Electronic Word-Of-Mouth (E-WOM) In Online Shopping: Does Conscientiousness
Play a Role?
SIDDHARTH BHATT, Ph.D Student, Department of Marketing
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Rajneesh Suri, Professor, Department of Marketing
LeBow College of Business
THE DOMAIN
Online B2C Sales are growing at an unprecedented rate. E-Commerce
as a retail channel is gaining increasing attention from marketing
scholars. However, due to the apprehensions of lack of touch and feel,
safety of payment information and a plethora of new products on
websites, consumers attach great importance to online reviews in the
decision making process. Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) has
received greater attention due to its reach, speed and accessibility.
Measures
Reviewer
Characteristics
REVIEWER
EXPERTISE
In the eWOM literature, there is discrepancy in the findings related to
effect of the expertise of the reviewer on the trustworthiness of the
review. The author aims to resolve this by suggesting two moderators on
the relationship – conscientiousness and level of detail of the review.
The author expects a 3 way interaction between the expertise of the
reviewer, the detail of the review and the conscientiousness of the reader.
The three way interaction, by explaining the boundary conditions on the
main effect, resolves conflicting evidence in this stream of literature.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Signaling Theory
In economics, signaling is the idea that one party (the agent)
credibly conveys some information about itself to another party
(the principal).
In online reviews -- characteristics of the reviewers and the reviews
themselves become important signals.
Cues of identity, objectivity and expertise of the reviewer
Big Five Personality Traits
extraversion, emotional stability, agreeability, conscientiousness
and openness to experience – assessment of normal personality
Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well.
The dimension of conscientiousness has been shown to moderate
METHODOLOGY
THE MODEL
TRUSTWORTHINESS
PERCEPTION
PURCHASE
INTENTION
Reviewer Expertise:
Manipulation by presenting verbal cues in the review.
Peer assessment of expertise.
READER
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Level of Detail: Reviews that are high and low on
propositional density.
A proposition is an statement, phrase or a group of
statements and/or phrases that express a concept,
judgment, fact or opinion.
Soft-ware -CPIDR developed by the National Institutes of
Health, USA.
Review
Characteristics
LEVEL OF
DETAIL
HYPOTHESES
H1a: Expertise of the reviewer is positively related to purchase intention of the
reader and this relationship is mediated by the perception of trustworthiness.
H1b: Expertise of the reviewer is positively related to perception of
trustworthiness and this effect is moderated by the conscientiousness of the
reader.
H1c: The positive effect of expertise of the reviewer on perception of
trustworthiness becomes stronger when the level of detail in the review is high.
H2a: Level of detail of the review is positively related to purchase intention of
the reader and this relationship is mediated by the perception of
trustworthiness.
Conscientiousness: Desire to do tasks well.
Conscientiousness scale -- Goldeberg (1992)
Trustworthiness : Newell and Goldsmith (2001)
RESULTS
Data Collection to be undertaken very soon.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Please email the author on shb56@Drexel.edu for a
complete bibliography
H2b:Level of detail in the review is positively related to perception of
trustworthiness and this effect is moderated by the conscientiousness of the
reader.
several relationships of interest in the marketing literature.
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