Influence of Regulatory Focus, Product Knowledge, and Summarized Observable Recommendations on Consumer Decision Outcomes in an Online Environment: A Holistic Investigation

Abstract: When they have access to a large number of reviews for a product on multiple e-tailer websites, consumers may rely mainly on aggregated summaries of online reviews (SORs) for the product (e.g., percentage of reviewers recommending a product) instead of on individual reviews. SOR types may be "high" (when a majority of reviewers recommend a product on multiple merchant websites), "low" (when only a minority of reviewers recommend a product on multiple merchant websites), or "mixed" (a majority and a minority of reviewers recommend the same product across different websites). Consumers' prior product knowledge and regulatory focus are moderators of the impact of SOR-type on consumer decision outcomes. Across three studies (representing low, moderate, and high levels of consumer knowledge), we find that negativity bias holds across both regulatory foci for low-SOR. For high-SOR, the level of prior knowledge moderates the relationship between SOR, and product evaluation, and purchase intention. Mixed SOR has no effect. We also propose and find support for a framework for SORs by extending Bandura's OL theory. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications.