Abstract

Recently, as growing number of consumers publish product and service reviews on the Internet, e-review has received attention from retailers and researchers. E-review, a form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) which is typically shared between strangers whose identity and credibility are unknown, has become an important product information source as social media has facilitated information exchanges between more consumers. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of e-review attributes on purchase intention for fashion products, which is mediated by trust of e-review, as well as to explore the differences between consumer communities and cooperative communities. A questionnaire was developed based on previous researches. Data were gathered from adults living in Busan. The results were analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, and regression using SPSS 18.0. The results showed that consumers tended to recognize e-reviews from consumer communities as exaggerated information, while they considered reviews from cooperative communities as reliable information, which gave the latter higher purchase intention. There were significant differences in e-review attributes for fashion products (e.g., Exaggeration, Entertainment, Innocence, and Agreement), purchase intention between consumer communities (e.g: Blog, Internet cafe) and cooperative communities (e.g: general malls and specialty malls). For both communities, purchase intention of fashion products was influenced by its entertainment attributes and perceived trust of e-reviews. These results suggest that e-retailers need to focus on understanding the causes of purchase intention with e-reviews for fashion products. Specifically, e-retailers should recognize that e-reviews of fashion products were associated primarily with entertaining and with consumers' trust. Based on these findings, managerial implications are presented.

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