When the performance comes into play: The influence of positive online consumer reviews on individuals' post-consumption responses

Abstract

Although the research on online consumer reviews (OCRs) is broad, several important gaps still exist. This paper aims to bridge some of these gaps by studying the influence of positive OCRs (pOCRs) on post-consumption responses, namely attitude toward the firm and repurchase intentions. It differentiates between whether the performance level during consumption was high or low, that is, whether the product met the objectives set by the consumers. To this end, the paper addresses pOCRs in a twofold approach. First, it analyzes the effect of positive valence intensity, considering neutral-indifferent, moderately positive, and extremely positive OCRs. Second, it tests the influence of individuals' perceived positivity of OCRs. The results show that the same pOCRs may have a positive or a negative influence on individuals' post-consumption responses depending on the performance. Accordingly, the relationship between perceived positivity and post-consumption responses follows U-shaped functional forms.