| Online reviews of products have become an important step for consumers before actual purchasing occurs. They may be viewed as the digital version of word-of-mouth advertising for products and services, and have become an essential component for both online and traditional marketplaces. For consumers, online reviews have the power to completely change their shopping habits and their product evaluation processes. For retail Web sites, an integrated online review system can help attract more customers to the site and give them an advantage over their competition (Li and Hitt, 2010; Hu, Zhang, and Pavlou, 2009; Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Chen and Xie, 2005). A great deal of effort has been devoted to researching the impact of online reviews, particularly the relationship between online reviews and sales (Forman, Ghose, and Wiesenfeld, 2008; Chen, et al., 2007; Duan, et al., 2008; Hu, Liu, and Zhang, 2008). |
Updated 07/09/2013