IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/revmkt/v20y2022i1p21-36n7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Profile Photos’ Impact in Online Reviews: The Effect of Cultural Differences

Author

Listed:
  • Broeder Peter

    (Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands)

Abstract

In the context of the continuous expansion of e-commerce worldwide, online consumer reviews have become the most accessible and influential form of electronic worth-of-mouth available to everyone on the internet. This raises a challenge for companies with local as well as global customers. It is germane to know whether there are cultural differences reflected in online reviews, as consumers from distinctively different cultures might trust the evaluation of the same product or service differently. In the present study, Dutch and Japanese individuals (N = 166) were presented with two variations of an online excursion review on a holiday booking website. The review with a profile photo of the reviewer was perceived as more realistic. However, this did not directly influence consumers’ booking intention. Meanwhile, the degree of trust in the review affected the inclination to book the excursion. Some cultural differences were found. The Dutch group reported higher booking intentions and trust than the Japanese group, both with the photo-absent review as well as the photo-present review. The implications of these findings contribute to a better understanding of cultural specifics and global universals in e-commerce, enabling the development of more effective online marketing communications.

Suggested Citation

  • Broeder Peter, 2022. "Profile Photos’ Impact in Online Reviews: The Effect of Cultural Differences," Review of Marketing Science, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 21-36, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:revmkt:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:21-36:n:7
    DOI: 10.1515/roms-2021-0074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/roms-2021-0074
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/roms-2021-0074?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Filieri, Raffaele, 2016. "What makes an online consumer review trustworthy?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 46-64.
    2. Ert, Eyal & Fleischer, Aliza & Magen, Nathan, 2016. "Trust and reputation in the sharing economy: The role of personal photos in Airbnb," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 62-73.
    3. Liu, Zhiwei & Park, Sangwon, 2015. "What makes a useful online review? Implication for travel product websites," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 140-151.
    4. Winzar, Hume, 2015. "The ecological fallacy: How to spot one and tips on how to use one to your advantage," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 86-92.
    5. Yani Wang & Jun Wang & Tang Yao, 2019. "What makes a helpful online review? A meta-analysis of review characteristics," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 257-284, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raoofpanah, Iman & Zamudio, César & Groening, Christopher, 2023. "Review reader segmentation based on the heterogeneous impacts of review and reviewer attributes on review helpfulness: A study involving ZIP code data," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Pera, Rebecca & Viglia, Giampaolo & Grazzini, Laura & Dalli, Daniele, 2019. "When empathy prevents negative reviewing behavior," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 265-278.
    3. Onofrei, George & Filieri, Raffaele & Kennedy, Lorraine, 2022. "Social media interactions, purchase intention, and behavioural engagement: The mediating role of source and content factors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 100-112.
    4. Moradi, Masoud & Dass, Mayukh & Kumar, Piyush, 2023. "Differential effects of analytical versus emotional rhetorical style on review helpfulness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    5. Josef Zelenka & Tracy Azubuike & Martina Pásková, 2021. "Trust Model for Online Reviews of Tourism Services and Evaluation of Destinations," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Sunyoung Hlee & Hanna Lee & Chulmo Koo, 2018. "Hospitality and Tourism Online Review Research: A Systematic Analysis and Heuristic-Systematic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-27, April.
    7. Raffaele Filieri & Elisabetta Raguseo & Claudio Vitari, 2018. "What moderates the influence of extremely negative ratings? The role of review and reviewer characteristics," Post-Print halshs-01923196, HAL.
    8. Yi Feng & Yunqiang Yin & Dujuan Wang & Lalitha Dhamotharan & Joshua Ignatius & Ajay Kumar, 2023. "Diabetic patient review helpfulness: unpacking online drug treatment reviews by text analytics and design science approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 328(1), pages 387-418, September.
    9. Li, Hengyun & Wang, Qian & Li, Gang & Cai, Danting, 2023. "Do looks matter for hosts on the peer-to-peer sharing accommodation market?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    10. Beatriz Benítez-Aurioles, 2022. "The exhaustion of the herding effect in peer-to-peer accommodation," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(1), pages 27-43, February.
    11. Arenas-Márquez, F.J. & Martínez-Torres, M.R. & Toral, S.L., 2021. "How can trustworthy influencers be identified in electronic word-of-mouth communities?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    12. Samuel Bates, 2021. "A Glance at Tourism Economics over the last decade [Coup d'œil sur l'Économie du Tourisme de la dernière décennie]," Post-Print hal-03263048, HAL.
    13. Zajadacz Alina & Minkwitz Aleksandra, 2020. "Using Social Media Data to Plan for Tourism," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 39(3), pages 125-138, September.
    14. Raffaele Filieri & Elisabetta Raguseo & Claudio Vitari, 2018. "When are extreme ratings more helpful? Empirical evidence on the moderating effects of review characteristics and product type," Post-Print halshs-01923243, HAL.
    15. Harrison-Walker, L. Jean & Jiang, Ying, 2023. "Suspicion of online product reviews as fake: Cues and consequences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    16. Zheng, Lili, 2021. "The classification of online consumer reviews: A systematic literature review and integrative framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 226-251.
    17. Román, Sergio & Riquelme, Isabel P. & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2024. "Antecedents and consequences of perceived helpfulness of extremely positive and exaggerated reviews," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Raffaele Filieri & Elisabetta Raguseo & Claudio Vitari, 2018. "What moderates the influence of extremely negative ratings? The role of review and reviewer characteristics," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01923196, HAL.
    19. Li, Yuanshuo & Zhang, Zili & Pedersen, Susanne & Liu, Xudong & Zhang, Ziqiong, 2023. "The influence of relative popularity on negative fake reviews: A case study on restaurant reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    20. Raffaele Filieri & Elisabetta Raguseo & Claudio Vitari, 2018. "When are extreme ratings more helpful? Empirical evidence on the moderating effects of review characteristics and product type," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01923243, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:revmkt:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:21-36:n:7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.