Online consumer reviews …why do we adopt them?

Consumers are increasingly using online consumer reviews (OCRs) to help inform their purchasing decisions. As such, it is important for marketers and academics to improve their understanding of the behavioral consequences of e-Word-Of-Mouth. In this study, we adopt the information adoption moderated model (IAMM) to investigate the predictors of consumer’s adoption of OCRs. Drawing on the IAMM, we analyse the influence of OCRs information quality, source credibility, and overall product ranking on perceived information usefulness. In addition we explore the relationship between information usefulness and information adoption using a structural equation model and data from 236 users of OCRs. The findings of this study suggest that consumers are primarily influenced by the quality of information in OCRs and subsequently by overall product ranking information. This relationship is not moderated by a consumer’s degree of involvement. These results imply that in high involvement situations, consumers will adopt both central and peripheral cues of information processing. Central cues include information quality while peripheral cues include overall product ranking and source credibility.