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ABSTRACT
Online reviews on mobile app marketplaces help consumers evaluate whether a mobile app fits their needs before upgrading or purchasing it. This study explores how online reviews influence trial attitude formation, a process that naturally bears on cognitive structure as much as on users’ emotional responses to online experience. We experimentally manipulate the valence (positive vs. negative) and consistency (one-sided vs. two-sided) of online reviews exposed to participants in a laboratory-controlled app trial scenario considering two different aspects of use (hedonic and functional). We find that review valence and consistency alter the emotional process during trial attitude formation but do not affect the cognitive process. In particular, negative reviews compared to positive reviews and two-sided reviews compared to one-sided reviews are more influential in trial attitude formation. Interestingly, two-sided reviews weaken the emotional process during the use of functional apps, but strengthen it during the use of hedonic apps. The study contributes to the literature by identifying the moderating role of online reviews on product trial experience, which in turn influences the formation of product attitudes. The findings help app developers and marketers understand how to elicit positive evaluations during app trials by highlighting the importance of online reviews.
The authors would like to thank the editors of this issue, especially David Tilson for his guidance, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their extended and valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Guei-Hua Huang
GUEI-HUA HUANG is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Business Management at National Sun Yat-sen University. She holds an MSc in International Business from the University of Nottingham (UK). Her research interests are in marketing, electronic commerce, and the influence of new technologies on consumer decision making.
Nikolaos Korfiatis
NIKOLAOS KORFIATIS is an assistant professor in business analytics at the Norwich Business School of the University of East Anglia (UEA). Before joining UEA he worked in the Chair for Databases and Information Systems of Goethe University Frankfurt, where he was also director of the university’s Big Data Laboratory. His research interests focus on customer analytics, customer decision making, and the intersection of marketing with finance. His research has appeared in journals such as Expert Systems and Applications, Journal of the American Society of IS&T, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, and International Journal of Information Management, as well as in the proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems and European Conference on Information Systems.