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How online reviews affect How online

reviews affect
purchase intention: a new model purchase
intention
based on the stimulus-organism-
response (S-O-R) framework
Linlin Zhu and He Li Received 4 November 2019
Revised 16 April 2020
School of Management, Jilin University, Changchun, China Accepted 29 April 2020
Feng-Kwei Wang
Executive Master Program of Business Administration, Tunghai University,
Taichung, Taiwan
Wu He
Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences,
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA, and
Zejin Tian
School of Information Management and Engineering,
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China

Abstract
Purpose – The relationship between online reviews and purchase intention has been studied in previous
research. However, there was little knowledge about the effect of information quality and the social presence of
online reviews on purchase intention based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework. The
purpose of this study is to explore the intrinsic relationship between the stimulus (perceived information
quality and social presence) generated from online reviews and the response (purchase intention).
Design/methodology/approach – This study developed a research model by applying the S-O-R
framework to test the proposed hypotheses. A combination of a web-based experiment and an online survey
was employed to collect data. Hypotheses were empirically tested using Smart PLS.
Findings – The PLS analysis shows that both perceived information quality and the social presence of online
reviews positively affect trust. Moreover, satisfaction with online reviews affects purchase intention, whereas
trust has a positive impact on satisfaction, playing a mediating role between two stimuli and satisfaction.
Besides, perceived information quality of positive online reviews is found to have a more significant impact on
trust, satisfaction and purchase intention.
Originality/value – The results of this study are of great value for expanding both theoretical research and
practical applications of online reviews in relation to purchase intention. This study with a new research model
reveals the understanding of how the purchase intention will be motivated by online reviews. Meanwhile, the
moderating effects and the mediating effects are also discussed.
Keywords Stimulus-organism-response, Online reviews, Perceived information quality, Social presence,
Purchase intention, Trust
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
An online shopping market study (CNNIC, 2016) showed that electronic word-of-mouth, price
and website/business’s reputation were three key factors for online shopping decision-
making in China, with the attention level of information reaching 77.5, 72.2 and 68.7%
respectively. Electronic word-of-mouth has become the most important factor for online Aslib Journal of Information
Management
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 71974075). DOI 10.1108/AJIM-11-2019-0308
AJIM shoppers, whereas online product reviews also have turned into a major form of electronic
word-of-mouth. However, the research on the quality of the information in e-commerce has
been traditionally focused more on the quality of the websites, the quality of the information
provided by the websites and its impact on user satisfaction (Danniswara et al., 2017; Li et al.,
2017; Lim and Ting, 2012). More consideration was given to the ease of use, the response and
design of the websites or whether the websites can provide clear, useful, up-to-date and
accurate information.
A new challenge faced by online stores is that more and more users have turned their
attention from the information presented by the shopping website to online reviews provided
by third-party buyers. Consumers are increasingly relying on online reviews to make
purchase decisions (Chakraborty, 2019; Chen and Chang, 2018; Huang et al., 2019). Also,
current researches on information quality are mostly limited to the evaluation of information
from e-commerce websites. Objective and scientific evaluation of the information quality of
online reviews has been an important but difficult issue in both academic and practical fields.
The difficulty is mainly attributed to that the information quality of online reviews is often
perceptual and fragmented. When different online shoppers read the same online reviews,
they will have various feelings and perceptions about the information quality of these
reviews.
With the above-mentioned new challenge and difficulty in mind, this study is about using
a new lens to examine the relationship between online reviews and purchase intention by
applying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974).
By introducing the construct of perceived information quality and social presence of online
reviews as stimuli, trust and satisfaction as organisms, and purchase intention as response,
the study aims to verify a new model by considering the mediating effect of trust and
satisfaction and the moderating effect of emotional polarity.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. First, the literature review as the theoretical
foundation of this study is presented. We then propose the research model and its hypotheses.
The research methodology is then described. Next, the data analysis and its results are
discussed followed by the ‘Discussion and Implications’ section. Finally, the section
‘Conclusion and Future Research’ is provided at the end.

2. Literature review and theoretical foundation

In this section, we provide the relevant literature review as the theoretical foundation for our
proposed model and hypotheses. Drawing from a wide range of papers and studies, we
explain and discuss the S-O-R framework, perceived information quality of online reviews,
social presence, trust, satisfaction and purchase intension.

2.1 The stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework

Environmental psychologists like Mehrabian and Russell (1974) proposed the S-O-R
framework, which was used to analyze user behaviors in various areas later. The framework
maintains that clues (stimulus) perceived from the environment can trigger a person’s
internal assessment state (organism), which in turn produces positive or negative behaviors
(response) for stimuli (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). A stimulus is the influencing factor of an
external environment that can affect the mental and cognitive state of the organism (Lin and
Lo, 2016). After a series of psychological or cognitive activities, the organism would take an
internal or external behavioral response to external stimuli. The internal response is
manifested as the individual’s attitude and the external response is manifested as the
individual’s specific behavior (Lorenzoromero and Gomezborja, 2016). Also, the behavior of
the organism is not a passive process from stimulus to response but an active response to
external stimuli from the organism. It is a process, in which different stimuli of the How online
environment affect the individual’s cognitive or emotional experience and then produce reviews affect
behavioral responses to stimuli after a series of internal psychological activities (Benlian,
2015; Hu et al., 2016). The S-O-R framework is somewhat similar to the information processing
purchase
model, which focuses on how inputs from the decision environment are processed through intention
consumers’ cognitive systems and how they lead to final response (Wang and Chang, 2013).
The S-O-R framework is a meta-theory for analyzing user behaviors and has been widely
demonstrated in the area of information science and information management. As a well-
known framework, previous research used the S-O-R framework to explain consumer loyalty,
purchase intention, buying behavior, engagement, co-creation and so on. Based on the S-O-R
model, Wu and Li (2018) developed an integrated model to explore the effects of six
marketing-mix components (stimuli) on consumer loyalty (response) through consumer value
(organism) in social commerce. Particularly, Herrando et al. (2019) analyzed how hedonic
stimulus and utilitarian stimulus affect users’ flow experience, which positively impacted
emotional and behavioral loyalty, combined with the moderating effect of cultural
background in the social commerce. Moreover, Fu et al. (2018) examined whether
similarity could enhance users’ online purchase intention of movie tickets. Chen and Yao
(2018) selected the mobile auction platform to explore how situational factors affect impulsive
buying behavior. Also, Fang et al. (2017) proposed a research framework, based on the S-O-R
model, to explore how and to what extent two types of app attributes stimulated travel apps
engagement. Especially, in the research of engagement, Ul Islam and Rahman (2017)
investigated what motivated customers to engage in the brand communities with the gender
as a moderator. Besides, Zhang et al. (2015) developed a model to theorize how site
characteristics improve customers’ co-creation experiences, and subsequently affected the
intention of future participation in co-creation based on the S-O-R paradigm. There were also
other topics using S-O-R; for example, Cao and Sun (2018) discussed the effect of overload on
the discontinuous intention of social media users. These overloads were assumed to impact
the internal psychological states of users, which in turn motivated them to quit. Choi et al.
(2019) validated the impacts of both technological and fashion-related factors on product
attachment toward smartwatches through user satisfaction and pleasure derived from their
smartwatches.
In these studies, S-O-R as an important analytical framework to explain the process of
human behavior was used to predict the cognitive judgment and subsequent behavior or
intention of online users. With the advent of e-commerce, the consumer environment has
become a virtual space mediated by computers, where stimuli refer to clues and signals from
online stores (Zhang et al., 2014). Meanwhile, with the advent of third-party word-of-mouth in
the web 2.0 environment, clues or signals are not provided by online stores themselves. As a
new clue or signal, online reviews may bring different stimuli to consumers. The impact of
online reviews from users on purchase intention has been extensively studied in the field of
information systems (Goh et al., 2013; Gu et al., 2012). As an example, Lee and Shin (2014)
studied consumer experience and perception of online service through online reviews. Their
study confirmed that online reviews provide useful references for potential consumers, which
would have an important impact on purchase intention.

