Journal of Fashion Business (패션비즈니스)

The Korean Society of Fashion Business (한국패션비즈니스학회)
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Exploring the Phenomenon of Consumers' Experiences of Reading Online Consumer Reviews

  • Park, Jee-Sun (Dept. of Fashion Industry, Incheon National University)
  • Received : 2018.06.11
  • Accepted : 2018.06.29
  • Published : 2018.07.30
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Abstract

This paper aims to explore the analysis of the meanings and processes of reading online consumer reviews and to construct a substantive theory that explains the process involved with the phenomenon of reading consumer reviews. In order to explore the phenomenon, this study employs a qualitative methodology. Following the grounded theory perspective, the researcher conducted interviews with 17 participants, who have subsequently shopped online and utilized online consumer reviews for shopping, and decidedly employed in-depth interviews with those participants. Through coding and making constant comparison, several themes emerged: improving confidence, trusting reviews, getting a sense of who reviewers are, seeking balance, processing and handling negative reviews, experiencing vicariously, increasing searchability, getting a sense of who they are in terms of similarity, and seeking benefits and the usage situations from consumer based reviews. Among the emerging themes, improving confidence can be considered a core category, which is influenced by the analysis of trusting reviews and the consumer vicarious experiences with a product. Moreover, this study discusses the relationships among the themes. This study concludes with a discussion of the results, implications, and limitations.

Keywords

References

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