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Gender differences in consumers’ perception of online consumer reviews

Gender differences in consumers’ perception of online consumer reviews Since the early days of the Internet, gender gap has existed in using the Internet, and it is particularly evident for online shopping. Females perceive higher level of risk for online shopping, and as a result, they tend to hesitate to make purchase online. Online consumer reviews can effectively mitigate such perceived risk by females and thereby attract them to buy online. This study investigates the effect of online consumer reviews on consumer’s purchase intention. In particular, we examine whether there are gender differences in responding to online consumer reviews. The results show that the effect of online consumer reviews on purchase intention is stronger for females than males. The negativity effect, that consumers are influenced by a negative review more than by a positive review, is also found to be more evident for females. These findings have practical implications for online sellers to guide them to effectively use online consumer reviews to engage females in online shopping. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Electronic Commerce Research Springer Journals

Gender differences in consumers’ perception of online consumer reviews

Bae, Soonyong; Lee, Taesik
Electronic Commerce Research , Volume 11 (2) – Nov 17, 2010
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14 pages

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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Subject
Business and Management; IT in Business; Data Structures, Cryptology and Information Theory; Operation Research/Decision Theory; Computer Communication Networks; Business and Management, general; e-Commerce/e-business
ISSN
1389-5753
eISSN
1572-9362
DOI
10.1007/s10660-010-9072-y
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Since the early days of the Internet, gender gap has existed in using the Internet, and it is particularly evident for online shopping. Females perceive higher level of risk for online shopping, and as a result, they tend to hesitate to make purchase online. Online consumer reviews can effectively mitigate such perceived risk by females and thereby attract them to buy online. This study investigates the effect of online consumer reviews on consumer’s purchase intention. In particular, we examine whether there are gender differences in responding to online consumer reviews. The results show that the effect of online consumer reviews on purchase intention is stronger for females than males. The negativity effect, that consumers are influenced by a negative review more than by a positive review, is also found to be more evident for females. These findings have practical implications for online sellers to guide them to effectively use online consumer reviews to engage females in online shopping.

Journal

Electronic Commerce Research – Springer Journals

Published: Nov 17, 2010

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