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Where To Place Product Reviews? An Information Search Process Perspective, Mengxiang Li, Chuan-Hoo Tan, Kwok-Kee Wei, Kanliang Wang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Online product reviews could be presented as expert reviews and user reviews. However, a fundamental question that is not fully understood, and which this study addresses, is: Where should product reviews be displayed so as to positively affect a consumer's decision-making performance? We focus on evaluating the impact of the placements and the source of reviews (i.e., the pre-screening or post-screening display of experts' or users' comments) on consumer behavior. Building on the underpinnings of Kuhlthau's model of information search process, we propose that the Expert-User product review provision (i.e., placing the expert reviews before the screening stage and the …