文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Expertise Makes Perfect: How the Variance of a Reviewer's Historical Ratings Influences the Persuasiveness of Online Reviews

作者：Wu, Xiaoyue[1];Jin, Liyin[2];Xu, Qian[2]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Business, Shanghai, Peoples R China;[2]Fudan Univ, Sch Management, 670 Guoshun Rd, Shanghai 200433, Peoples R China

年份：2021

卷号：97

期号：2

起止页码：238

外文期刊名：JOURNAL OF RETAILING

收录：;WOS:【SSCI(收录号:WOS:000665737300007)】；

基金：This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71772045) . All authors contributed equally to this work.

语种：英文

外文关键词：Rating variance; Perceived expertise; Online review; Product recommendation; Persuasion

摘要：Online reviews have become an important source of information for consumers' purchase decisions. Drawing upon the consumer expertise and persuasion literature, this study proposes that consumers are more willing to accept a reviewer's recommendation when his/her historical ratings in a certain product domain display greater variance. Five experiments provide consistent support for this hypothesis and the underlying process. Study 1 tests the proposed effect of a reviewer's rating variance on consumers' willingness to accept the reviewer's recommendation. Studies 2 and 3 show that this effect can be attributed to perceptions regarding the reviewer's expertise. Moreover, this "variance-expert inference" effect is attenuated when the consumption experience of the reviewer is limited (Study 4) and when the consumers are familiar with the products (Study 5). The theoretical implications for the online review and persuasion literature and practical implications for online retailers are discussed. (c) 2020 New York University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.