Article Preview
Top1. Introduction
Word-of-mouth (WOM) was first described as an oral form of non-commercial communication between individuals who were personally acquainted with each other (Arndt, 1967). WOM refers to friends and family communicating about their experiences with a product or service. Electronic WOM or ‘eWOM’ extends beyond friends and acquaintances to include experiences and opinions shared via the internet (King, Racherla, & Bush, 2014). These customer comments are not just shared among friends on sites such as Facebook, but also on platforms specifically designed for reviews (e.g., Tripadvisor.com). There, customers are able to rate products and services based on a variety of factors (Schindler & Bickart, 2005).
Substantial differences exist between WOM and eWOM, for example eWOM assessments are typically provided by individuals who are not known to the reader. Research suggests that eWOM still facilitates higher credibility, empathy and relevance for consumers than does direct sources from the supplier of the product or service (Bickart & Schindler, 2001). This may be because an anonymous channel of communication allows for more self-disclosure by reviewers (Sun, Youn, Wu, & Kuntaraporn, 2006). Because these reviews are so highly regarded by consumers, eWOM remains a significant system of engagement, and as such, is important to both customers (Steffes & Burgee, 2009) and companies (Amblee & Bui, 2011).
As review platforms become more sophisticated, it is easier for reviewers to provide richer information, thus better informing consumers. Many review platforms provide social network functionalities, with the goal of fostering virtual communities (Chang, Wong, Eng, & Chen, 2018). Indeed, reviewers may add images in order to achieve a variety of positive outcomes: increase emotional presence (e.g., Septianto & Chiew, 2018), improve credibility (e.g. Munzel, 2016), or simply to transmit more information to reduce reliance on heuristic processing (i.e., when one’s ability to consider decision factors carefully is constrained, they use shortcuts to make judgments, which can lead to mistakes) (Book, Tanford & Chang, 2018).
Numerous websites now enable reviewers to post images along with their text. Although the ability to share images on some review platforms has existed for some time, research on the influence of images on the effectiveness of eWOM is not extensive. Rather, the focus has been primarily on social media platforms (Hoffman & Daugherty, 2013). Indeed, a quick search of Google Scholar shows numerous eWOM articles over the past few years, with little to no studies on how images may affect the reviews. Therefore, we ask the following question: Does the addition of images impact how reviews are received by consumers?
This study aims to explore how consumer provided images in online product reviews influence consumer behavior. Drawing from media richness and dual-coding theory, we examine the effects of images on trust and purchase intention for both hedonic and utilitarian products. Consistent with these theoretical premises, we posit that the inclusion of images in reviews will enhance trust and purchase intention. A two-study investigation is described in which participants were presented with different reviews, some of which included images, and others that consisted of text only. This was done with the objective of assessing 1) whether the inclusion of images enriched the reception of the review and elevated trust and purchase intention, 2) whether the nature of the product (i.e., hedonic versus utilitarian) impacted the level of trust and purchase intention achieved through the inclusion of images, and 3) whether the relevance of the image to the text enhanced trust and purchase intention. Should the findings demonstrate that images impact the effects of the reviews, these findings could represent a starting point for future research and a premise that has not yet be examined in the context of online reviews.