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

 
Measures 
Independent variables 
Pre-decisional disposition.
Pre-decisional disposition was measured on a 9-point scale on a single-item measure 
“Based on all the information you’ve seen so far, are you leaning toward or away from booking this hotel?” 
(1=leaning away from booking, 5=not leaning either way, and 9=leaning toward booking) (Russo, Meloy & 
Medvec, 1998).
Salience of the cues
. Salience of the cues was measured on a 9-point scale with the item “To what extent the 
personally identifying information about the person who posted the reviews was provided in the online traveler 
reviews?” (1=completely anonymous, 9=clearly identified). 
Dependent variables 
Purchase intent.
Purchase intent was measured by asking participants to indicate whether they would book the hotel 
based on all the information provided (1=definitely not book the hotel, 9=definitely book the hotel).
Judgmental confidence.
Judgmental confidence was measured by asking participants to report their level of 
confidence in their decisions on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 9 (very much) (Petty, Brinol & Tormala, 2002).
The pre-decisional confidence measure was taken after participants were exposed to factual description of the hotel 
attributes and the post-decisional confidence was taken after they read the stimuli material that contained online 
traveler reviews. 
Perceived source credibility.
Perceived source credibility was measured via three items. The scale includes items 
such as “To what extent do you consider the traveler reviews you just read as trustworthy/honest accounts of what 
happened during their stay in Hotel X/reflect the reality of Hotel X?” (1=not at all, 9=very much so). The scale was 
adapted from Hovland and Weiss (1951). The Crobach’s Alpha for the scale was .85. 
Perceived favorability of the traveler reviews.