在线商品虚假评论发布动机及形成机理研究

在线商品虚假评论不仅给消费者做出合理购买决策制造了巨大障碍，也降低了电商平台的商誉并损害了平台上大部分商家的利益。本文基于动机理论研究在线虚假评论的发布动机和形成机理，一方面通过问卷调查和文献调研考察消费者和商家发布虚假评论的潜在动机，另一方面结合结构方程模型和数据分析探究虚假评论的形成机理。本文从消费者相关型动机和商家相关型动机两个维度提炼出五种在线商品虚假评论的发布动机，并构建结构方程模型对虚假评论的形成机理进行实证检验。研究结果表明：情感宣泄、奖励机制、雇佣“水军”是发布虚假评论的直接动机；雇佣“水军”通过商品推销/诋毁和支持/诋毁商家这两个中介变量，对发布虚假评论行为具有间接影响；“水军”是通过推销或诋毁商家商品，在电子商务竞争中吹嘘自己并诋毁竞争对手的方式来发布虚假评论。本文研究结论对于有效提升在线商品虚假评论的治理与防范提供了切实可行的管理实践洞察。

Research on the Motivation and Formation Mechanism of Online Products Deceptive Reviews

The online deceptive reviews (ODRs)make great loss for the E-commerce ecosystem that includes online consumers, online merchants, and online platforms. Based on the motivation theory, the motivation and formation mechanism of ODRs are studied. On the one hand, we examine the motivation of consumers and merchants that may post deceptive reviews by using questionnaire survey.On the other hand, data analysis and structural equation model are combined to explore the formation mechanism of ODRs. Five types of motivations are investigated for posting ODRs with the two dimensions as consumer-related motivation and business-related motivation. A structural equation model is constructed to empirically examine the formation mechanism of ODRs. The findings of the paper are as follows. Firstly, the motivation of emotional catharsis, incentive mechanism, perfunctory response, and hiring “water army” is the direct motivation of posting ODRs. Secondly,the motivation of hiring “water army” has an indirect impact on the behavior of posting ODRs with the intermediary path of supporting or libeling merchants and promoting or defaming the merchants’ commodities. Thirdly, the “water army” post ODRs by promoting the merchants’ commodities and defaming the competitors’ commodities and, the underlying motivation of hiring “water army” is to boast the merchants and beat the competitors. The great managerial implications are provided to improve and optimize the ODRs management practice in the E-commerce platform and potential directions of effective governance and prevention of ODRs are provided.