The Effect of Product Review Presentation and Product Type on Customer Evaluations

This research examines how the different presentations of attribute-based and experience-based online product reviews and the focal product they describe jointly influence potential consumers’ evaluations. Drawing on theories of information processing, we propose that different presentation ways would influence consumers’ evaluations, and such effect would be also affected by the focal product (i.e., either search product or experience product) the reviews describe. We design two studies to test our proposition. In Study 1, emphasizing on the primary effect and recency effect in information processing, the results of our experiment reveal that the reviews in the experience-based reviews first treatment are evaluated as more helpful for search product; and the reviews in the attribute-based review first treatment are evaluated as more helpful for experience product. In Study 2, focusing on the wrap effect, our results suggest that experience based reviews are wrapped by attribute based reviews are more helpful for search product, and the experience based reviews wrap attribute based reviews are more helpful for experience product. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.