ABSTRACT Online product reviews provide vital information to help customers with their purchase decisions. It is therefore critical for administrators of online review websites to ensure the credibility of their sites. Most studies have focused on customers’ perceptions of the source credibility of online review websites before the customers make a purchase. However, the studies have ignored the fact that purchase decision outcomes (i.e., product performance) may also influence the perceived credibility of the source. We address this research gap by considering the perception of source credibility in both the prepurchase and postpurchase phases. We draw upon source credibility theory to define the concept of incongruous source credibility (ISC) in the context of online review websites. This concept is based on a customer’s mental comparison of prepurchase versus postpurchase perceptions of source credibility. Three experimental studies were conducted to investigate the impact of ISC on customers’ revisiting intention and positive word of mouth. The studies explored the moderating effects of message valence and review sidedness as well as the mediating effects of disappointment and satisfaction. The results show that the consistency or inconsistency between the online review and product performance can lead customers to reconsider their judgments of the credibility of online review websites. The results also show that ISC affects both revisiting intention and positive word of mouth for such sites. The findings contribute to research on source credibility and online review websites, suggesting that practitioners managing these sites should consider customers’ ISC.

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您会再次信任评论网站吗？来源可信度的重要性

摘要 在线产品评论提供了重要信息，可帮助客户做出购买决定。因此，对于在线评论网站的管理员来说，确保其网站的可信度至关重要。大多数研究都集中在客户在购买之前对在线评论网站的来源可信度的看法。然而，这些研究忽略了这样一个事实，即购买决策结果（即产品性能）也可能影响来源的感知可信度。我们通过考虑购买前和购买后阶段对来源可信度的看法来解决这一研究差距。我们利用来源可信度理论来定义在线评论网站背景下的不协调来源可信度 (ISC) 的概念。该概念基于客户对采购前与采购后对来源可信度的认知的心理比较。进行了三项实验研究来调查 ISC 对客户重访意图和积极口碑的影响。这些研究探讨了信息效价和评论偏向性的调节作用以及失望和满意的中介作用。结果表明，在线评论与产品性能之间的一致性或不一致会导致客户重新考虑他们对在线评论网站可信度的判断。结果还表明，ISC 会影响此类网站的重访意图和积极的口碑。这些发现有助于对来源可信度和在线评论网站的研究，