Journal article
How much is a picture worth? Online review picture background and its impact on purchase intention
Journal of business research, Vol.139, pp.134-144
02/01/2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.09.050
Abstract
•Consumers make inferences about the reviewer socio-economic status (SES) from the background of online review pictures.•Low SES background review picture leads to decreased (enhanced) purchase intention of a mainstream (high-end) product.•Stigma effect (threat to self-evaluation) mediates the impact of low SES background review picture on consumers’ purchase intention of a mainstream (high-end) product.•The stigma (enhancing) effect of a low SES picture for a mainstream (high-end) product is moderated by textual review orientation and valence (SES variety of multiple online review picture backgrounds).
This study examines the impact of online review picture background and its interplay with product type and review features (e.g., star rating, texts) on consumers' purchase intention. Consumers make inferences about the reviewers' socioeconomic status (SES) from the background of online review pictures. Drawing on the social comparison literature, we find that the review picture background reflecting low SES triggers a stigma effect (threat to self-evaluation) for a mainstream (high-end) product, leading to decreased (enhanced) purchase intention. In addition, the stigma effect for a mainstream product is accentuated when there are multiple low-SES pictures, and when one low-SES picture is coupled with a positive (vs. negative), fit-oriented (vs. quality-oriented) textual review. However, the enhancing effect of one low-SES background picture for a high-end product continues to hold even when it is presented with multiple high-SES background pictures; the effect is reversed when there are multiple low-SES pictures.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- How much is a picture worth? Online review picture background and its impact on purchase intention
- Creators
- Mingyue Zhang - China Europe International Business SchoolHaichuan Zhao - Shandong Management UniversityHaipeng (Allan) Chen - University of Kentucky
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of business research, Vol.139, pp.134-144
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.09.050
- ISSN
- 0148-2963
- eISSN
- 1873-7978
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/01/2022
- Academic Unit
- Marketing
- Record Identifier
- 9984618521402771
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