The preference for users to experts in the domain of online product ratings

Richard A. Essig

Journal of Business Research, 2024, vol. 173, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates what happens when consumers are asked to select a product from two product options with opposing opinions: one highly rated by users ratings and the other highly rated by expert ratings. Our first key finding reveals that consumers overwhelmingly prefer user to expert ratings. We find this occurs because consumers base their preferences more on how it feels to use and experience the product, which is more likely to be expressed in user ratings. Accordingly, when the value of experiential attribute information is de-emphasized, consumers gravitate to expert ratings. Finally, the preference for user ratings also decreases if they are based on fewer ratings than expert ratings. Together, this paper makes novel contributions to product ratings research, while also challenging the notion that expertise is the dominant message source attribute.

Keywords: Message sources; Experiential information; Diagnosticity; Online user ratings; Source similarity; Expertise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:173:y:2024:i:c:s0148296323008147

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114455

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