The effects of fictitious customer testimonials across different cultures

The effects of fictitious customer testimonials across different cultures Conference

Gupta, M, George, JF. (2013). The effects of fictitious customer testimonials across different cultures . 5 3331-3338.

Publishing customer testimonials has become a popular technique to promote online businesses and establish reputation. However, the majority of the research focusing on customer testimonials as a mechanism for boosting a website's trustworthiness has been conducted within North America. Thus, relatively little is known about how customer testimonials influence perceived deception and trust among web users outside of North America, particularly for non-Western cultures. Even less is known about how web users with different espoused cultural values react and respond to fictitious or misleading customer testimonials. Taking insights from the extant research on deception, trust, customer testimonials, and cross-cultural differences, we develop a conceptual model that posits that there are culture-specific differences in the way web users form their perceived deception and trust when exposed to fictitious customer testimonials. © (2013) by the AIS/ICIS Administrative Office All rights reserved.