No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Brand advocacy and customers loyalty of banks in Nigeria
Abstract
The study examined the effects of brand advocacy on customer loyalty of selected banking industry in Delta State. The specific objectives are to, determine the effects of brand advocacy on customer loyalty of selected banks in Delta State and ascertain the effects of online customer reviews on customer loyalty of selected banks in Delta State. Cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. A sample size of 237 respondents was selected from 5 deposit money banks in Asaba, Delta State. The stratified random sampling technique was used for the study. A structured questionnaire was used as the research instrument for the study. Content and validity were taken into consideration to validate the research instrument. To establish the reliability of the instrument, a test-retest method was used. Descriptive statistics like frequency distributions and inferential statistics like correlation and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data collected for the study. Findings showed that the dimensions of brand communication accounts for 53% change in customer loyalty. The study concluded that brand communication has significant positive effect on customer loyalty of deposit money banks in Delta State Nigeria. Brand advocacy (β =0.106, p=0.044< 0.05), and online customers review (β =0.252, p=0.000< 0.05) has significant positive effect on customer loyalty of deposit money banks in Delta State Nigeria. The study recommended amongst others that banks should regularly monitor online customer reviews across various platforms. Respond promptly to both positive and negative reviews, addressing customer concerns and expressing appreciation for positive feedback. The study established that clear and relevant information empowers customers to make informed decisions, leading to a greater likelihood of choosing and remaining loyal to a bank.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Online reviews of products and services are strategic tools for e-commerce platforms, as they aid in consumers’ pre-purchase decisions. Past research studies indicate online reviews impact brand image and consumer behaviour. With several instances of fake reviews and review manipulations, review credibility has become a concern for consumers and service providers. In recent years, due to growing webcare attitude among managers, the need for maintaining credible online reviews on the e-commerce platforms has gained attention. Though, there are several empirical studies on review credibility, the findings are diverse and contradicting. Therefore, in this paper, we systematically review the literature to provide a holistic view of antecedents of online review credibility. We examine variables, methods, and theoretical perspective of online review credibility research using 69 empirical research papers shortlisted through multi-stage selection process. We identify five broad groups of antecedents: source characteristics, review characteristics, consumer characteristics, interpersonal determinants in the social media platform and product type. Further, we identify research issues and propose directions for future research. This study contributes to existing knowledge in management research by providing the holistic understanding of the “online review credibility” construct and helps understand what factors lead to consumers’ belief in the credibility of online review. The insights gained would provide managers adequate cues to design effective online review systems.
The ability for an organization to create and managed brands by communicating it product and image is steadily declining in effectiveness and relevance. As traditional mass media is overtaken by word-of mouth and peer review dialogue as the primary driver of consumer attitude and brand choice, consumers are more able to challenge an organization's brand promise as well as seek out alternatives. Thus, this paper focused on the role of brand advocacy on consumer satisfaction. Thus the purpose of the paper was to investigate what role (s) brand advocacy play on consumer satisfaction towards the brand. In line with the stipulated objective the cognitive dissonance and brand identity theories were employed to further provide perspective for the study. Similarly, secondary data was retrieved as the research design was documentary. Thus findings showed that in creating successful brand advocacy organizations requires a different set of brand management competencies. It requires organizations to develop and harness the competencies of customers. Also a successful brand advocacy demands new communication infrastructures to enable customers listen and participate brand conversations. It is concluded that brand advocacy is necessary to provide needed information for customer satisfaction .It is recommended that brand managers should make brand advocacy a new paradigm for advertising, since advocacy triggers brand satisfaction, and loyalty and enable the brand to compete favourably in the ever changing market.
With the prevalence of the Internet and new media channels, consumer reviews have become one of the main determinants of Consumers’ purchasing decisions. This paper uses the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to identify the key factors that are of major concern to consumers, including design factors, laptop setup factors, logistics factors, after-sales factors, and user experience factors. And, we classify these factors into product quality factors and supporting service factors for new products. We then explore the relationship between online reviews and purchase decisions under these different factors, and also further explore the impact of interactions between online review metrics on purchase decisions. Our findings suggest that the impact of online reviews on consumer purchase decisions also varies considerably across different consumer focus factors. In addition, we find that the impact of the interaction between online review features is complex. In particular, consumers do not follow the positive guidance and make purchase decisions as we would expect when confronted with a large number of positive emotional polarity online reviews. Meanwhile, the interaction between negative emotional polarity and variance of online reviews had no significant effect on consumer purchase decisions. The variance of online reviews has a limited role in reducing consumer risk perceptions triggered by negative emotional polarity. Our study provides new evidence for the study of the impact of online reviews through text mining.
