Beyond the Lexical Sense of Online Reviews: The Role of Emoticons and Consumer Experience

Abstract

AbstractThe present study focuses on the effect of emoticon use in online consumer reviews (OCRs) on consumers’ booking intention and the moderating effect of consumer personal characteristics. Consumers’ prior experience and their reliance on OCRs are embedded in the research model. A 2 × 2 (review valence * emoticon use) experimental study is designed, and an econometric model is used. Results show that the interaction between review valence and emoticons affect booking intention. Consumers with no prior experience are mainly affected by the cognitive aspects of their experience (i.e. review credibility and attitude toward the review) while experienced consumers are affected by the experiential aspects of booking process (i.e. entertainment, satisfaction and social influence). Consumers that rely on OCRs are affected by emoticons while consumers without review reliance are affected by emoticons only in the case of positive reviews. The personalization of websites and the provision of a focused list of emoticons can be adopted by managers to enhance OCRs effectiveness and the online shopping experience as a whole.