Investigating Information Adoption Tendencies Based on Restaurants' User-Generated Content Utilizing a Modified Information Adoption Model

Social media has boosted information sharing and user-generated content. Consequently, many restaurant goers rely on online reviews for dining recommendations. This study adds to the sparse literature on the influence of review extremeness, source credibility, website quality, and information usefulness on information adoption. Most notably, a modified information adoption model with the addition of website quality was tested in the context of restaurant review websites. Respondents answered survey questions based on what they saw in a simulated restaurant review website, which depicted one of eight scenarios. Results showed that the more negative a review, the more useful it is perceived to be. Perceived source credibility of the review writer was positively related to the perceived information usefulness. The only component of website quality that played a significant role in determining information adoption tendency of the review readers was the quality of the information disseminated in the website. Lastly, information usefulness also was positively related to information adoption.