2.2 Perceived information quality of online reviews

According to the consumer decision-making process model (Engel et al., 1973), consumers go
through several stages for making consumer decisions: demand confirmation, information
search, evaluation alternatives, purchase decisions and post-purchase evaluation. Among
them, at the stage of information search, information may come from multiple channels such
as advertisements, relatives and friends. In case of the e-commerce environment, online
AJIM reviews are inevitably the primary information source of online consumers for making a
purchase decision. Xu et al. (2013) indicated that perceived information quality is the user’s
evaluation of the systematic expression of semantic and knowledge communication.
Perception is a process of accepting, selecting, organizing and giving meaning to a received
stimulus. Similarly, perceived online review quality is a user’s evaluation of the system’s
performance in providing user reviews based on the user experience of using the system
(Zhao et al., 2017). Wang and Strong (1996) defined perceived information quality as
information that is suitable for information users to make use of. As such, it is only
information users themselves that can judge whether the information successfully serves
their intended uses. Thus, perceived information quality is the effect of the information
desired by the users, coming from the satisfaction of the subjective judgment. In the S-O-R
framework, stimuli refer to the clues and signals of online stores from the external
environment. Therefore, the perceived information quality of online reviews is a factor of the
stimuli (S) for consumers.
In different studies, the information quality of electronic word-of-mouth has been
conceptualized from different perspectives. From the perspective of characteristics of online
reviews, Park and Kim (2008) measured the information quality of reviews based on
relevance, comprehensibility, adequacy, and objectivity. Cheung et al. (2008) measured the
quality based on completeness, timeliness, accuracy, and relevance. In this study, we measure
the perceived information quality of online reviews based on the following dimensions
(Filieri, 2015; Jiang and Benbasat, 2004, 2007; Qiu and Lim, 2012):
(1) Adequacy – the level of details of information and the degree to meet the needs of
users;
(2) Depth – the extent to which information is sufficiently detailed for a specific task;
(3) Reliability – the degree to which information is credible and trustworthy;
(4) Relevancy – the degree of consistency between the information contained in the
reviews and the information requested by the recipients;
(5) Understandability – the degree to which the information contained in the reviews is
easily understood;
(6) Conciseness – an opinion towards the presented effect of review information from
users;
(7) Completeness – whether the information contains the necessary details and the
degree of completeness;
(8) Accuracy – the users’ opinion on the correctness of the information;
(9) Factuality – the degree of logic, which is based on the specific fact of the product/
service without subjective and empty reviews;
(10) Diagnosticity – the degree to which a user can make a decision based on the
information provided by the online reviews.
Noted that diagnosticity depends on the perceived connections between the information
available to the user and the decision process. It was often conceptualized as the usefulness or
helpfulness of the information, which was a common approach to quantify review quality
(Tay et al., 2019), however, helpfulness measurement was one of the factors that cause
inconsistent findings in extant research (Hong et al., 2017). Thus, it is only treated as a part of
the dimension of perceived information quality. Using ontological principles, MIT’s total-
quality data management program researchers captured the dimensions of intrinsic,
contextual and representational quality, along with the accessibility to measure perceived How online
information quality (Lee et al., 2002; Wang and Strong, 1996). Intrinsic information quality reviews affect
means that no matter what the context is, the information has innate correctness. Thus,
reliability, accuracy and factuality are intrinsic information quality perception. Contextual
purchase
information quality includes adequacy, depth, relevancy, completeness and diagnosticity intention
because the quality of information differs according to various tasks at hand. Meanwhile,
understandability and conciseness are representational information quality, representing the
extent to which the information is shown in a clear manner (Ghasemaghaei and Hassanein,
2019). As for the accessibility information quality, since the availability of online reviews in
the online environment are no longer a problem for most users, the category is not
included here.

2.3 Social presence generated from online reviews

Social presence was initially conceptualized as the extent to which user-experience
communication technologies that can mimic face-to-face interactions (Short et al., 1976).
The core idea of the concept is that specific media or interactive environments increase the
degree of the affinity of interactive partners and interpersonal relationships, and non-media
interaction participation. Therefore, the internet environment that creates a sense of social
presence includes human-to-human interactions, human-computer interactions, and
machine-to-machine interactions (Mollen and Wilson, 2010). Han et al. (2016) attributed the
three antecedents of social presence to media features, interactive features, and user
characteristics. Consumers reading online reviews before the purchase is a form of
human-to-human interaction using the medium of an e-commerce web platform. Social
presence, an interventional perception to the environment, is considered to be a crucial design
element of information systems in a digital media interaction, assisting users to overcome the
physical distances between communicating participants (Hassanein and Head, 2007). In the
communication of computer media, social presence plays a major role in providing
satisfactory interaction and building relationships (Han et al., 2015). The extent to which the
media produces a sense of social presence depends on the extent to which the media provides
a real-world experience by imitating the stimuli of an existing environment. Therefore, in the
e-commerce environment, the social presence brought by online reviews is a factor of the
stimuli (S) for consumers.

