Factors affecting the credibility of online reviews on Tiki: Bachelor thesis of Business adminstration / Can Thu Kiet ; Tran Van Dat supervisor

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING STATE BANK OF VIET NAM

BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

CAN THU KIET

FACTORS AFFECTING THE CREDIBILITY OF

ONLINE REVIEWS ON TIKI

BACHELOR THESIS

MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

CODE: 7340101

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING STATE BANK OF VIET NAM

BANKING UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

CAN THU KIET

FACTORS AFFECTING THE CREDIBILITY OF

ONLINE REVIEWS ON TIKI

BACHELOR THESIS

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

CODE: 7340101

SUPERVISOR

TRAN VAN DAT, PhD

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

TÓM TẮT

Sự phát triển của internet và phương tiện truyền thông xã hội trực tuyến đã thay

đổi cách mọi người giao tiếp với nhau. Trong bối cảnh này, các đánh giá trực tuyến,

một hình thức truyền miệng điện tử đặc biệt (eWOM), đã nổi lên như một kênh truyền

thông mới và ngày càng trở nên phổ biến. Ngày nay, các đánh giá trực tuyến là một

trong những nguồn thông tin có ảnh hưởng nhất đối với người tiêu dùng khi hình thành

quyết định mua hàng. Tuy nhiên, hiện nay có rất nhiều các đánh giá sai lệch do nhiều

nguyên nhân khác nhau gây ảnh hưởng nghiêm trọng đến thương hiệu. Từ đó, vấn đề

đặt ra là đánh giá trực tuyến đáng tin cậy là như thế nào.

Đề tài “Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến độ uy tín của các đánh giá trực tuyến trên

TIKI ” được thực tại thành phố Hồ Chí Minh trong thời gian từ cuối tháng 10/2019

đến đầu tháng 1/2020. Mẫu được lấy theo phương pháp thuận tiện với cỡ mẫu được

chọn là 499.

Mục tiêu nghiên cứu là tìm ra yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới độ tin cậy của các đánh giá

trực tuyến trên TIKI. Trên cơ sở đó, đề xuất hàm ý quản trị để góp phần nâng cao hiệu

quả kinh doanh trực tuyến của các doanh nghiệp.

Các phương pháp được sử dụng trong đề tài gồm: phương pháp thống kê mô tả,

Cronbach’s Alpha, phân tích nhân tố EFA, phân tích mô hình hồi quy và kiểm định sự

khác biệt giữa các nhóm đặc điểm nhân khẩu học (ANOVA).

Kết quả cho thấy có 6 yếu tố ảnh hưởng độ tin cậy của các đánh giá trực tuyến

trên TIKI là: “Tính chính xác”, “Tính đầy đủ”, “Số lượng đánh giá”, “Tính nhất quán”,

“Đánh giá về sản phẩm hoặc dịch vụ” và “Uy tín của website”.

I

ABSTRACT

Today, marketers consider social media to promote their products. Social media

has become a very important tool that enables marketers to communicate with their

customers. After the significant development of the internet and online social media,

people have started to share their opinions about products through online reviews. Even

more, consumers consider online reviews to be a more reliable source of information

than traditional sources (Fang et al., 2016). Previous studies have shown that online

reviews can play an important role in consumer shopping behavior (Yin et al., 2014;

Mudambi and Schuff, 2010; Zhang, Zhao, et. al., 2014). Specifically, information

generated by consumers, such as online reviews, is more persuasive than information

generated by marketers, because consumers have no benefits and are therefore

independent and trustworthy. more reliable (Park et al., 2007; Plotkina and Munzel,

2016; Reimer and Benkenstein, 2016).

Currently, in various e-commerce websites, online reviews are given along with

product descriptions, enabling consumers to make the right purchase decision. As a

result, consumers search online reviews for brand gadgets, which ultimately affects

consumer buying intent. However, fake online reviews have made consumer reviews

more difficult and negatively impact the brand image. For this reason, the reliability of

online reviews is essential when making purchase decisions based on those reviews

and contributes to protecting the brand image in public. Therefore, the implementation

of the research: "FACTORS AFFECTING THE CREDIBILITY OF ONLINE

REVIEWS ON TIKI" aims to identify and test the determinants affecting the

credibility of online reviews. At the same time, create a premise to study the impact of

online reviews on consumer buying intent.

The research model used based on the research of Thomas, MJ, Wirtz, BW, &

Weyerer, JC (2019) includes Accuracy, Completeness, Timeliness, Review Quantity,

II

Review Consistency, Reviewer Expertise, Product / Service Rating, and Website

Reputation.

Research data is randomly collected through the form of an online survey

conducted by a Google form tool and a field survey by going to universities and cafes.

Thereby, 460 samples were collected, of which 11 were not valid due to ignoring the

question, so there were only 499 valid samples. SPSS 20 is used in the thesis to analyze

data and test assumptions. The survey participants are online shoppers who regularly

use social media.

