A Meta-analytic Investigation of the Role of Valence in Online Reviews

Nathalia Purnawirawan, Martin Eisend, Patrick De Pelsmacker and Nathalie Dens

Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2015, vol. 31, issue C, 17-27

Abstract: Based on a meta-analysis, this study aims to clarify the influence of online review valence (i.e., whether reviews in a review set are predominantly positive or negative) on various dependent variables, in particular on perceived usefulness of the reviews and on attitudes toward the product. The findings suggest that review valence affects perceived usefulness in a different way than it affects attitudes. We find an optimum impact level for perceived usefulness and a ceiling effect for attitudes. Primarily negative review sets that include few positive reviews show the strongest effect on perceived usefulness, while positive review sets that include few or no negative reviews are most successful in influencing attitudes. Additionally, review valence has a stronger influence on perceived usefulness when the reviews refer to experience (rather than search) products, and it has a stronger influence on attitudes for unfamiliar (rather than familiar) brands. Finally, the strongest influence of review valence refers to recommendation intentions. These findings provide several implications for researchers and practitioners.

Keywords: Online reviews; Review valence; Perceived usefulness; Product attitudes; Meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (64)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1094996815000304
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joinma:v:31:y:2015:i:c:p:17-27

DOI: 10.1016/j.intmar.2015.05.001

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Interactive Marketing is currently edited by B. T. Ratchford

More articles in Journal of Interactive Marketing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().