2.4 Trust
According to the S-O-R framework, the organism is the internal state of consumers, involving
affective and cognitive reactions, including perception, experience and evaluation (Zhang
et al., 2014). The research of environmental psychology defines affective and cognitive
reactions as “the psychological process that occurs in the individual’s mind when interacting
with the stimulus” (Eroglu et al., 2001). Rahimnia and Hassanzadeh (2013) treated trust as the
depth and assurance of feeling based on uncertain evidence. At present, trust is an
indispensable element in various researches of an online environment. It can reduce the
consumer’s uncertainty in demand and play an important role in purchase intention and
website loyalty. In an online environment with highly uncertain, the importance of trust is
enhanced, which is helpful for consumers to reduce risky perceptions (Pavlou and Xue, 2007).
As an emotional and cognitive response, trust can, in turn, affect people’s value judgments
and ultimate behaviors. Therefore, in the e-commerce environment, trust is the emotional
state that consumers consider whether online communities are honest with consumers.
Therefore, trust is a factor of organisms (O) for consumers.
AJIM 2.5 Satisfaction
Satisfaction is the sum of feelings or attitudes of a person in response to various factors
affecting the situation in a given situation (Petter et al., 2013). Usually, in information
management, personal satisfaction is an established measurement of the success or
effectiveness of information systems (Petter et al., 2013). In an online environment,
satisfaction represents an emotional state of affective reactions to online experiences
(Lindgaard, 2007). In the information system success model, Delone and Mclean (2003) also
mentioned the concept of user satisfaction. As an emotional response, user satisfaction refers
to the degree of satisfaction with the system after using the system, and user satisfaction
would, in turn, have an important implication on the re-use of the system (Delone and Mclean,
2003). Therefore, in the e-commerce environment, satisfaction is an emotional state of the
consumers and another factor of organisms (O) for consumers.

2.6 Purchase intention

Consistent with the S-O-R framework, responses represent the final outcomes and decisions
of users based on cognitive and affective responses, including the behaviors of proximity or
avoidance (Sherman et al., 1997). In fact, the purchase decision is an important behavioral
outcome (Yadav et al., 2013). However, purchase intention is a subjective tendency of
consumers to purchase products, which only represents a major indicator of consumer
behavior (Hill, 1975). While purchase intention has been widely discussed in the previous
literature (Ali et al., 2015; Ryu et al., 2012), Ali (2016) and Ahmad et al. (2018) treated purchase
intention as a response factor in the S-O-R framework. Therefore, in the e-commerce
environment, purchase intention is a factor of response (R) for consumers.

3. Research model and hypotheses

In the e-commerce environment, user reviews from third parties have become one of the main
determinants of influencing purchase decisions (Engler et al., 2015). Based on the S-O-R
framework, this study investigates the impact of online reviews on user purchase intention,
where the factors of stimuli include the perceived information quality and social presence of
online reviews, the factors of the organisms are trust and satisfaction selected as emotional
states to express individual emotions and cognition, and the factor of response is purchase
intention. The integrated research model is shown in Figure 1.

3.1 Effects of perceived information quality on trust and satisfaction

Papathanassis and Knolle (2011) pointed out that user reviews are an important and valuable
source in decision-making and the availability of user reviews reduces the risk of online

Stimulus Organism Response

H5a

Perceived
information H 1a Trust
quality H 1b H3b

Purchase
H3a
intention
H 2a H4

Social presence H 2b Satisfaction

Figure 1.
H6b

H6a

H6c

Integrated H5b
research model
Emotional polarity
purchases and the failures of other travel services. Online shoppers were more likely to trust How online
sites that offer independent product and service reviews from real consumers that users reviews affect
believe. Providing accurate, timely, and trustworthy, high-quality reviews could thus bring
potential consumers a sense of trust (Xie et al., 2017). Trust was the output of perceived
purchase
website quality, determining consumer attitudes towards online shopping. Therefore, it was intention
crucial to understand consumer trust in online shopping (Aldebei et al., 2015). Elwalda et al.
(2016) revealed that online reviews significantly influenced consumer trust for electronic
suppliers, especially for consumers who frequently used online reviews before purchase.
High-quality reviews enabled users to more effectively understand and evaluate products
from online stores, reducing search costs and purchase uncertainty (Chen and Xie, 2008). In
the field of information management research, the information quality of information
systems could affect consumer satisfaction and thus consumer purchase intention.
Ghasemaghaei and Hassanein (2015) suggested that the information quality of mobile
shopping systems had a positive impact on consumer satisfaction. Also, user satisfaction on
Instagram was influenced by word-of-mouth and information quality (Danniswara et al.,
2017). Since online shoppers cannot touch physical products, they usually sought to find more
complete, clear and transparent high-quality product information to reduce their perceived
risks and to increase purchase intention (Chen and Chang, 2018). Kim and Lennon (2010)
claimed that online information quality helped improve product satisfaction and helps
consumers make more sensible decisions about their online shopping. Due to the complexity
and anonymity of online shopping, uncertainty and risks have become the intrinsic
properties of e-commerce. Consumer trust and satisfaction in the online environment played a
vital role, which was the foundation in forming a long-term relationship between online
consumers and merchants. Online review quality was also an important component of
website quality. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H1a. The perceived information quality of online reviews positively influences consumer
trust in online reviews.
H1b. The perceived information quality of online reviews positively influences consumer
satisfaction with online reviews.

3.2 Effects of social presence on trust and satisfaction

Studies showed that social presence could effectively promote the satisfaction of purchasers
and online learners with virtual communities in the virtual environment (Gunawardena et al.,
1997). Han et al. (2016) used Twitter as the research object and demonstrated that social
presence had a significant impact on user trust in the company. The concept of social
presence has also been widely accepted and tested in the study of technology-driven and
media interaction environments such as online shopping and social media. Dabholkar et al.
(2009) identified social presence as a core element of social satisfaction and considered that
social presence is associated with cognitive and emotional commitments formed by
relationships in the B2C environment. Social presence could shape people’s physical and
psychological responses to the environment and enhance emotional and cognitive responses
to communication. As a factor of stimuli, the social presence could trigger various cognitive
and emotional reactions in the online environment, had an impact on behavioral intentions,
and served as the antecedents of behavioral intentions, such as enjoyment, satisfaction and
trust (Choi et al., 2011; Cyr et al., 2007; Kim et al., 2013). When users believed that information
can provide a richer sense of social presence, they were more likely to form a positive attitude
(Hassanein and Head, 2007). Therefore, we posit that:
H2a. The social presence of online reviews positively influences consumer trust in online
reviews.
AJIM H2b. The social presence of online reviews positively influences consumer satisfaction
with online reviews.

