TY - JOUR
T1 - Does national culture explain consumers’ reliance on online reviews? Cross-cultural variations in the effect of online review ratings on consumer choice
AU - Kim, Rae Yule
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Can national culture affect consumers’ reliance on online reviews? 82% of American adults said that they saw online reviews for new purchases (Smith and Anderson, 2016). This paper takes a cultural approach to study how consumers engage in online reviews when they make purchase decisions. This study examined more than ten million transactions made on an online hotel-booking website by consumers’ nationality and five cultural dimensions. The results suggest that collectivism, femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and indulgence are positively associated with consumers’ reliance on online review ratings, while power distance tended to reduce the effect. Consumers’ reliance on online reviews was influenced by multivariate cultural values, and no single cultural value had a significant univariate effect. Consumers in Spain and Australia were most likely to rely on review ratings, and consumers in Germany and China were least dependent on online reviews.
AB - Can national culture affect consumers’ reliance on online reviews? 82% of American adults said that they saw online reviews for new purchases (Smith and Anderson, 2016). This paper takes a cultural approach to study how consumers engage in online reviews when they make purchase decisions. This study examined more than ten million transactions made on an online hotel-booking website by consumers’ nationality and five cultural dimensions. The results suggest that collectivism, femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and indulgence are positively associated with consumers’ reliance on online review ratings, while power distance tended to reduce the effect. Consumers’ reliance on online reviews was influenced by multivariate cultural values, and no single cultural value had a significant univariate effect. Consumers in Spain and Australia were most likely to rely on review ratings, and consumers in Germany and China were least dependent on online reviews.
KW - Cross-cultural study
KW - Cultural dimensions
KW - Online Word of Mouth
KW - Online review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070719619&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.elerap.2019.100878
DO - 10.1016/j.elerap.2019.100878
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070719619
SN - 1567-4223
VL - 37
JO - Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
JF - Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
M1 - 100878
ER -