The research in this journal aims to analyze the effect of Online Customer Review and Online Customer Rating and Brand Image of Millennial E-Commerce Consumers in Indonesia on Purchase Decisions and Consumer Trust as Mediators. This study uses a quantitative method with the distribution of online questionnaires. The population in this study are millennial consumers who have shopped at E-Commerce Indonesia with a total sample of 308 respondents. The sampling method used is the Snowball & Judgment Sampling method. The hypothesis test proposed in this study was carried out using a Structural Equation Model (SEM) test tool using Smart PLS software version 3.2.7. The results of the structural model analysis show that: 1) The Online Customer Review variable has a positive and significant effect on the consumer confidence variable 2) The Online Customer Rating variable has a positive and significant effect on the Consumer Trust variable 3) The Brand Image variable has a positive and significant impact on the Consumer Trust variable 4) The Consumer Confidence variable has a positive and significant effect on the Purchasing Decision variable 5) The Online Customer Review variable has no significant effect on the purchasing decision variable 6) The Online Customer Rating variable does not significantly affect the Purchasing Decision variable 7) The Brand Image variable has a positive and significant effect on the variable buying decision.
This study aims to examine the influence of different brand personalities on buyers' purchase intention and examines the role of buyers' brand attitude. Data were collected through questionnaire survey. Analysis of 317 valid responses was carried out using AMOS 20. Five brand personality attributes such as responsibility, activity, emotionality, ruggedness, and competence were found to be prime brand personalities to predict buyer's brand purchase intention. Effects of these personalities except emotionality were found to influence buyers' brand purchase intention through the mediating effects of buyers' brand attitude. The findings will help the organizations in designing and redesigning their product differentiation to position the brand in the market to enhance the conversion rate of potential customers. This study identifies five brand personality attributes those are more decisive in inducing buyers' purchase intention in Indian context than other brand personality attributes those are commonly thought to be associated with cell phones.
This article provides an agenda for future research on brand communication in social media. Based on an overview of the current state of research, a discussion of the theoretical and conceptual challenges of brand communication in social media, and a survey about the expectations of the media and advertising industry, I present six key directions for future research. These six key directions include research on (1) social media influencers, (2) personalized brand content in social media, (3) ethical concerns about the nature of social media content and consumer empowerment, (4) platform characteristics rather than on Facebook, (5) the integration of social media in the media mix and the consumer journey, and (6) using real social media data. Together these six key directions help to shape the social media research agenda.
This research examines the effect of brand personality self-congruity (BPC) on brand engagement and purchase intention on Facebook, while investigating how self-esteem moderates the relationship between BPC and brand engagement and purchase intention. Data from 301 Facebook users who clicked “like” for a brand were analyzed using factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multi-group analysis. BPC showed a significant, positive influence on brand engagement and purchase intention. Also, it was found that brand engagement positively associated with purchase intention. Brand engagement partially mediated the relationship between BPC and purchase intention. BPC showed a conditional indirect effect on purchase intention via brand engagement depending on the level of self-esteem. Specifically, participants with lower self-esteem compared to those with higher self-esteem were more likely to seek brands that may help realize ideal self-concepts. Theoretical and practical implications for advertisers are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research in this area.
This study examined the link between brand communication and brand awareness. The study adopted an explanatory research design and utilised data collected from three hundred and fifty-four (354) respondents through a structured questionnaire. The P(r) served as the test statistic, relying on SPSS version 20.0. The study observed that brand communication associates positively with brand awareness through brand recognition, brand recall and brand
distinction. The study thus concludes that brand awareness depends on brand communication
and recommends that organisations (especially deposit money banks) that seek to improve consumers‟ awareness should build strong brands through effective brand communication.
