The role of online product reviews on information adoption of new product development professionals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of features involving online product reviews (OPRs) on information adoption by new product developers (NPDs). Design/methodology/approach – In total, 143 OPRs on a specific product on Amazon.com were collected as the sample of this study. Using content analysis ratings and observed data in OPRs, the research model was analyzed with the partial least squares (PLS) method. Findings – Results suggest that helpfulness rating and the degree of referencing are positively associated with NPDs’ information adoption, while the extremeness of product rating is negatively associated. Moreover, title attractiveness mitigates the negative relationship between the extremeness of product rating and information adoption. Practical implications – The findings provide interesting insight for NPDs who visit e-commerce sites to learn through electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. OPRs with a higher degree of referencing, higher helpfulness rating, moderate level of product rating, and higher degree of title attractiveness are better adopted by NPDs. Social implications – This paper investigates the value of OPRs for a specific group of information users and suggests that information about products generated by anonymous consumers can be crucial. Originality/value – While extant studies have focussed on the impacts of OPRs on consumers’ purchasing intention and behavior, this paper is among the first attempts to investigate the impacts of OPRs on developers’ information adoption. Therefore, it contributes to the body of knowledge on knowledge transfer from consumers to business as well as the information adoption literature.