The Impact of Purchase Types on Consumer’s Polarized Product Opinions: An Abstract

Abstract

This research examines the impact of purchase types on consumer’s purchasing decision while the product exhibits polarizing reviews. The authors propose when facing a higher level of polarized review, consumers are less likely to make an experiential purchase (vs. material purchase). This effect is driven by the higher perceived risk that is associated with experiential purchase. Our study will contribute to the word-of-mouth research and extend the research in the field of purchase type. Moreover, our work will provide practical implications for marketing managers to help them improve their product quality and manage the mixed feedback from consumers. In the past, consumers were more likely to be exposed to traditional word of mouth, where information came from friends or family members (Arndt 1967; Brown and Reingen 1987). However, the development of information technology has given consumers more resources to get external information before they make purchase decisions. Online platforms, such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Amazon’s consumer review section have offered valuable feedback from other consumers to give potential buyers more references. Because of the proliferation of information sources, consumers are more likely to encounter a mix review about a product than ever. Previous research has suggested that consumers mixed opinions are common across all kinds of products (Hu et al. 2009). On one hand, the availability of product reviews has facilitated the consumer’s decision-making process, providing them more references from others’ experiences. On the other hand, the existence of polarized opinions may also bring an even more difficult decision for them to make. Admittedly, word of mouth is a critical element to impact consumer’s purchase decision. A growing body of research regarding word of mouth has examined the effect of word-of-mouth volume, valence and central tendency on consumer’s behavior (Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006; Mudambi and Schuff 2010), however, little work has looked into the influence of product review dispersion on consumer’s purchase behaviors, more specifically, the effect of polarized opinions on consumer’s purchase intention. For marketing practitioners, it is also important for them to understand how they could deal with their product review polarization situations and how to better communicate with consumers when polarizing reviews happen.