The role of conflicting online reviews in consumers’ attitude ambivalence

ABSTRACT

The extant literature overlooks conflicting online hotel reviews from the perspective of online and offline factors and their effect on attitude ambivalence, which determines consumer behavior. The present study fills this research gap using the heuristic–systematic model of information processing and examines: (1) how conflicting customer star ratings (i.e. heuristic cues) and opinions about hotel attributes (i.e. systematic cues) engender attitude ambivalence, (2) how offline interpersonal informational influence moderates the relationship between conflicting reviews and attitude ambivalence, and (3) relational impact on purchase intentions. The data collected from 382 inbound tourists in Beijing, China reveal the positive effect of conflicting star ratings and opinions about hotel attributes on attitude ambivalence, which lowers consumers’ purchase intentions. This study also finds a significant role of offline interpersonal informational influence as a moderator. Theoretical implications are provided, and findings have strategic managerial implications with the acknowledgement of limitations and directions for future scholars.

摘要

过去的研究忽视了从线上和线下的因素角度考虑对态度矛盾性的影响，以及如何决定消费者的行为。本研究从信息处理的启发式系统模型填补了这一领域的空白，并检验了（1）相互冲突的顾客星级（即启发式线索）和对酒店属性的看法（即系统性线索）如何引起态度矛盾，（2） 线下的人际信息影响力如何调节冲突的评论和态度矛盾之间的关系，以及检验了对购买意愿的关系影响。从中国北京382名入境游客中收集的数据显示，星级酒店评价和酒店相关属性的观点不一致对态度矛盾产生正向影响，从而降低了消费者的购买意愿。这项研究还发现线下的人际信息影响起到调节变量的重要作用。本文提供了一定的理论启示，并且该研究结果对于论文的局限性和未来方向也具有战略管理意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Attitude ambivalence
• conflicting online review
• interpersonal informational influence
• travel website

关键词:

• 态度矛盾心
• 冲突的在线评论
• 人际信息影响力
• 旅游网站

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief Professor Levent Altinay and two anonymous reviewers for their honest, helpful, and constructive comments. This research was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China awarded to Jin Sun (Grant No. 71772040) and also supported by the Program for Excellent Talents in UIBE (Grant No. 17JQ03).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors .

Notes

1 The present study uses the terms ‘mixed,’ ‘contradictory,’ and ‘conflicting’ interchangeably.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71772040]; Program for Excellent Talents in UIBE [grant number 17JQ03].