Model for Consumers ‟ Perception of Online Consumer Reviews

The absence of the filtering process for information flow on the Internet caused consumers‟ negative bias of online information, and it makes several consumers hesitate to adopt online information. Although it is important to resolve consumers‟ concerns for online information, there are not enough studies about how to handle this kind of issue. For this purpose, this study suggests that it is necessary to understand how consumers perceive online information. The first objective of this study is to develop a research model than can describe consumers‟ perceptual process of online information. Important variables that are significantly related with perception of online information and how they influence consumers‟ behavioral intention are identified in our research model. Through this procedure, our research model can delineate interrelationships among antecedents and consequences of perception of online information in terms of information credibility. Our research model suggests that perception of information credibility can be affected by attributes of diverse variables which are connected with four antecedents such as source, message content, medium, and individual characteristics. Also, this study proposes trust and behavioral intention as consequences of perceived information credibility. Based on our research model, it is possible to figure out how online information can exert a meaningful effect on consumers‟ behavioral intention.