3.3 Effects of trust on satisfaction and purchase intention

Su and Hsu (2013) indicated that positive and negative consumption emotions could influence
satisfaction in the context of Chinese natural heritage tourism. Both trust in online reviews
and satisfaction with online reviews were organisms in the S-O-R framework. Whether the
relationship between the two internal affective is worthy of further studying. According to
the research by Chang et al. (2015), perceived trust significantly affected the purchase
intention of customers in the hotel industry and played a mediating role in the relationship
between website quality and online purchase intention. By investigating the potential
theoretical relationship among the website quality of Chinese budget hotels, online trust and
online booking intentions, Li et al. (2017) indicated that online trust significantly affected
online booking intentions. Aljukhadar et al. (2010) studied the cognitive situation
and attitude of consumers for information communication including video, audio and text
in the e-commerce environment. The results showed that using the media with high
information richness to exchange information with the consumer was more able to obtain
their online trust, which in turn affected their purchase intention. Thus, the study proposes
the following hypotheses:
H3a. Trust in online reviews positively influences satisfaction with online reviews.
H3b. Trust in online reviews positively influences consumer purchase intention.

3.4 Effects of trust on satisfaction and purchase intention

By studying the Airbnb website, Chen and Chang (2018) found that consumer satisfaction
could significantly affect their purchase intention. In the same vein, Bai et al. (2008) found
that the website quality directly affected consumer satisfaction, which also directly
affected consumer purchase intention. Consumer satisfaction helped companies build
long-term relationships with their consumers and had a major impact on purchase
intention (Bhattacherjee, 2001; Lee et al., 2008). Thus, the study proposes the following
hypotheses:
H4. Satisfaction with online reviews positively influences consumer purchase intention.

3.5 Effects of perceived information quality and social presence on purchase intention
Kang (2011) argued that the S-O-R framework was not strictly S leading to O and O leading to
R. Thus, there may be a relationship that the external environment (S), a stimulus, directly
affecting response (R). Whereas researchers indicated that the quality of online reviews could
affect consumer purchase intention (Park et al., 2007), Chakraborty (2019) also indicated that
perceived credible online reviews positively influenced the booking intention of travelers for
hotels. Credibility is one dimension for evaluating the perceived information quality of online
reviews. Weisberg et al. (2011) conducted an empirical study and found that there was a
positive relationship between social presence and consumer purchase intention. Thus, we
hypothesize that:
H5a. The perceived information quality of online reviews positively influences consumer
purchase intention.
H5b. The social presence of online reviews positively influences consumer purchase
intention.
3.6 The moderating effects of emotional polarity How online
For the same and similar product or service, the consumer would post a positive, negative or reviews affect
neutral emotional review based on the consumer’s experience and perception. The negative
deviation theory holds that negative information has the greatest impact on users compared
purchase
with neutral and positive information (Kanouse and Hansonn, 1972). A study by Pentina et al. intention
(2015) showed that positive online reviews were considered more trustworthy than negative
ones. Sparks and Browning (2011) studied the impact of online reviews on hotel booking
preferences and consumer trust, and the results confirmed that hotel consumers may be
affected by negative reviews while positive reviews would increase hotel booking preferences
and trust. Also, Chakraborty’s study (2019) revealed the relationships between positive-sided
online reviews and perceived credible online reviews and found that positive-sided online
reviews and perceived credible online reviews were distinct. Therefore, the following
hypotheses of mediating effects of emotional polarity are proposed:
H6a. Compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive
reviews has a stronger effect on consumer trust in online reviews.
H6b. Compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive
reviews has a stronger effect on consumer satisfaction with online reviews.
H6c. Compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive
reviews has a stronger effect on consumer purchase intention.

4. Research methodology
4.1 Experiment setting and questionnaire design
The data obtained in previous studies were usually from self-reported questionnaires after
the respondents recalled their experiences with online reviews and purchase intention.
However, this study took the experimental research approach to replicate the real scene of
reading online reviews for online shopping of users. The experimental materials of online
reviews were all derived from real e-commerce sites for both search and experience products.
To set up the experimental condition, first, one part of the texts of online reviews we selected
from the experimental materials were positive and another part was negative. Second, media
often delivering more clues can trigger a higher level of social presence (Short et al., 1976) and
the vivid texts and photos information can lead consumers to a higher social presence (Gefen
and Straub, 2004). To allow respondents to have different social presences, according to the
low, medium and high levels of social presence, the online reviews from the experimental
materials were divided into three groups: text-only, text and picture, text, picture, and video.
The groups with the same emotional polarity for a certain product type had the same texts or
pictures in quantity and contents. Thus, there were 12 groups, i.e. 3 (text-only, text and
picture, text, picture, and video) 3 2 (positive reviews and negative reviews) 3 2 (search
product and experience product). With such a setting, we expected that experiment
participants can generate varying degrees of perception with online review quality. The
screenshots of each group contents were released to the Zenodo database, which is accessible
at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3747489.
Before the experiment began, the participants received a URL link to the simulated
experiment. After entering the experiment, the participants were randomly assigned to
experimental groups. All participants were required to read three reviews, which were
presented one by one by clicking the “Next” button. After reading all reviews, they could click
a button to a new web page to respond to questions in the questionnaire. The questionnaire
was divided into two parts: the first part was to investigate the basic information of the
respondent, such as gender, age, identity and opinions on online reviews and the second part
AJIM was to investigate the perceived information quality, social presence, trust, satisfaction and
purchase intention in our proposed model as depicted in Figure 1. Since the perceived
information quality is a multi-dimensional construct and each dimension represents a part of
the overall quality, analyzing information quality from a single perspective is just one-sided.
Therefore, the perceived information quality construct in this study was composed of ten
dimensions: adequacy, depth, reliability, relevancy, understandability, conciseness,
completeness, accuracy, factuality and diagnosticity. In other words, the perceived
information quality in this study was measured as a second-order formative construct.
Each option of the questions used the Likert seven-level scale from “strongly agree” to
“strongly disagree”, where 1 represented strongly disagree, 7 represented strongly agree. To
ensure the accuracy of the survey, a “trap” question was set in the questionnaire, “Please do
not answer this question, continue to answer the questions below and skip it directly.” The
trap question was used to screen the questionnaire data. As for the measurement of multiple
latent variables in this study, we made appropriate modifications and adaptations based on
the existing research and measurements combined with the actual situation of online reviews
to ensure the validity of the constructs in the contents. The measurements are shown in
Table 1.

4.2 Data collection

Based on the principle of voluntary participation, we distributed the URL of the web-based
experiment to the online community in China, WeChat circle of friends, and QQ groups in the
form of “snowballing.” Voluntary participants in the experiment received a 2-yuan Wechat
“red envelop” after completing the experiment. The participants of this study were mostly
students with a variety of occupations, ages, and academic levels at a university in China. The
duration of the experimental research was from December 2018 to May 2019, over 6 months.
A total of recruited 334 participants finished the study by completing the questionnaire. After
eliminating invalid data based on the trap question, a total of 302 effective experimental data
set were collected, where the effective rate is 90.4%. The demographic data of the respondents
are shown in Table 2.

