Study on Factors Influencing Online Reviews' Usefulness -An Exploratory Study Based on the Grounded Theory

Online reviews are key factor influencing consumers' shopping decisions, since it can give consumers indirect shopping experiences. Previous researches on online reviews mainly study the influence of objective indicators on the usefulness of online reviews, for example, the impacts of the length and the rating of the review on its usefulness. Through collecting reviews on certain products from e-commerce platforms, the paper concludes that the informativity and the reliability of online review are two main factors affecting the usefulness of online reviews based on the grounded theory. This paper argues that the information of online reviews improves consumers' capability to discern information, and the reliability of online reviews enhances consumers' shopping confidence. Thus, the two factors determine the usefulness of online reviews together. In addition, this article analyses influences of the reliability of online reviews from the perspective of the usefulness of online reviews, which provides a new perspective on the usefulness of online shopping.