Nowadays, the internet has become a suitable platform for the trade of products and services. Online shopping transactions are carried out without face-to-face contact; thus, various factors can affect customers’ purchase intentions. In addition to aesthetics and ease of use, trust is a critical factor which allows customers to choose an online store. Online merchants need to find ways to keep trusting customers satisfied and loyal. This paper investigates how customer loyalty can be created and/or enhanced in online shopping. The statistical population of the study includes the customers of several online stores in Iran. Data collection is carried out using a questionnaire. The results indicate that information security and website performance influence e-service quality both positively and directly. Also, responsiveness, compensation, and contact positively influence e-recovery. E-recovery has positive impact on e-loyalty, which in turn significantly affects online repurchase.
Objectives: Brand equity and purchase decisions are considered as the key determinants of consumer behaviour. The objective of this study was to examine the role of loyal consumers in strengthening brand equity of In-store brands. Statistical Analysis: The method adapted to study the objectives is a cross sectional study. Th study was carried out by self-administered questionnaire developed based on Likert scale. The survey was carried out at organised retail outlets in Bangalore city from 258 customers by following convenience sampling technique. PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. Cronbach's Alpha was obtained to determine the reliability of the instrument. Further, convergent and discriminant validities were established to know the measures of relationship existing. Sobel's test was employed to test the mediation effect of customer advocacy between the relationship of customer loyalty and brand equity. Findings: From the results obtained it is observed that all AVE values obtained are greater than 0.5 i.e., Brand Equity (BE) is 0.7788, Brand Loyalty (BL) is 0.7863 and Customer Advocacy (CA) is 0.797, thus confirming the convergent validity of the constructs chosen. Further it is also observed that each construct chosen is distinct and different from the other constructs in the model. All the factor loadings of given construct are greater than corresponding cross loadings thus confirming the discriminant validity. The results of Sobel's test indicate that the impact of brand loyalty on brand equity is greater with the mediation effect of customer advocacy (Sobel test statistic t-values=3.627) than the direct effect of brand loyalty on brand equity (Sobel test statistic t-values=3.068). Thus we can clearly state that the relationship between Brand loyalty and Brand Equity can be best explained through Customer Advocacy. Both brand loyalty and customer advocacy have accounted for 60% of variance in brand equity, wherein brand loyalty has accounted for 45.3% of variance in customer advocacy. The findings of this study can be a reference for retailers to strategize their decisions with respect to in-store brands by laying more emphasize on customer advocacy. Application/Improvements: The outcomes reflect the positive influence of consumer advocacy on brand equity, by which the brand owners can strategize their moves towards enhancing brand equity by motivating advocacy of brands by the loyal customers to prospects, thus reducing excessive promotional costs by the brand owners.
Since we are living in a global market nowadays, the role of marketing communications on the performance of companies is very evident. Companies are no longer trying to just sale their products, since they have found out that optimum communication with the customers, and making them confident can lead to attracting and maintaining them. On the other hand, while selection, each of the consumers, chooses the brand which has similarities with his/her personal characteristics. Brand personality aspects may have specific functions in different ways or affect the preferences of consumers due to different reasons. In this research, it is tried to investigate the effect of integrated marketing communication (IMC) variable including market-orientation, customer-orientation, and brand-orientation infrastructures on the mediator variable of brand personality in order to improve the brand performance in ETKA Chain Stores. The brand personality is based on the Jennifer Aaker's model and contains 5 properties of sincerity, competency, excitement, sophistication, and ruggedness. Employing SPSS 18, and LISREL 8.5 software, the data was analyzed. Results are presented in the sections of descriptive and illative findings. In descriptive statistics section, statistical indices of average, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values, and graph have been used. Also, in this section, exploratory factor analysis is performed. In illative statistics section, using LISREL software, model fitting parameters and indices are investigated. Moreover, in this section, confirmatory factor analysis and investigation of the correlation between variables are performed and finally, using multiple regressions, effect of the variables is studied. Results indicate that the three components of market-orientation, customer-orientation, and brand-orientation (IMC infrastructures) affect all five properties of brand personality and improvement of brand performance. Certainly, the foremost effect of these three components has been on brand excitement and competency. Also, four characteristics of sincerity, excitement, sophistication and ruggedness affect performance improvement and only brand competency has no effect on improvement of brand performance.
