Influence of Perceived Credibility of Online Reviews on Consumers’ Purchase Intentions in Travel E-Commerce Platforms

Abstract

In the context of Internet purchase, online reviews become an important reference information for consumers to make travel arrangements. And perceived credibility is the determinant of whether online reviews are adopted or not. Based on SMCR theory, this paper introduces a mediator variable - perceived credibility into tourism products. The maximum likelihood estimation method and spss process are used to empiricately reveal the influence mechanism of perceived credibility of online reviews on the online purchase intention of tourism consumers. The research shows：(1)The vast majority of travel consumers trust online reviews;(2)Four influencing factors of credibility to be verified are extracted from the four elements of communication process: source, message, channel and receiver, the influence degree of these factors is clarified.;(3)The information source, information quality, emotional tendency and platform trust of online reviews have important effects on purchase intention, perceived credibility plays a mediating role in the influencing mechanism; (4)Among them, information quality and platform trust have the largest impact on online purchase intention, and emotional tendency has the smallest impact, which needs to stimulate consumers 'purchase desire through the mediator variable of perceived credibility; (5)Emotional tendency and platform trust are the most important dimensions affecting perceived credibility, moreover, platform trust has the greatest impact on perceived credibility.