The Effects of Valence and Regulatory Focus on the Consumer Responses to Online Product Review

Abstract

This study explores how consumer regulatory focus interacts with the valence of review to influence their responses to online product reviews. The findings showed a significant two-way interaction effect between regulatory focus and review valence. When the review was negative, prevention-focused consumers perceived the review as more useful than did promotion-focused consumers. In contrast, when the review was mixed, promotion-focused consumers perceived the review as more useful than did prevention-focused consumers. Unexpectedly, when the review was positive, there was no difference between prevention- and promotion-focused consumers in perceived usefulness. Implications for researchers are discussed.