The Adoption of Online Product Information: Cognitive and Affective Evaluations

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Internet Commerce

ISSN

1533-2861

Volume

19

Issue

4

DOI

10.1080/15332861.2020.1816315

First Page

373

Last Page

403

Publication Date

10-1-2020

Abstract

Online product information (OPI), which is a combination of vendor-supplied product information (VSPI) and online reviews, has become of intense interest to business organizations in their attempt to understand the various ways in which OPI influences consumers. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, this study examined the relationship between mental evaluations of OPI (cognitive and affective evaluations) and the adoption of OPI for both search and experience products. This study used an experimental, custom-designed Web forum built specifically to collect data on how participants evaluated and adopted OPI relating to the purchase of cameras and books. Hypothesis testing was performed using PLS on data collected from 255 participants. Results showed that OPI adoption of information on search products was different from OPI adoption of information on experience products. Both cognitive and affective evaluations affected VSPI adoption, but only cognitive evaluations affected online review adoption. Additionally, VSPI adoption affected online review adoption. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the final section.

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