The dissemination and impacts of deceptive eWOM: a dynamic process perspective
Journal
Behaviour and Information Technology
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Abstract
To minimise risk, consumers seek out eWOM, recommendations, and reviews from others before making purchasing decisions. However, it is not uncommon to see companies masterminding deceptive eWOM, disguising promotional messages as user-generated product reviews to attract and retain consumers. The extant literature is extremely limited regarding deceptive eWOM and its long-term effects. Ours is the first longitudinal study to examine consumers’ belief and attitude changes in the context of deceptive eWOM. This study found that, in a herding situation, deceptive eWOM can strongly influence changes in consumers’ beliefs and attitudes, whether in the early phase or mainstream phase, at the pre-adoption stage. If deceptive eWOM emerges earlier, it has a more powerful influence later. At the post-adoption stage, once they have used it, consumers may change their evaluations of a new product. However, this new evaluation is still subject to the initial anchoring effect brought by deceptive eWOM. If consumers sense deceptive eWOM and attribute it to a certain responsible party, the anchoring effect will be weakened. These findings provide further knowledge and understanding of the effects of deceptive eWOM, with implications for firms seeking to develop more effective eWOM marketing strategies. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Subjects
And phrases: deceptive eWOM; fake review; herd behaviour; information cascade; longitudinal study
Other Subjects
Behavioral research; Anchoring effects; And phrase: deceptive eWOM; Belief and attitudes; Dynamic process; Fake review; Herd behaviors; Information cascades; Longitudinal study; Purchasing decisions; User-generated; Marketing; adoption; article; consumer; human; longitudinal study; marketing
Type
journal article