Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 

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2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
245
“WORD OF MOUSE” FROM STRANGERS:
CONSUMERS’ SENSE MAKING OF ONLINE TRAVELER 
REVIEWS
9
 
Li Miao
The Pennsylvania State University 
University Park, PA USA 
Bo-Youn Lee
The Pennsylvania State University 
University Park, PA USA 
Pei-Jou Kuo 
The Pennsylvania State University 
University Park, PA USA 
and 
Hui (Jimmy) Xie 
The Pennsylvania State University 
University Park, PA USA 
 
ABSTRACT 
This study investigated how consumers make sense of online traveler reviews and how the outcome of such 
information processing influences consumers’ subsequent purchase intent. Our results show that consumers’ 
evaluation of non-diagnostic (e.g., a mixture of negative and positive) online traveler reviews is strongly biased 
toward their pre-decisional disposition. Oblivious to such bias in evaluation, consumers’ judgmental confidence is 
boosted by the extra information supplied by the traveler reviews and such biased evaluations are subsequently 
incorporated into consumers’ purchase decisions.
Key Words:
Word of mouth; traveler reviews; pre-decisional disposition; distortion of information