Essays on navigating fake reviews and enhancing trust in e-commerce websites

Abstract

The continued prevalence of fake reviews in the online marketplace poses a pervasive challenge impacting consumers, businesses, and online platforms. Fake reviews deviate from honest evaluations, potentially distort consumers’ purchasing decisions, and substantially affect global spending. This thesis consists of two essays that investigate how consumers cope with fake reviews and respond to the question and answer (Q&A) feature. The essays utilize experimental studies to examine the strategies websites can adopt to address the issues associated with fake reviews and consumer trust. Essay 1 investigates consumers’ ability to adjust purchase intention when exposed to fake reviews. Despite acquiring knowledge about fake reviews, consumers tend to base their decisions on the reviewers’ virtual presence rather than the reviews’ authenticity. Perceived deception in reviewers mediates the influence of virtual presence on purchase intention. Consumers perceive higher dissemination control of the firm over the reviews on the firm’s own website as compared to third-party e-commerce websites. We find that the mediation is moderated by perceived dissemination control. The inability to adapt evaluations in the presence of fake reviews suggests a vulnerability in consumer decision-making, emphasizing the need for effective mechanisms to counter the impact of fake reviews. Essay 2 focuses on the strategies adopted by e-commerce websites to enhance consumer trust. By incorporating a Q&A feature, websites can provide an interactive platform for consumers, potentially minimizing opportunities for review manipulation. The essay demonstrates that incorporating a Q&A feature can improve perceptions of website interactivity and that perceived interactivity can foster consumers’ trust in the website, mediated by social presence and website informativeness. We examine how the purchase verification mechanism moderates the relationship between interactivity and trust in the website. This research offers valuable insights for understanding and addressing the issues surrounding fake reviews. As consumers confront distorted product perceptions, websites face the challenge of enhancing consumer trust. Theoretical implications are discussed, while managerial implications provide practical strategies for businesses to manage the prevalence of fake reviews.