Impact of Product Review Summarization and Personalization on Online Consumers' Decisions: An Experimental Study

Abstract

E-commerce platforms have a plethora of information available online in the form of online product reviews and product ratings. Although these product reviews are very helpful to consumers for making their buying decisions, it becomes very difficult to extract relevant information pertaining to product features. In this study, we extend personalization to online product reviews by integrating literature from information systems, computer science and social psychology to understand how task complexity varies in different information environments. In a controlled laboratory experiment users took buying decisions in three different information environments: unstructured voluminous reviews, structured with aspect level summarization of reviews and personalized information by providing personalization based on the stated preferences of the user.