Cutting Through the Online Review Jungle – Exploring Strategic Patterns of E-WOM Handling

Consumers frequently consult online reviews before making purchase decisions. In today’s online environment, however, we find an abundance of online reviews for most products and services. In turn, the quantity of online reviews available often exceeds consumers’ processing capacity. We examine how consumers work their way through the large amount of available reviews on product review sites in a pre-purchase situation. Study 1(n=13) uses a qualitative approach with verbal protocols to gain first insights of consumer strategies when using online reviews. The results serve as basis for Study 2 (n=105) in which a measurement instrument is developed to enable identification of different eWOM handling types. Results indicate that twelve dimensions of eWOM handling play a role and that individuals employ various combinations of these dimensions to process eWOM information.