Abstract
Intangibility of products in online environment results in higher information
asymmetry. To overcome this asymmetric information issue, consumers may
rely upon online reviews, i.e. word of mouse as a signal of quality. Two
models were chosen to measure the impact of word of mouse characteristics
on consumer’s decision for this study. An objective data (proxy measures) as
well as subjective data (questionnaire measures) was collected for the
reviews available at Epinions.com. Results revealed that reviewer’s
reputation, expertise and message comprehensiveness are the most
influential characteristics of word of mouse information. Identity disclosure,
message timeliness and message accuracy were not significant predictors of
information usefulness.