5. Analysis and results

Data analysis is carried out using Smart PLS 3.2.8. PLS is a component-based structural
equation modeling method, which can process both reflective and formative constructs. It
does not require sample data to follow a normal distribution, and there is no problem in
identifying relations between individual theoretical constructs in small samples, less than
250, with PLS (Reinartz et al., 2009). Also, Chin (1998) stated that the sample size requirement
would be 10* (1) the largest number of formative indicators or (2) the largest number of
independent variables impacting a dependent variable, whichever is the greater. The largest
number of formative indicators is only one, or the largest number of independent variables
impacting a dependent variable is four in the research model. Thus, the sample size of 302 is
more than adequate for the PLS estimation procedures, so PLS is a good choice for analysis.
Moreover, the research model had to be examined by measurement models and structural
models.

5.1 Reliability and validity test of measurement

The perceived information quality is a second-order formative construct, while the remaining
constructs are reflective variables in the research model. Due to the differences in
measurement error, construct validity and causality, the test methods of reliability and
validity for the two types of constructs are different.
Constructs
Perceived information quality (Jiang and
Benbasat, 2004; Xu et al., 2013; Zhao et al.,
2017)
Social presence (Lee and Shin, 2012)
Trust (Wulf and Iacobucci, 2001)
Satisfaction (Bhattacherjee, 2001)
Purchase intention (Dodds et al., 1991)
Measurements How online
reviews affect
Adequacy Adeq1: User reviews are adequate
Adeq2: The amount of information in the reviews purchase
matches my needs intention
Depth Dept1: User reviews for the given product are in-depth
Dept2: User reviews provide me with comprehensive
information
Dept3: User reviews provide me with all the detailed
information I need
Reliability Reli1: User reviews are trustworthy
Reli2: User reviews are reliable
Reli3: User reviews are credible
Relevancy Rele1: User reviews are informative for my needs
Rele2: User reviews are valuable for my needs
Rele3: User reviews are relevant to my needs
Understandability Unde1: User reviews are clear in meaning
Unde2: User reviews are easy to read
Unde3: User reviews are understandable
Conciseness Conc1: User reviews are formatted compactly
Conc2: User reviews are presented concisely
Conc3: User reviews are presented in a compact form
Completeness Comp1: The reviews provided me with a complete set
of information for the product selection task
Comp2: The reviews produced comprehensive
information for the product selection task
Comp3: The reviews provided me with all the
information I needed for the product selection task
Accuracy Accu1: The reviews produced correct information for
the product selection task
Accu2: The information I obtained from the reviews
for the product selection task was error-free
Accu3: The information provided by the reviews was
accurate for the product selection task
Factuality Fact1: User reviews for a certain product are based on
specific facts
Fact2: User reviews for a certain product are objective
Fact3: User reviews for a certain product are logical
Diagnosticity Diag1:The information provided in online reviews was
helpful for me to evaluate the product
Diag2:The information provided in online reviews was
helpful in familiarizing me with the product
Diag3:The information provided in online reviews was
helpful for me to understand the performance of the
product
Sp1: I felt as if I were engaging in an actual conversation with him
Sp2: I felt like I was in the same room with the person/people who posted the
online reviews
Sp3: I felt as if the person/people who posted the online reviews were
speaking directly to me
Trust1: Online reviews give me a feeling of trust
Trust2: I have trust in online reviews of products and vendors
Trust3: The online reviews of products and vendors give me a trustworthy
impression
Sat1: I feel very satisfied with the products and vendors according to online
reviews
Sat2: I feel very pleased with the products and vendors according to online
reviews
Sat3: I feel very contented with the products and vendors according to online
reviews
Pi1: I would consider purchasing the product Table 1.
Pi2: I have a high probability of purchasing the product Constructs and
Pi3: I have a high willingness to purchase the product measurements
AJIM Demographic profile Number (N 5 302) Percentage (%)

Gender
Male 114 37.7
Female 188 62.3
Total 302 100
Age
<18 11 3.6
18∼20 126 41.7
21∼23 73 24.2
24∼26 50 16.6
27∼29 25 8.3
30∼35 13 4.3
>35 4 1.3
Total 302 100
Identity
Freshman student 43 14.2
Sophomore student 85 28.2
Junior student 40 13.3
Senior student 41 13.6
Master student 29 9.6
Doctoral student 30 9.9
Table 2. University teacher 7 2.3
Demographics of the Other 27 8.9
respondents (N 5 302) Total 302 100

5.1.1 Reliability and validity test of reflective construct. Reliability test reflects the reliability,
consistency, and stability of the measurement scale, which is usually tested by Cronbach’s α
and Composite Reliability (CR). The test results show that the Cronbach’s α and CR for all of
the reflective constructs in this study are above 0.8, thus indicating that the measurement of
reflective constructs has adequate reliability. Validity test reflects the accuracy of the design
of the measurement indicators, including content validity, convergent validity, and
discriminant validity. Because the measurement constructs in this model were adapted
from the related prior research, the measurement scale is considered to have good content
validity. Table 3 summarizes the constructs of their measurement, factor loadings,
Cronbach’s α, CR and average variance extracted (AVE). AVE of each construct exceeds
0.7 and the factor loadings reach 0.85 or more significant at the 0.001 level. This indicates
convergent validity. Moreover, the correlations of the constructs are much smaller than the
square root of the AVE with each reflective construct, thus revealing discriminant validity.
The detailed results are shown in Table 4.
5.1.2 Reliability and validity test of formative constructs. Since the reliability and validity
test for the formative constructs cannot be tested by the above method, we adopted the
method from Petter and Rai (2007). First, we calculated the mean value of 10 first-order
constructs of perceived information quality, which were used as the measurement items of
perceived information quality and were named AVEAccu, AVEAdeq and so on. Then, these
processed measurement items were used to calculate the weights and loadings of perceived
information quality (see Table 5). The results show that the weights and loadings are
significant at the level of 0.001, indicating adequate validity. For the reliability of perceived
information quality, we mainly used the multi-collinearity test. It can be seen from Table 6
that the variance inflation factor (VIF) of each first-order variable is lower than the threshold
10, indicating that the second-order formative construct, perceived information quality, has
adequate reliability.
 Measurement Factor loadings Cronbach’s α C.R. AVE
How online
reviews affect
Adequacy Adeq1 0.94*** 0.87 0.94 0.88 purchase
Adeq2 0.94***
Depth Dept1 0.89*** 0.89 0.93 0.83 intention
Dept2 0.93***
Dept3 0.91***
Reliability Reli1 0.95*** 0.95 0.97 0.91
Reli2 0.95***
Reli3 0.95***
Relevancy Rele1 0.85*** 0.84 0.91 0.76
Rele2 0.90***
Rele3 0.86***
Understandability Unde1 0.86*** 0.86 0.92 0.79
Unde2 0.90***
Unde3 0.91***
Conciseness Conc1 0.92*** 0.87 0.92 0.79
Conc2 0.86***
Conc3 0.88***
Completeness Comp1 0.94*** 0.93 0.96 0.88
Comp2 0.95***
Comp3 0.94***
Accuracy Accu1 0.90*** 0.89 0.93 0.82
Accu2 0.90***
Accu3 0.93***
Factuality Fact1 0.89*** 0.87 0.92 0.80
Fact2 0.91***
Fact3 0.88***
Diagnosticity Diag1 0.91*** 0.91 0.95 0.85
Diag2 0.93***
Diag3 0.93***
Social presence Sp1 0.91*** 0.90 0.94 0.84
Sp2 0.91***
Sp3 0.93***
Trust Trust1 0.88*** 0.89 0.93 0.82
Trust2 0.92***
Trust3 0.91***
Satisfaction Sat1 0.96*** 0.96 0.97 0.92
Sat2 0.97***
Sat3 0.95***
Table 3.
Purchase intention Pi1 0.96*** 0.96 0.97 0.92 Test results of
Pi2 0.96*** reliability and
Pi3 0.96*** convergent validity for
Note(s): “***”: Factor loadings are significant at the 0.001 level reflective constructs

