Proceedings of 10th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
23 -24 June 2014, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-55-9
Seller’s Product Information and Word of Mouth: An
Empirical Study
Yingtao Shen and Shenyu Li
In a typical online marketplace, buyers have access to two different
types of information regarding products –information provided by the
sellers and information provided by previous buyers. This study
investigates the effect of these two types of information on online
buyers’ preference. Particularly, we identify the conditions under
which one of the information is more important to buyers than the
other. Using an experiment and conjoint analysis, this study finds
that when the involvement of a product is perceived to be high and
buyers are uncertain about the product, word of mouth is more
important to buyers; however, when involvement of a product is
perceived to be low and buyers are more certain about that product,
information provided by the seller is more important.
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Yingtao Shen, Austin Peay State University
Shenyu Li, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics