【Abstract】It has been demonstrated that online consumer reviews are an important source of information that affect individuals' purchase decision making. To understand the influence of online reviews, this study extends prior research on information adoption by incorporating the perspective of herd behavior. We develop and empirically test a research model using data collected from an existing book review site. We report 2 major findings. First, argument quality and source credibility predict information usefulness, which affects the adoption of online reviews. Second, we determine that the adoption of online reviews is also influenced by 2 herd factors, namely, discounting own information and imitating others. We further identify the key determinants of these herd factors, including background homophily and attitude homophily. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

　　【Keywords】Word-Of-Mouth; Information-Technology; Social Interactions; Knowledge Transfer; Moderating Role; Communities; Sales; Model; Impact; Communication

　　本文刊登于：JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY（期刊原名为：Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology）卷:67 期:11 页: 2754-2765 DOI: 10.1002/asi.23602 出版年: NOV 2016.为武汉大学经济与管理学院B+级期刊