Estimating Online Reviews Adoption: A Bayesian Network Approach
We use Bayesian Networks (BN) to estimate how the characteristics of online reviews and product involvement affect perceived message credibility and message adoption. An experimental design and sample data from 236 individuals with knowledge and interest
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RESEARCH APPROACH The theoretical model underlying our methodological analyses relies on the main communication theories (e.g. Dual process theory, Deutsch & Gerrard, 1955) and eWOM empirical studies. According to the basic communication models, persuasive communication is a process where an individual transfers stimuli to influence other people’s behavior. The persuasiveness is determined by different levels of information-processing that people use (central vs. peripheral), and respectively, by two distinct categories of social influence: informative and normative (Deutsch & Gerrard, 1955). The informational influence encompasses instances where people are affected by the arguments themselves (e.g. message strength, framing, source characteristics), while the normative influence occurs when someone is motivated by a desire to meet the expectations of another person or group. The results of our experiment apply to hypotheses that are particularly relevant to the informative influence. Message strength is one of the informational factors used in evaluating communication validity (Wathen & Burkell, 2002). Message strength has been defined as the quality of the arguments regarding specific product features (Park, et al., 2007). A strong message is a message whose arguments are objective, relevant, sufficient and understandable (Lin, Lee, & Horng, 2011; Park, et al., 2007). Strong messages are based on factual specifics about the product such as the performance level of the current product in comparison to that of a competing product. In contrast, a weak message is emotional and expresses subjective affect (Park, et al., 2007). Strong messages are more helpful and more persuasive compared to weak, subjective and emotional messages (Lin, Lee, & Horng, 2011; Park, et al., 2007). Dual-process Theory regards message strength to significantly affect the message adoption through message credibility (Cacioppo, Petty, & Morris, 1983). Indeed, many empirical studies show that the message strength is a significant determinant of online message credibility which subsequently influences attitudes towards purchasing the desired product (M. Y. Cheung, et al., 2009). Message framing refers to the valence of the online consumer review - that is, whether it is positively framed (e.g., a praise message) or negatively framed (e.g., a complaint message)(M. Y. Cheung, et al., 2009). Some studies have shown that negatively framed reviews are perceived as more credible than positively framed reviews. There are two main theoretical arguments: (1) a negative message reduces the likelihood that the message is actually posted by marketers or by someone who would like to promote the reviewed product. And (2) people tend to avoid taking risks, and believing in the negative WOM would help them avoid making a wrong purchase decision (M. Y. Cheung, et al., 2009). According to the Heuristic Systematic Model (Chaiken, 1980), the heuristic processing of the information includes evaluating non-contextual aspects in a message. Such aspects refer for i
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