After the data collection process is completed, all data is put into SPSS 20. The

process of checking and analyzing the data sequentially follows: reliability test, EFA

factor analysis, Correlation analysis, Multiple linear regression analysis. Initially, the

scale will be assessed by Cronbach's Alpha and EFA. Then, the correlation coefficient

test is used to check the linear relationship between the independent and dependent

variables. If the independent variables are strongly correlated, the multicollinearity

problem must be considered when regression analysis. Finally, regression analysis is

used to determine the impact of independent variables on dependent variables (Online

reviews credibility).

The results show that all Cronbach's alpha is above 0.7 and the correlation of the

variables in the scale > 0.4. These items were then analyzed by discovery factor

analysis (EFA) with the Principal components method for extraction and Varimax

method for rotation. The results presented that night factors were extracted from

measurement scales with the extraction sum of squared loadings being about 66,350%

(greater than 50%). The KMO index was significant at 0.781 and Barlett’s test result is

528 with Sig = 0.000 < 0.05. In general, data can be used for analysis.

Next, correlation analysis showed that some independent variables were

correlated with each other. Therefore, regression analysis should pay attention to the

III

problem of multi-collinearity. The independent variables are correlated with the

dependent variables and therefore will be included in the model to explain the

dependent variables. However, there are 2 variables ACC (accuracy) and RE (expert

evaluation) with sig > 0.05, two variables are not correlated with the dependent

variables.

Finally, regression analysis showed that Accuracy, Completeness, Review

Quantity, Review Consistency, Product / Service Rating, and Website Reputation are

accepted and all of them have a positive effect on Review Credibility. In particular,

completeness (0.378) and website reputation (0.243) are the two factors that have the

biggest impact on the credibility of online reviews. That shows shoppers are very

interested in completeness, the full information as well as necessary evidence to help

shoppers can assess the truthfulness and accuracy of the information more easily. At

the same time, the website reputation also helps increase the credibility of the reviews,

buyers tend to believe in online reviews if the website has a good reputation. Basically,

the research completed its original purpose of identifying factors that affect the

credibility of online reviews.

Through the research, there are some interesting findings that seem to have some

sort of spillover effect between website reputation and reputation rating. In previous

research (Thomas, MJ, Wirtz, BW, & Weyerer, JC, 2019), the reputation of a website

has the strongest impact on the reliability of online reviews. In addition, there is the

opposite of the review quantity factor when in the study of Thomas, MJ, Wirtz, BW, &

Weyerer, JC (2019) the review quantity showed a significant negative impact on the

online review credibility, this is contrary to the result in this paper as well as previous

studies (Fan et al., 2013). So more examination of this result is needed.

While the study provides important information on the impact and effect of the

credibility of online reviews, it still has limitations that need to be taken seriously.

IV

Accordingly, future research may meet these limitations to make research results more

valuable. Firstly, empirical research is conducted at a number of universities in Ho Chi

Minh City and mainly users on the e-commerce platform TIKI, so its results may not

be complete reflect in the Vietnamese context. The reliability of this finding becomes

higher if the survey is repeated in other cities with larger sample sizes. Second, as

mentioned, the effective relationship between the review quantity and the credibility of

online reviews requires further testing. From a practical perspective, this is a very

important and urgent issue, as it is of strategic significance to companies that

participate in the online evaluation of their products or services.

V

ACKNOWLEDGE

Firstly, I would like to express my deep gratitude and sincere gratitude to Dr.

Tran Van Dat for supporting and helping me in the process of completing the thesis.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

Secondly, I would like to thank my relatives, friends, people from directly or

indirectly helping me during the research process.

Finally, at this time, I declare that this graduate thesis is the author's own

research, the results of the research are honest, in which none of the previously

published content or the content made by others except for full citations in the thesis.

VI

CONTENTS

TÓM TẮT....................................................................................................................... I

ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................II

ACKNOWLEDGE.......................................................................................................VI

CONTENTS................................................................................................................ VII

LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................X

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................X

LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS...................................................................................XI

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1

1.1. Problem statement.................................................................................................1

1.2. Research objectives...............................................................................................2

1.3. Research question..................................................................................................2

1.4. Research subject and scope...................................................................................2

1.5. Significant of the study .........................................................................................3

1.5.1. Scientific significance ....................................................................................3

1.5.2. Practical significance .....................................................................................3

1.6. Research method ...................................................................................................3

1.7. Structure of the study ............................................................................................4

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................5

2.1. Theoretical background.........................................................................................5

2.1.1. Determinants Based on Argument Quality ....................................................5

2.1.2. Determinants Based on Peripheral Cues........................................................6

2.1.3. Credible online reviews .................................................................................8

2.1.4. TIKI................................................................................................................9

2.2. Previous research ................................................................................................10

2.3. Hypothesis...........................................................................................................18

2.3.1. Accuracy ......................................................................................................18

VII