This study tests hypotheses regarding differences in brand-related user-generated content (UGC) between Twitter (a microblogging site), Facebook (a social network) and YouTube (a content community). It tests them using data from a content analysis of 600 UGC posts for two retail-apparel brands (Lululemon and American Apparel), which differ in the extent to which they manage social media proactively. Comparisons are drawn across six dimensions of UGC; the dimensions were drawn from a priori reading and an inductive analysis of brand-related UGC. This research provides a general framework for comparing brand-related UGC, and helps us to better understand how particular social media channels and marketing strategies may influence consumer-produced brand communications.
In view of the rapid development of eTourism in mainland China (hereafter known as China) and the resulting proliferation of academic research in this area, this study reviews 1,153 articles published in the Chinese-language literature, relating to the topic and published in the past 17 years. Using a content analysis approach and drawing on a wide variety of sources, including articles in scholarly journals, conference proceedings, and postgraduate dissertations, this study analyzes research trends and authors' contributions to the Chinese eTourism literature. Moreover, it critically reviews and discusses the limitations of the analyzed articles, and suggests directions for future research. These findings contribute to a better understanding of what researchers have previously done on China's eTourism research in the Chinese-language literature over the past 17 years.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of customer care experiences voiced online on consumer choice of brand or company when purchasing products and services by including the level of usage of these sites, and consumer opinions about whether or not their comments would make a difference to the actions of companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical framework of word of mouth is extended to an online environment, electronic word of mouth (e‐WOM), when using consumer opinions about customer care, and a model is suggested using structural equation modeling utilizing data from 320 consumers in the USA.
Findings
Consumer opinions about customer care in socially‐based web sites impact consumer opinions and consumer engagement and consequently consumer choice of brand or company when making purchases. The web sites, including government/consumer advocacy information sites, company web sites, and information found through search engines, are not considered important in influencing consumers.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the study are that companies need to pay attention to the voices of customers on socially‐based web sites and respond appropriately in order to keep customers brand‐loyal. Since this was an exploratory study, it was limited in the number of variables used for testing the hypotheses. The study could be improved by increasing the number of variables that explain online consumer opinions, online engagement and consumer choice of brand or company.
Originality/value
This is an exploratory study focusing on the customer care experience rather than product quality or value provided by companies as discussed by consumers on a variety of web sites. Therefore, it extends the previous works on product quality and value.
This article reports two studies on how managers can elicit brand-building behavior from frontline employees. Study 1 examines the mechanisms by which brand-specific transactional and transformational leadership influence employees' brand-building behavior. The results from a survey of 269 customer-contact employees show that brand-specific transactional leaders influence followers through a process of compliance, leading to an increase in turnover intentions and a decrease in in-role and extra-role brand-building behaviors. In contrast, brand-specific transformational leaders influence followers through a process of internalization, leading to a decrease in turnover intentions and an increase in in-role and extra-role brand-building behaviors. In turn, both processes are mediated by employees' perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness with regard to their work roles as brand representatives. Moreover, the results show that brand-specific transactional leadership moderates the influence of brand-specific transformational leadership in a nonlinear, inverse U-shaped way, so that a medium level of transactional leadership maximizes the positive effects of transformational leadership. Study 2 addresses whether managers can learn brand-specific transformational leadership. A field experiment shows that brand-specific transformational leadership can indeed be learned through management training.
Despite the hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI), the potential of AI in customer relationship management (CRM) remains underexplored in academia. A between-subjects experiment examined the effects of the type of relationship (virtual assistantship versus virtual friendship) consumers build with AI-enabled chatbots on brand personality perception, parasocial interaction (PSI), and CRM. The main effects of the relationship type on brand personality perception appeared for competent brand personality, but not for sincere brand personality. The consumer-chatbot relationship type had effects on CRM-related outcomes (behavioral intention, satisfaction, and trust) through competent brand personality. Consumers who interacted with a friend chatbot experienced stronger PSI with the chatbot, and the relationship type had an influence on brand personality perception through PSI. This mediating effect of PSI was observed for both brand personalities - competence and sincerity. The moderating role of ideological views (technopians versus luddites) in explaining the effect of the relationship type on brand personality perception was detected for sincere brand personality. AI designers and marketers need to develop AI user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) along with marketing strategies that not only can appeal to technopians ready to adopt innovative AI customer representatives but also can ultimately help alleviate luddites’ AI anxiety in the emerging “feeling economy” envisioned by Rust and Huang.
