Background
The opportunities that social media yields to customers on the global market are countless; however, they impact the consumers’ decisions in different ways. Online forums and web pages for reviews are a source of ratings for explicit products and services that can be employed by internet users to decide on purchases. Naturally, the ratings are usually significantly dissimilar from one another, which considerably affects consumers’ resolutions. Overall, it is vital to explore the influence of mixed ratings not only for the businesses’ sake in the forms of successful market placement options but for the customers and their impressions of the purchase.
The Purpose and the Objectives of the Study
To begin with, it is beyond significant to realize the influence of online forums and review websites on customers’ decisions. Therefore, Zhang et al. first find it crucial to recognize the nature of inconsistent ratings and their impact on consumers’ resolutions about particular goods or services. However, the study also focuses on the difference, if any is present, in purchase decisions for male and female internet users. As a result, the research of the aforementioned objectives aligns with the following purpose of researching the online shopping market for the benefit of retailers that can further use the implications to integrate advertisements successfully based on the ratings of the products or services. In addition, the study is beneficial for online companies which can use the relation of reviews’ influence and human psychology to adjust their strategy and meet clients’ needs. Overall, the research seeks to investigate the consumers’ habits for online shopping and how they can be changed or impacted by inconsistent reviews found online.
The Theory and Models Adopted by the Researchers
The dependence of the research on theories is significant in modeling the method and future framework for the study. That is why the authors employ two approaches (the trust-based and heuristic-systematic models) with the aim of understanding the nature and impact of inconsistent ratings and clients’ gender dissimilarity that may change their purchase intentions. The first common method in the e-commerce field focuses on the thorough investigation of the decision-making process in terms of online shopping. In other words, the purchase intentions estimate an individual response to the items, which contributes to realizing the likelihood of a person performing a specific action after assessing the favorability of the situation. The trust-based acceptance model is primarily based on the relationship between the consumer and online providers. Thus, e-commerce mostly depends on the significance of online retailers’ gaining customers’ trust to properly integrate services on the internet market. Moreover, the theory is strongly related to two notions, cognitive and emotional trust, which directly influence consumers’ online behavior. Overall, the model is designed to research the connection of both concepts in the context of consumers’ adoption behavior online.
In turn, the heuristic-systematic model focuses on the two primary options that consumers opt for when processing information online. In this context, the researchers implement it to investigate how people percept the reviews they see online when deciding to make a purchase or not. To be more particular, the authors focus on two mechanisms of data analysis that are common for consumers on online platforms. Internet users may judge a specific item or service based on informational cues they see online. However, people might also use the information to elaborate on the relevant pieces and further make their decisions about online purchases. Naturally, the first option is familiar to most consumers as it requires less cognitive effort and, thus, is easier and quicker for avid online shoppers. Furthermore, Zhang et al. rely on this model to research the differences between male and female consumers in the form of information processing online. Consequently, it forms a theory that women are more easily manipulated into purchasing than men under the same information processing circumstances.
Furthermore, the aforementioned theories are primary for the research model as they are implemented to investigate the consumers’ decision-making processes, the impact of inconsistent reviews, and gender differences in online shopping. Therefore, the researchers rely on trust-based theory to further elaborate on the influence of cognitive trust on purchase decisions online. The study also investigates the possibility of emotional trust moderation due to unclear reviews and ratings of specific items or services. These changes in the decision-making process are likely to be more common for female customers rather than male ones. This model is more efficient in fulfilling the research’s objectives as online shopping is recognized to be intensely dependent on consumers’ trust. That is why the model is bound to assist the authors in forming reliable conclusions, as it allows them to analyze the connection between emotional trust and inconsistent reviews and their united influence on purchase behavior.
The Hypotheses of the Research
The further hypotheses designed based on the research model are further investigated empirically to form conclusions. The study leads to the claim that cognitive trust incompetence is likely to enhance emotional trust in a retailer and further positively impact the purchase decision. Furthermore, the inconsistent ratings are likely to make the connection between purchase decisions and emotional type of trust even stronger. As a result, this relation is rather more solid for female users compared to male customers. The aforementioned theories are tested in a laboratory experiment that focuses on gender differences and inconsistent reviews’ significance.
The Framework and the Results
Consequently, the study employs diverse methods to explore the relationship between inconsistent reviews and purchase behavior, along with gender differences in online shopping. The researchers model a laboratory experiment that includes participants deciding to buy specific items after exploring inconsistent ratings on online forums. An experiment focused on the web page that sells watches, where people had to choose an item from. The control and treatment groups were given different tasks in this experiment to investigate the reliability of the aforementioned hypotheses. The first group was required to analyze the watches and then take an online questionnaire, the results of which were used as inconsistent reviews for the task of the next group. The treatment group, 24 women and 26 men sought a wristwatch with a price limit of 40$ on the aforementioned website; however, only 85% of users analyzed the reviews before making their purchase decisions. The number of positive and negative ratings was the same so that participants could analyze a similar amount of information on online forums.
Undoubtedly, the analysis of the purchase behavior of the participants is conducted using PLS analysis and specific measurement and structural models. To be more exact, the authors eventually opted for the PLS framework because it allows for examining the variables from a relatively small sample size. A measurement model appears to be highly significant as it ensures the balance between discriminant and convergent variables, further enhancing the research’s reliability along with its findings. A structural method, in turn, is employed for the single aim of forming the conclusions, which focus on the strong connection between purchase intention and competence, which also influences online shopping behavior. Furthermore, inconsistent reviews are likely to encourage people to purchase specific items and services, considering that emotional trust is enhanced. That is why it is vital for online retailers to include both positive and negative ratings, as they are favorable for online marketing. In fact, the effect of such a mix is more substantial on female consumers as they are more prone to shop under such circumstances.
The Theoretical and Practical Implications
The value of the study’s conclusions seems to be detrimental to further theoretical and practical research. In fact, the researchers highlight the lack of investigation on emotional trust in the context of e-commerce so that the findings of this research can be implemented to elaborate on its connection to purchase intentions. In addition, the concept of inconsistent reviews’ significance seems underresearched since scientists focus on the negative influence of negative ratings on online shopping behavior, while this study proves the contrary. The topic of gender differences in information processing also requires a more thorough investigation in the future to underpin its relevance in the e-commerce industry. Naturally, this study provides numerous insights into the significance of inconsistent reviews to online retailers that they can use to adjust their marketing strategy to gain more customers.
The Research’s Limitations
Nevertheless, this study has its limitations that call for further research on the matter to enrich the concept of inconsistent reviews as a favorable influence in e-commerce. The laboratory experiment appears to be insufficient in terms of the number of participants, considering that it cannot fully cover all the possible consequences of mixed ratings on purchase intentions. The notion of cognitive trust is not thoroughly researched to form the exact conclusions in the study process. Moreover, the context of online purchases for gifts may be considered for research as it may differ from the standard online shopping intentions.