En kvantitativ studie om hur köpintentionen påverkas av recensionens karaktär

Sammanfattning: Word of mouth has proven to be an important factor in the customer's purchase process as it reduces the perceived risk and contributes to more informative decisions. The incredible growth of the internet over the past decade has resulted in an increase in electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) and it seems to be a phenomenon that is here to stay. Information gathering through internet has become an important part of the customer's decision process and e-WOM is a part of that process. Much research regarding e-WOM and review valence has been conducted, however the findings on its effects in shaping customers' purchase intention have been mixed. This paper aims to foremostly examine whether the purchase intention is affected by the valence of the review. Moreover, the study also examines whether there are any differences in how the reviews affect the purchase intention for different product classes. To examine this a quantitative, questionnaire-based, experiment was conducted and distributed through internet with over 280 respondents. In order to examine the effect of both positive and negative reviews was the study carried out to two experimental groups and one control group. The control group was only exposed to a product description while the experimental groups were exposed to the stimuli consisting of reviews. The measured parameters were knowledge, purchase intention and the trustworthiness of the reviews. The results of this thesis show that customers are affected by negative reviews in most situations. Additionally, it is shown that customers are not affected by positive reviews regardless of product class or level of knowledge. Moreover, review valence in combination with gender has a significant effect on purchase intention in the product class of highly changeable products. The findings suggest that great caution should be taken when including negative reviews in marketing concepts.