What makes online reviews helpful? A diagnosticity-adoption framework to explain informational and normative influences in e-WOM

Consumers are increasingly using online consumer reviews (OCRs) to learn about product quality. It is thus paramount for marketers to understand what makes OCRs helpful to consumers and how this evaluation affects their decisions. Dual-process theory has been adopted in this study to investigate the informational and normative predictors of information diagnosticity and its links with consumers' information adoption. The findings suggest that consumers are primarily influenced by the quality of information and subsequently influenced by customer ratings and overall rankings. These results imply that both of the aforementioned informational and normative cues are critical to consumers in evaluating the quality and performance of products through OCRs. The results show that information quantity and source credibility have a limited effect on information diagnosticity, which ultimately influences consumers' information adoption. This study extends the application of dual-process theory to online settings, the findings are valuable for marketing managers of online organisations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.