Quality or Quantity? The Power of Expert Reviews in the Presence of Conflicting Aggregated Ratings

Abstract

Many consumers consult online reviews to evaluate services. Online review platforms present them with multiple cues by which to assess whether a review message is useful in their decision-making process. However, consumers are often faced with conflicting opinions from different information sources. By using the theoretical framework of dual-process theory and signaling theory, this paper examines the effect of majority and minority influences.It further investigates how expert reviewers are perceived, and the role played by the total number of available reviews. A 2 x 2 x 2 (review valence x expertise of conflicting review x number of reviews) scenario-based experiment is conducted. The results demonstrate that expert sources weaken the prominent influence of the majority, especially when majority size is small. The research contributes to existing literature by explaining how the simultaneous presence of majority and minority influences affects consumers’ decision-making process. Moreover, it examines the power of online expert reviewers.