The Effects Of Online WOM Information's Structure On Consumer Purchase Decision

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of online word-of-mouth onΖOnasuiner purchase decision. Based on the results of literature review as well as the tliscuission results from the focus group, this paper conducts an empirical study adopting the questionnaire method with the scenario setting to investigate the effects of online consumer reviews on communication effect as well as receivers'attitudes tovards product and purchase intention.The piper conducts the study from the aspects of review structure including antow direction, quantity and type as well as the review receivers'characteristics inducting purchase involvement and expertise level. Particularly, the paper studys how review direction (positive vs. negative), quantity (little, moderate, large), type (attribute-value vs. emotion-evaluation), purchase involvement (high vs. low) and expcrtise level (high vs. low) differences moderate the reviews effects on consumer purchase decision.With the statistical tool of SPSS 16.0, the paper conducts data analysis using the nkihod of factor analysis, univariate analysis of variance, correlate analysis and regression analysis. The results show that the effects on the purchase decision are tronger when the reviews are negative and evaluative rather than positive and attributive respectively. Positive review quantity has significant effect on the perceived popularity of product, perceived informativeness of review, the attitude toward product and purchase intention. The effect powers on purchase decision are significantly influenced by interaction between review type and review receivers' expertise level, when the review type is suitable for the expertise level of consumers, the influence of the reviews could be more significant. The perceived popularity of product and perceived informativeness of review have significant effect on the purchase decision. For the review receivers of lower expertise level, the perceived popularity of product has more influence on the consumers'attitude toward product than perceived informativeness of review. For the review receivers of higher expertise level, the perceived informativeness of review has more influence on the consumers' attitude toward product than the perceived popularity of product.The results of the empirical study could give some suggestions to the management practice. The online WOM could be a good channel to learn the problems of products, to communicate effectively with customers, to monitor and manage the image of brand and corporate. If used efficiently and effectively, corporate could enhance customer loyalty and finally increase corporate profit.