The impact of reviews on consumers’ consideration towards electric vehicles (EV)

Abstract

The development of the Internet and technology led to increasingly more digital consumers, who are tired of being marketed to. Thus, many companies started adopting reviews as part of their marketing strategy to reach the target audience in social media. This trend is also present in the market of electric vehicle (EV). This dissertation was developed with the aim of understanding how EV consumers perceive social media online posts as endorsers of EV as a mobility product, through the lens of the Source Credibility Model. These objectives were addressed using a quantitative research method that adopted an experiment between subjects, comparing firm-created reviews (firm-created content) with user-created reviews (user-generated content). Previous literature was reviewed, and an online questionnaire was conducted, with 243 obtained valid answers. Moreover, the willingness to consider and willingness to buy an EV were considered as a variable in the analysis, being proposed because of trustworthiness communicated by the type of review. The results of this dissertation found that the difference between User-Generated Content and car brand reviews (firm-created content) is not statistically significant in the moment of influencing decision of considering or buying an EV as a mobility product. It was observed that there is a valid positive influence relationship of trustworthiness on the relationship between the types of review and the consideration of buying an EV. Lastly, with this model and this research, it was confirmed that there is a positive influence of the trustworthiness on willingness to buy and consideration to buy.

Date of Award	24 Jan 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Daniela Langaro (Supervisor)