在线顾客评论对产品销量的影响:品牌强度和产品成熟度的调节作用

The effect of online customer reviews on product sales: Moderating effect of brand strength and category maturity

在线顾客评论(OCRs)已经成为消费者购买决策过程中搜集商品信息、消除不确定性的重要途径之一。为了明确不同调节因素影响下在线顾客评论的有效性,本文围绕"在线顾客评论对产品销量的影响变化"这一核心问题,选择新型智能电视机和成熟普通电视机两种产品作为研究对象构建数理模型,探讨在线顾客评论对产品销量影响过程中品牌强度和产品成熟度的调节效应。研究表明:在线顾客评论对弱势品牌销量与品牌强度的影响均比强势品牌大;弱势品牌通过累积的在线顾客评论可以形成正反馈循环,强势品牌不具有该特性;负面在线顾客评论对品牌强度的影响弱于正面在线顾客评论;在一定的品牌强度下,高成熟度产品的负面评论具有更强的消极影响,低成熟度产品的正面评论具有更强的积极影响。本研究丰富了在线顾客评论有用性的相关理论,为企业制定差异化营销策略具有重要启示。

Online customer reviews（OCRs） have become more and more popular along with the prosperity of online business, which now have been the most important information source for customers to search in order to make purchase decision. Present researches have investigated the relationship between OCRs and sales, and factors influencing the usefulness of OCRs. However, existing researches do not take brand strength and category maturity into consideration. We conduct the research in order to close the research gap. According to the signaling theory, there is a compensation relationship between brand and OCRs, which are two parallel signals in a transaction. OCRs will play a more reliable role for weak brands than strong brands. In addition, consumers can isolate and elaborate on given OCRs and write rational andobjective ones for products of high maturity than low maturity because of familiarity. Thus, OCRs will have more significant impact for matured products. On the basis of theoretical analysis, this research proposes three hypotheses. This paper chooses television as the research object, specifically, Smart TV as the emerging one and normal television as the matured one, and collects data from JD.com. In accordance with previous researches, this paper takes inverted sales ranking as an indicator of sales, and defines one-star, two-star and three-star as negative OCRs, and four-star and five-star as positive ones. Next, this paper uses a dynamic standard to determine whether weak brands turn into strong ones or original strong brands turn into weak ones. Finally, random effect model is used to estimate the equation with instrumental variables to efficiently tackle the problem of endogeneity, which provides reliable results for us. Firstly, a test of dynamic brand strength shows that some weak brands turn into strong ones but no strong brands turn into weak ones. Secondly, we confirm that the number of positive OCRs has a significant positive impact on brand strength, while negative OCRs not. Thirdly, tests about the moderating effect of brand strength and category maturity verify our previous inference about brand strength but not category maturity. Finally, significant positive effect of sales on number of positive OCRs is verified, which exists in weak brands only. In addition, robustness of the method to classify negative and positive OCRs is verified and comparison between the method used to control the problem of endogeneity and other method confirms the validity of our results. The study finds that OCRs matter less with both sales and brand strength for strong brands than weak brands. Moreover, weak brands can create a positive feedback loop between sales and positive OCRs, while strong brands not. Negative OCRs have less significant impact on brand strength than positive OCRs. After controlling brand strength, negative OCRs have more significant negative impacts on products of high maturity than low maturity, but positive OCRs have more significant positive impact on products of low maturity than high maturity. This paper enriches the theory of OCRs and provides different marketing strategies and managerial implications for enterprises.