Perceived Influence of Online Consumer Reviews: a Comparison of Korea and Us

Recently, online consumer reviews are one of the important information sources of the electronic word-of-mouth around world. In this study, we developed a structural model of perceived influence of online consumer reviews and compared this model between Korea and U.S. The empirical results demonstrated that consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) had a positive impact on the perceived usefulness of online reviews. The results also indicated that the Internet shopping experience had a significant effect on the perceived usefulness and usage frequency of online reviews, respectively. However, the Internet shopping experience did not have a significant effect on the usage frequency of online reviews for U.S. samples. The perceived usefulness of online reviews had a positive effect on the usage frequency of the online reviews. In addition, the perceived usefulness and usage frequency of the online reviews had a significant impact on perceived influence of the online reviews. This study also investigated a comparison of the structural model. The results supported the moderating effects of national culture in several paths. Based on these results, we discuss implications for international online marketing communication.

Citation:

Cheol Park and TaeMin Lee (2008) ,"Perceived Influence of Online Consumer Reviews: a Comparison of Korea and Us", in LA - Latin American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 2, eds. Claudia R. Acevedo, Jose Mauro C. Hernandez, and Tina M. Lowrey, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 135-136.