Cross-Review Incoherence and Purchase Deferral

Dezhi Yin, Triparna De Vreede, Logan Steele, Gert Jan De Vreede

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This paper focuses on inconsistency among a set of reviews and explores how, why, and when the presence of cross-review incoherence influences consumers’ purchase deferral—their likelihood of making a “buy/not buy” decision immediately after consulting the reviews or deferring it until after obtaining more information. Based on the cognitive dissonance theory, we hypothesize that (a) the presence of cross-review incoherence or attribute-level contradictions among a set of reviews leads to lower certainty in consumer attitudes and a higher likelihood of purchase deferral, (b) this effect transpires through consumers’ helpfulness and credibility evaluations of the review set, and (c) the effect of cross-review incoherence on review set evaluations is weakened when the specificity of the context behind reviewers’ opinions is high. We conducted two experiments and found support for these predictions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication42nd International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2021 TREOs
Subtitle of host publication"Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action"
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Electronic)9781713893608
StatePublished - 2021
Event42nd International Conference on Information Systems: Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action, ICIS 2021 TREOs - Austin, United States
Duration: 12 Dec 202115 Dec 2021

Publication series

Name42nd International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2021 TREOs: "Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action"

Conference

Conference42nd International Conference on Information Systems: Building Sustainability and Resilience with IS: A Call for Action, ICIS 2021 TREOs
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period12/12/2115/12/21

Keywords

  • consumer decision-making
  • credibility
  • helpfulness
  • inconsistency
  • Information incoherence
  • online word-of-mouth
  • purchase deferral

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cross-Review Incoherence and Purchase Deferral'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this