The impact of online reviews on consumers’ purchase decisions: sellers’ trustworthiness as a mediation variable

Abstract

Taking the sellers’ trustworthiness as a mediation variable, this paper mainly examines the impact of online reviews on the consumers’ purchase decisions. Conducting an online survey, we collect the corresponding data to conduct the hypothesis test by using the SPSS software. We find that the quality of online reviews has a positive impact on consumers’ perceived values and sellers’ trustworthiness. The timeliness of online reviews has a positive impact on consumers’ perceived values, which can have a positive impact on sellers’ trustworthiness. An interesting observation indicates that the perceived values can indirectly influence consumers’ purchase decisions by taking sellers’ trustworthiness as a mediation variable. The sellers’ trustworthiness has a positive impact on consumers’ purchase decisions. We believe that our findings can help online sellers to better manage online reviews.