This study investigates how user innovation can be used as an engagement mechanism for crowdsourcing-based marketing initiatives. By building on an in-depth case study of a hamburger chain’s crowdsourcing initiative, we analyze key activities in customers’ value-creating processes, the crowdsourcer’s value-creating processes, and innovation encounter processes. We further identify three key activities by which a crowdsourcer can facilitate the realization of desired outcomes from the crowdsourcing initiative: (1) the development of opportunities for user innovation, (2) the planning of user innovation activities, and (3) the implementation and assessment of the outcomes. Our results emphasize the importance of activities and technical features that enable socializing with other participants, support active participation, and create a participatory experience. Our study will inform research and practice on crowdsourcing and user innovation for marketing purposes.
Social media is being increasingly used as a platform to conduct marketing and advertising activities. Organizations have spent a lot of time, money, and resources on social media ads. However, there is always a challenge in how organizations can design social media advertising to successfully attract customers and motivate them to purchase their brands. Thus, this study aims to identify and test the main factors related to social media advertising that could predict purchase intention. The conceptual model was proposed based on three factors from the extending Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) (performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, and habit) along with interactivity, informativeness, and perceived relevance. The data was collected using a questionnaire survey of 437 participants. The key results of structural equation modelling (SEM) largely supported the current model’s validity and the significant impact of performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, interactivity, informativeness, and perceived relevance on purchase intentions. This study will hopefully provide a number of theoretical and practical guidelines on how marketers can effectively plan and implement their ads over social media platforms.
The past few years have witnessed growing governmental interest in engaging citizens through social media. With this interest comes a genuine need to understand the process and outcomes of government–citizen interactions. Therefore, this article seeks to address this important issue by proposing and validating a SocioCitizenry theory that depicts government–citizen interaction through social media. The present study uses data gathered through two field surveys and analyses the relationships among three main SocioCitizenry constructs: quality anticipation, trust configuration, and approved adaptation. The following factors are examined with respect to the aforementioned three constructs: differential influences of familiarity with social media and government services; perceived importance of interactions with government services; social media quality reputation; and family members’ and friends’ perceptions of social media quality. Overall, results show that anticipated governmental social media quality influences configured trust, which in turn influences the extent of approved adaptation. The implications of these results in research and practice are discussed.
This study examines how five moderating variables (the length of the customer relationship, following a company in print media and on social media, remembering online advertisements, and the customer’s age) affect the relationships between perceived value and loyalty and satisfaction and loyalty in the grocery retailing sector. A series of hypotheses were developed and tested with a sample of 2,072 discount retailer customers in Finland. The results support all the direct effects hypotheses and show that perceived value and satisfaction both have a positive effect on loyalty, measured as a share of wallet and word of mouth and that the effect of perceived value tends to be stronger in the study context. Also, the five moderating variables have a positive moderating effect on the linkages between perceived value and eWOM and between satisfaction and eWOM. Theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are presented.
As a form of word of mouth, online reviews are used to reduce uncertainty about service quality and direct consumer attitudes and behavior. As a consequence of the high persuasiveness and the broad accessibility of electronic word of mouth (eWOM), companies are very interested to proactively managing this form of customer-to-customer communication. Compared with traditional advertising provides, eWOM marketing is a more credible and low-cost alternative. So far marketers have commonly used monetary incentives to influence customer-to-customer communication. However, this form also includes potential negative consequences such as credibility loss through consumer skepticism and crowding-out effects. This study analyzed two new incentive programs for increasing recommendation likelihood that considered the activation of an altruistic form of motivation to overcome these drawbacks. Therefore, an experiment was designed with three experimental groups (incentive programs) vs. a control group (no incentive). Finally, the results are discussed while taking into account the advantages and drawbacks of the particular incentive program to deduce practical implications.