5.2 Hypotheses testing

The test results of the research model from data analysis are shown in Figure 2. The
explained variances of trust, satisfaction and purchase intention are 0.497, 0.398, and 0.514,
respectively, indicating that the structural model has a good prediction ability for purchase
intention. Furthermore, the perceived information quality has a significant positive impact on
trust (β 5 0.473, t 5 6.984). Nevertheless, the perceived information quality has no impact on
satisfaction. Therefore, H1a is supported but H1b is not supported. Also, social presence has a
significant positive impact on trust (β 5 0.316, t 5 4.216), but no impact on satisfaction,
indicating that H2a is supported but H2b is not supported. The impact of trust on satisfaction
 AJIM

Table 4.

constructs
for reflective
Test results of
discriminant validity
Social Purchase
Factuality Trust Adequacy Accuracy Understandability Reliability Completeness Depth Satisfaction Relevancy presence Conciseness Diagnosticity intention

Factuality 0.89
Trust 0.62 0.90
Adequacy 0.57 0.49 0.94
Accuracy 0.84 0.65 0.61 0.91
Understandability 0.70 0.46 0.57 0.63 0.89
Reliability 0.76 0.59 0.59 0.78 0.63 0.95
Completeness 0.69 0.57 0.70 0.80 0.53 0.67 0.94
Depth 0.68 0.52 0.83 0.74 0.58 0.72 0.80 0.91
Satisfaction 0.46 0.62 0.39 0.45 0.28 0.40 0.47 0.40 0.96
Relevancy 0.71 0.58 0.67 0.79 0.74 0.79 0.72 0.75 0.36 0.87
Social presence 0.51 0.59 0.44 0.55 0.41 0.48 0.56 0.51 0.41 0.49 0.92
Conciseness 0.72 0.54 0.59 0.69 0.75 0.61 0.66 0.65 0.41 0.68 0.49 0.89
Diagnosticity 0.77 0.57 0.57 0.71 0.74 0.66 0.59 0.64 0.31 0.72 0.47 0.69 0.92
Purchase 0.34 0.44 0.32 0.33 0.16 0.26 0.37 0.30 0.72 0.27 0.25 0.33 0.19 0.96
intention
Note(s): The italic values on the diagonal are the square root of the AVE and others are correlations of the constructs
is positively significant (β 5 0.549, t 5 6.887), but the impact of trust on purchase intention is How online
not significant. Therefore, H3a is supported but H3b is not supported. Given that there is no reviews affect
relationship between trust and satisfaction, both perceived information quality and social
presence positively impact trust and satisfaction. However, when the relationship between
purchase
trust and satisfaction is positive, both perceived information quality and social presence have intention
no impact on satisfaction. Thus, trust is a full mediation between perceived information
quality and satisfaction, and between social presence and satisfaction (Baron and Kenny,
1986). Satisfaction has a significant positive impact on purchase intention (β 5 0.716,
t 5 11.670). Therefore, H4 is supported. Moreover, the impact of perceived information
quality and social presence on purchase intention is not significant, indicating that neither
H5a nor H5b is supported.
Besides, the model was further tested using positive and negative emotional polarity as a
moderating variable. In this study, because emotional polarity is a category moderating
variable, a multi-group analysis (MGA) was conducted (Chin et al., 2003). The first step is to
examine the structural model under the category of each moderating variable. If the same
path hypothesis is significant for each category, the t-value test formula should be used to
verify whether the value of the same path coefficient has a significant difference in two
groups. The t-value test formula is as follows (Sia et al., 2009):
pathsample_1 pathsample_2
t ¼
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  hqffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi i
ðm1Þ2 ðn1Þ2
ðmþn2Þ
*S:E:sample_1 þ ðmþn2Þ
2
*S:E:2sample_2 * m1 þ n1

where pathsample i is the path coefficients in the structural model of group i; S:E:sample i is the
standard error of path coefficients in the structural model of group I; m and n are the valid
sample sizes for each group, respectively.
The t-value test formula described above was used for analyzing the moderating effects of
emotional polarity. The results of the MGA are shown in Table 7. For the hypothesis H6a, the
same path is significant in both the positive and negative emotional polarity structure
models. In different groups, the difference in path coefficient in “perceived information
quality → trusted” is significant (t 5 14.966). The path coefficient (β 5 0.585) in the positive
emotional polarity group is greater than that in the negative emotional polarity group
(β 5 0.360). Thus, the perceived information quality of positive online reviews has a stronger
effect on trust than negative reviews, indicating that H6a is supported. Also, the results show
that, in the positive emotional polarity structure model, the perceived information quality has
a significant impact on both satisfaction and purchase intention. However, in the negative

