Exploring the determinants of information adoption A comparative study of online store and third party forum

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of review group's content-related and environment-associated attributes on information adoption intention of information readers. In addition, this study further investigates the effects of these determinants in different websites with different commercial attributes (i.e. online stores and third party forums). Design/methodology/approach This study used a structured online survey to collect data from an online store and a third party forum in China; totally 302 responses were collected. Findings The empirical results confirm that all of the five determinants significantly affect the information adoption intention of information readers. Furthermore, the authors found that four of the determinants have distinct effects in different websites. Originality/value The findings of this study validate the significant moderating role of website attributes in readers' information processing. Information readers use distinct criteria to evaluate the received review information; electronic word-of-mouth determinants have varying effects on different websites with different commercial attributes.