Personalized communication is believed to be an effective persuasion strategy. However, few studies examined the underlying processes responsible for its effects. This study investigates the role of perceived personalization as a mediating process. Three personalization strategies are compared: raising expectation, identification and contextualization. The results confirm that perceived personalization mediates the effects of personalized advertising on attention, cognitive responses and attitude towards the message. The increased attention caused by perceived personalization stimulates both positive and negative thoughts about the message. The findings imply that personalized advertisements have stronger effects when receivers are aware of the personalization elements.
Purpose
– The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of three main technologies on converting browsers into customers: impact of review rating (location rating and service rating), recommendation and search listings.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper estimates conversion rate model parameters using a quasi-likelihood method with the Bernoulli log-likelihood function and parametric regression model based on the beta distribution.
Findings
– The results show that a high rank in search listings, a high number of recommendations and location rating have a significant and positive impact on conversion rates. However, service rating and star rating do not have a significant effect on conversion rate. Furthermore, room price and hotel size are negatively associated with conversion rate. It was also found that a high rank in search listings, a high number of recommendations and location rating increase online hotel bookings. Furthermore, it was found that a high number of recommendations increase the conversion rate of hotels with low ranks.
Practical implications
– The findings show that hotels’ location ratings are more important than both star and service ratings for the conversion of visitors into customers. Thus, hotels that are located in convenient locations can charge higher prices. The results may also help entrepreneurs who are planning to open new hotels to forecast the conversion rates and demand for specific locations. It was found that a high number of recommendations help to increase the conversion rate of hotels with low ranks. This result suggests that a high numbers of recommendations mitigate the adverse effect of a low rank in search listings on the conversion rate.
Originality/value
– This paper contributes to the understanding of the drivers of conversion rates in online channels for the successful implementation of hotel marketing.
With the rapid economic growth that has occurred in recent decades in China, engaging
in wine tourism has emerged as a new phenomenon. This study aims to examine
factors that may influence Chinese people’s intentions to visit local wineries. We have
employed a theoretical model based on the self-determination theory to holistically
explore the effects of travel motivation, attitudes toward domestic wine, subjective
norm, past experiences, and perceived travel barriers. An online questionnaire was
conducted in three tier-one cities, resulting in 500 respondents in the sample. The
survey revealed that subjective norm influences visit intentions through the mediating
role of travel motivation and so do attitudes toward domestic wine when mediated by the
wine-specific travel motivation. Past experiences positively affected visit intentions. A
lack of wine knowledge and low confidence in domestic wine inhibited visit intentions.
We have discussed practical implications of effective measures to enhance marketing
efforts by wine/tourism practitioners in China.
Building brand equity is a key objective for a range of communication activities; however, greater understanding is required on how different communication options compare in their impact on consumer response to a brand. In particular, firms are increasingly using cause-related marketing (CRM) to achieve business as well as social objectives, yet there has been limited research comparing the effectiveness of this strategy to other communication methods that may achieve similar brand-related outcomes. Using an experimental design, we examine consumer attitudes toward CRM and CRM's impact on brand attitude compared with two other communication options: sponsorship and sales promotion. Our results show that consumers respond more positively to CRM and that this strategy can be more effective in achieving brand-related objectives. However, consumers must perceive that the partnered cause fits with the brand. In fact, perception of fit plays a more critical role in determining the impact of CRM than in the impact of sponsorship or sales promotion. These findings suggest that when firms are considering their communication mix, CRM can be a more effective way of developing favorable brand associations, but managers must associate with causes that consumers will perceive to fit with the brand. Furthermore, this fit should be communicated.
Online reviews, a form of online word-of-mouth (eWOM), have recently become one of the most important sources of information for modern consumers. Recent scholarship involving eWOM often focuses on the transmission and impact of online reviews but sheds less light on the underlying processes that drive consumers’ receptions of them. Similarly, few studies have explored the recipients’ perspectives in the context of various services. This study addresses the aforementioned gaps in extant literature. The research model in this study is built upon the rich stream of literature related to how people are influenced by information and is tested on reviews collected from Yelp.com, a popular online advisory website dedicated to services businesses throughout the United States. The results of the study show that a combination of both reviewer and review characteristics are significantly correlated with the perceived usefulness of reviews. The study also finds several results that are anomalous to established knowledge related to consumers’ information consumption, both offline and online. The authors present the results of the study and discuss their significance for research and practice.