t-value for t-value for

Construct Measurement Weight weight Loading loading P

Perceived information AVEAccu 0.129 31.547 0.892 69.052 0.000

quality AVEAdeq 0.111 28.279 0.804 30.737 0.000
AVEComp 0.122 28.748 0.845 46.48 0.000
AVEConc 0.116 29.613 0.825 34.133 0.000
AVEDept 0.12 30.535 0.874 48.737 0.000
AVEDiag 0.111 31.115 0.83 36.389 0.000
AVEFact 0.126 30.968 0.874 53.705 0.000 Table 5.
AVERele 0.12 32.037 0.889 63.882 0.000 Test results of the
AVEReli 0.119 30.987 0.847 45.838 0.000 measurement model of
AVEUnde 0.101 20.919 0.801 26.82 0.000 formative construct
AJIM emotional polarity model, the two path coefficients become insignificant. We conclude that
compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive online reviews
has a more significant impact on trust and purchase intention. Therefore, both H6b and H6c
are supported. Actually, in the positive emotional polarity group, when there is no
relationship between trust and satisfaction, perceived information quality positively has an
impact on both trust and satisfaction. However, when the relationship between trust and
satisfaction is positive, the perceived information quality still has a positive impact on
satisfaction. Thus, trust is a partial mediation between perceived information quality and
satisfaction in the positive emotional polarity group (Baron and Kenny, 1986). The test results
of the research model with positive emotional data and negative emotional data are shown in
Figures 3 and 4, respectively.
In summary, the test results of all hypotheses from the research model are shown in
Table 8.

6. Discussion and Implications

6.1 Discussion of findings
Based on the S-O-R framework, empirical research results are discussed below. First, the
perceived information quality of online reviews as a stimulus can significantly affect
consumer trust, which means that the higher the information quality of online reviews
perceived by consumers, the higher their trust in reviews and the more convincing of the
description of the product or the merchant is. Whether the review is positive or negative,

First-order constructs VIF

Factuality 4.83
Adequacy 3.39
Accuracy 5.71
Understandability 3.59
Reliability 3.58
Completeness 3.99
Table 6. Depth 5.35
VIF test results for Relevancy 4.69
each first-order Conciseness 3.08
construct Diagnosticity 3.32

Stimulus Organism Response

β = 0.045(ns)
R 2=0.497
Perceived
information β = 0.473*** Trust
quality
β = 0.091(ns) β = 0.013(ns)

β = 0.549***
Purchase
intention
β = 0.316*** β = 0.716***
R 2=0.514
Social presence β = 0.28(ns) Satisfaction

Figure 2. β = -0.075(ns)
R 2=0.398
Test results of the
research model
Note(s): ***: p <0.001; **: p <0.01; *: p <0.05; ns: not significant
 Path coefficient
How online
Positive emotional Negative emotional t- reviews affect
Path polarity(m 5 151) polarity(n 5 151) Difference value Result purchase
H6a: perceived 0.585 ***
0.360 ***
0.217 ***
14.966 Significant intention
information
quality → Trust
H6b: perceived 0.320*** 0.011(ns) – – Significant
information
quality → Satisfaction
H6c: perceived 0.545*** 0.114(ns) – – Significant
Table 7.
information Test results of path
quality → Purchase coefficient difference
intention under the mediation of
Note(s): m and n in parentheses are the number of valid samples for the group; ***: p < 0.001; ns: not positive and negative
significant emotional polarity

Stimulus Organism Response

β = 0.545***
R 2=0.657
Perceived
information β = 0.585*** Trust
quality
β =0.320*** β = 0.098(ns)

β = 0.610***
Purchase
intention
β = 0.337*** β =0.307**
R 2=0.706
Social presence β = 0.027(ns) Satisfaction
Figure 3.
R 2=0.801 Test results of the
β = -0.100(ns)
research model with
positive emotional data
Note(s): ***: p <0.001; **: p <0.01; ns: not significant

consumers have a sense of trust in the reviews under the guarantee of comprehensive
interpretation with high-quality review information. In contrast, if the review information has
a low quality, it cannot give consumers a sense of conviction. For satisfaction, although high-
quality review information cannot directly improve consumer satisfaction, trust plays a fully
mediating role between perceived information quality and satisfaction. If the quality of the
information in the review is high, the online reviews would be trusted, and then consumers
can produce the feelings of being satisfied and pleased with the products and merchants
described in the reviews.
Second, the empirical results show that the stimulus of perceived information quality does
not directly affect the response, i.e. purchase intention. Accordingly, the path directly affects
the response by the stimulus in the S-O-R framework is not established. This result is,
however, different from the study by Chakraborty (2019), which verified that one of the
dimensions of the perceived information quality, perceived credible online reviews, positively
influences the hotel booking intentions. We conjecture that this is due to the perceptual
discrepancy between the overall information quality and one part of information quality.
Third, the positive and negative emotional polarity of online review as a moderating
variable has a very significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived
information quality and trust, satisfaction, and purchase intention. The moderating effect is
AJIM Stimulus Organism Response
β =-0.114(ns)
R 2=0.397
Perceived
information β = 0.360*** Trust
quality
β = -0.011(ns) β = 0.018(ns)
Purchase
β = 0.430***
intention
β = 0.327** β = 0.652***
R 2=0.437
Figure 4. Social presence β = 0.124(ns) Satisfaction
Test results of the
research model with R 2=0.140
β = 0.084(ns)
negative
emotional data
Note(s): ***: p <0.001; **: p <0.01; ns: not significant

Hypotheses Conclusion

H1a: The perceived information quality of online reviews positively influences consumer trust Supported
in online reviews
H1b: The perceived information quality of online reviews positively influences consumer Not
satisfaction with online reviews supported
H2a: The social presence of online reviews positively influences consumer trust in online Supported
reviews
H2b: The social presence of online reviews positively influences consumer satisfaction with Not
online reviews supported
H3a: Trust in online reviews positively influences satisfaction with online reviews Supported
H3b: Trust in online reviews positively influences consumer purchase intention Not
supported
H4: Satisfaction with online reviews positively influence consumers purchase intention Supported
H5a: The perceived information quality of online reviews positively influences purchase Not
intention from consumers supported
H5b: The social presence of online reviews positively influences purchase intention from Not
consumers supported
H6a: Compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive reviews Supported
has a stronger effect on consumer trust in online reviews
H6b: Compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive reviews Supported
Table 8. has a stronger effect on consumer satisfaction with online reviews
Test results of all H6c: Compared with negative reviews, the perceived information quality of positive reviews Supported
hypotheses has a stronger effect on consumer purchase intention

