The Effect of Quantitative Electronic Word of Mouth on Consumer Perceived Product Quality

Online shoppers today can easily share reviews of their product usage experiences on a third-party website. Many retail websites allow individuals to submit qualitative and/or quantitative reviews, using a typical five-point scale. With the increase in online shopping behaviors, the impact of these reviews, or electronic word of mouth, on consumers’ decisions is drawing more attention. Yet how do these on-line consumer reviews impact consumer behavior? This study empirically tests how quantitative product reviews affect online shoppers’ perception of product quality. We find that: (1) extreme ratings have a greater impact on prospective customers’ perceived quality than do median ratings while negative reviews have greater impact than positive reviews; (2) none of the volume, valence and consensus of electronic word of mouth can predict perceived quality reliably; (3) there is no difference between the perceived product quality formed by Chinese and American subjects when judging product quality, based on the same quantitative online product reviews