Abstract

Online review is an important influencing factor for consumers’ online trust decision. Although previous studies have shown that the product reviews of other consumers can affect the purchase intention and trust of potential consumers, there are few studies on the influence of the review information available from different channels on the degree of consumer trust. In this paper, the channels for review information available to consumers are summarized into three types, namely Seller-based, Agent-based and Social Networking Services-based (SNS-based). In this research, by the experimental method, the authors investigate the influence of the review information from different channels on the consumer trust. The results are presented as follows. First, the data analysis result supports the definition and classification of channels of review information in this research. Second, the results demonstrate that the review information perceived by consumers from different channels has different degrees of influence on their trust. Moreover, this research also finds that the review information perceived by consumers from the social network has the greatest influence on their trust, while reviews in the seller’s own environment have the least influence on the consumer trust. Finally, this research points out that according to statistical results, there is no significant difference in the influence on consumer trust by Agent-based and SNS-based review information.

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