On Possibilities of Recommender Systems Using Word-of-mouth on the Web

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of electronic word-of-mouth information provided by other consumers, called consumer generated information, to a consumer received the information in the context of consumers choosing to purchase products. An effect of increasing the preference of the product, called product attitude effect, and an effect of increasing the expectation of the future with the product, called purchase attitude effect, are introduced to investigate the influence. The experiment design used consists of two steps: (1) subjects choose a digital camera from two by using information from the makers and (2) the subjects change their attitude toward the chosen digital camera by using presented consumer generated information. The significance of these findings is discussed from the viewpoint of disparity in classes of product's characteristics.