Beyond the review information: an investigation of individual- and group-based presentation forms of review information

Since most of today’s consumers make purchase decisions based on online reviews, managers and researchers have been keen to determine how best to present review information in an online shopping context to maximize their persuasive power. Most online reviews are presented post-by-post, whereby individual reviewers express their respective opinions but lack group dynamism. As a result, it is worth asking what would happen if individual reviews are presented as a group? Drawing on social presence theory and information adoption literature, we propose a research framework to investigate the influences of two alternative presentation forms of review information (i.e., individual-based vs. group-based) on multiple-facet consumer evaluation of reviews, as well as their adoption of review information. By conducting two experiments (Study 1: N = 319; Study 2: N = 101), we find that, when given the same review information, consumers presented with the grouped review information rated higher review quality and credibility, but lower understandability, than consumers who were presented with individual review information. In addition, review quality, credibility, and understandability mediated the influence of review presentation forms on the consumer adoption of review information. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.