) in reviews, noting that negative reviews have more influence than positive reviews on readers' perceptions of review credibility and getting decisions. Methodology: We tested the effect of a client review's environment (whole or retailer website) and also the impact of review valence (positive or negative) on the perceived credibility of that review, further the degree of correlation among credibility, trustworthiness, and experience. Through an online survey, we have a tendency to exposed respondents to the identical review text with totally different star ratings (4-star and a couple of-star) in two types of web sites: brand and retailer. We tend to asked participants to judge the review's credibility, trustworthiness, and experience. In 0.5 of the exposures, participants evaluated a review in the site of a high-credibility company (Apple or Amazon), and in the opposite half of exposures, participants evaluated a review in the site of a midlevel-credibility company (Dell or Walmart). Results and conclusions: Credibility strongly correlated with each trustworthiness and experience. Participants rated 4-star reviews as additional credible than two-star reviews on high-credibility sites, but star ratings had no impact on midlevel credibility sites. We tend to found no difference between ratings of reviews displayed on complete and retailer sites for midlevel-credibility corporations but a little distinction between reviews displayed on complete and retailer sites for top-credibility companies. Skilled communicators should attend to reviews posted both to retailer and complete sites. Conclusions: Professional communicators charged with managing user-generated content need not spend resources on channeling it into retailer and other independent review web site environments as opposed to complete website environments. Our findings indicate that professional communicators looking to spot credible reviews ought to attend to review valence, or the positivity or negativity of a review. When managing user-generated product reviews, they should try to make credible content more noticeable to review users.