of great significance in the research model. Even if when the review is positive or negative
respectively, high-quality online reviews will lead to the trust that the consumer will believe
the positive or negative contents of the review. Besides, high-quality positive reviews
contribute to both satisfaction and purchase intention. However, compared to the positive
reviews, when the review is negative, high-quality online reviews will not have any impact on
either satisfaction or purchase intention.
Fourth, according to the social information processing theory (Pfeffer, 1978), people’s
attitudes and behaviors are largely influenced by the surrounding social environment and
they process and interpret specific social information to determine what attitudes and
behaviors to adopt. In the context of online reviews, people will not generate satisfaction after
being affected by the negative reviews. When the review is positive, there are three paths
from perceived information quality to purchase intention. One of the most important findings How online
here is that the perceived information quality can directly stimulate purchase intention, reviews affect
indicating that the positive high-quality review information has a considerable stimulating
effect. We can conclude that in the S-O-R framework, the factor of stimulus (S) can directly
purchase
affect the response (R) separated from the organisms (O), only when the stimulus is positive. intention
Also, the original S-O-R relationship still remains. The second path is that purchase intention
can be positively impacted by satisfaction directly, and the third path is that purchase
intention can be positively impacted by trust indirectly through satisfaction. Therefore, high-
quality positive reviews are highly related to purchase intention.
Fifth, the social presence generated by online reviews as a stimulus can significantly affect
consumer trust, which suggests that the higher the social presence of consumers is, the higher
their trust is. A previous study also suggested that social presence can lead to trust in social
commerce (Lu et al., 2016). Similar to the relationship of perceived information quality, trust,
and satisfaction, trust plays a fully mediating role between social presence and satisfaction.
Meanwhile, the stimulus of social presence cannot directly affect purchase intention. In this
study, because the richness of the media can change the social presence of consumers to a
certain extent, the sense of social presence is gradually improved from text-only, text and
picture to text, picture, and video. Although the impact of social presence on trust is
significantly lower than the impact of perceived information quality on it, social presence is
still considered an effective stimulus.
Sixth, among the factors of the organisms (O), satisfaction can significantly affect
purchase intention, while trust cannot. The result is different from the study by Liu et al.
(2019) that trust toward a social commerce site and trust toward site members in the context
of social commerce sites are determinants of purchase intention. The possible reason is that
the trust in this study is the trust towards the contents of the review information describing
the products and merchants. As online reviews can be positive or negative, the trust cannot
stimulate purchase intention. While satisfaction is that consumers are satisfied with the
products or merchants, which can stimulate purchase intention. What is more, the internal
relationship between the two factors of the organisms illustrates the important relationship
from trust to satisfaction.

6.2 Theoretical implications

This research offers several theoretical implications and contributions to the literature of
information management. First of all, previous studies have paid more attention to the quality
of the information provided by the website, but less to the information quality of third-party
online reviews. On this basis, this study explores the information quality of online reviews
measured from multiple dimensions in relation to purchase intention. As online reviews have
emerged as a more and more important factor in the consumer decision-making process, the
measurement approach we took to measure the information quality of online reviews in e-
commerce can be furthered by information research. Second, we designed an experimental
study in addition to the traditional approach to obtaining self-reported data from the
questionnaire, which makes the research data more accurate and avoiding the deviation
caused by self-reported data only. This research method could be well adopted by future
information researches in e-commerce. Third, the study leverages the application context of
the S-O-R framework from offline to the online environment, where online reviews can be
treated as new stimuli. Finally, this study is based on the S-O-R framework to explain the
intrinsic relationship between the perceived information quality and social presence of online
reviews and purchase intention. It is noted that the social presence can perform a significant
antecedent of trust, contributing to the research on the social presence in the online reviews.
Meanwhile, the results highlight the important mediating role of trust, revealing the internal
AJIM relationship between trust and satisfaction of the organisms. Therefore, the study can be
considered as a new approach to understanding the path from information itself (information
quality) to user behavior (purchase intention) through the organisms (trust and satisfaction)
in the context of online reviews. We hope that the application of the S-O-R framework in this
study can provide more research ideas for relevant researchers.

6.3 Managerial implications

In terms of practical implications, this study offers several insights for online shopping
managers about how to motivate consumers’ purchase intention. First, the study provides a
new insight for managers to understand the moderating role of online reviews’ emotional
polarity, revealing that positive online reviews, as opposed to negative ones, should be better
managed and promoted. The positive online reviews with high quality can improve the
persuasiveness of online reviews, which will be more likely to directly stimulate purchase
intention. One strategy is to further motivate consumers to write high-quality positive
reviews. The merchant can offer financial or psychological rewards to motivate users to write
high-quality positive reviews. Second, the research highlights that the merchant should make
efforts to increase consumer satisfaction with the online reviews that can directly stimulate
purchase intention. However, due to the mediating effect of trust, enforcing satisfaction by
the stimuli is not an effectively direct approach. Improving social presence and perceived
information quality are all effective ways to increase trust. Finally, the merchant should
always be concerned about high-quality negative reviews as potential consumers can be
convinced of high-quality negative reviews to greatly reduce the probability of purchasing.
The managers should do their best to identify and rectify any problem mentioned in bad
reviews.

7. Conclusion and future research

Based on the S-O-R framework, we proposed a research model to reveal the relationship
between online reviews and purchase intention in the context of e-commerce, which increases
the understanding of the underlying mechanism regarding how purchase intention can be
motivated by the perceived information quality and social presence of online reviews. The
empirical results suggest that both perceived information quality and the social presence of
online reviews positively affects trust. Within the factors of organism, trust can significantly
affect satisfaction. Besides, satisfaction with online reviews affects the purchase intention.
Specifically, as for the emotional polarity of online reviews, perceived information quality of
positive online reviews was found to have a more significant impact on trust, satisfaction and
purchase intention. The findings can extend the application scope of the S-O-R framework in
the field of online reviews. Moreover, several insights for online shopping managers are
provided.
However, this study also has several limitations. First, the participants of this study are
primarily composed of Chinese students at different academic levels. Factors such as the
comprehension of information and the degree of information acceptance by different
individuals may directly affect the extent to which information is used for decision-making.
While most of the participants are students at a university in China, this study lacks
investigation into the perception of information quality by other types of participants. Second,
when measuring the perceived information quality of online reviews, the time dimension was
not taken into account. Future research should include and verify this dimension.
The results of the research confirm that the S-O-R framework is feasible and useful to
achieve the research purpose. Our next research effort is to explore how to write a high-
quality online review. Specifically, we want to determine how the consumer who bought the
product has the motivation and writing strategies to write a high-quality review. Also, we How online
plan to refine the S-O-R framework. For example, the trust discussed in this study is the trust reviews affect
in information. Perhaps the trust towards other aspects such as the reviewer can be studied in
the future.
purchase
intention
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Corresponding author
He Li can be contacted at: lihe200303@163.com

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