Can Negative Online Reviews Be Perceived Differently on Different Websites?

Prior research has suggested that negative online reviews may have greater effect to the receiver of word-of-mouth communication than similar positive online reviews. This research investigates the impact negative online reviews may have when consumers post them on different types of websites. Specifically, boundary conditions such as review types and review characteristics were considered as they interacted with website types to affect reviewer source credibility, specifically, reviewer expertise, trustworthiness, and ultimately, information usefulness. Study 1 results demonstrated that negative informative online reviews influence consumer’s perceptions of reviewer expertise on a knowledge-centric website compared to that on a social-centric website. However, this effect did not operate for negative online recommender reviews. Readers on knowledge-centric websites may want information to make decisions about reviewer expertise to determine whether a review was trustworthy and therefore, useful. Study 2 results demonstrated that high review reads had similar impact on both social-centric and knowledge-centric websites in terms of perceived reviewer expertise. However, when reviews had low reads, individuals on knowledge-centric websites may ignore such cues. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.