Third Party Product Reviews and Consumer Behaviour : A Dichotomous Measuring via Rasch

By exploiting the potential of the Internet, independent product reviews can reach more consumers than ever before. The numerous publications of product reviews in the mass media (e.g., magazines, news services on the Internet) and on Web 2.0 are received with rising resonance that is not restricted to products of broad interest only. Apart from purely descriptive approaches, however, no systematic studies which examine the possible impacts of these tests on consumer behaviour have been presented so far. Wolfgang Ziniel combines both a theoretical and an experimental approach when investigating the relevance of product tests for product choice, product quality, value, and purchase intention from the consumers point of view. Concerning the dichotomous measurement approach graphical chain models, Rasch- and paired comparison conjoint-models are applied.

This thesis has been granted the Stephan Koren Award for outstanding scientific achievements.