The impact of online negative consumer reviews on food purchase intention in China: Do product category and green certification matter?

Purpose The paper aims to examine the differential influence of negative consumer reviews (NCRs) of different food attributes on consumer purchase intention as well as the role of product category and green certification on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted with 829 respondents in Beijing of China, and the experiment employed a between-group experiment design with 2 (product type: apple vs. milk) * 2 (certification: yes vs. no) * 3 (negative review type: search attributes vs. experience attributes vs. credence attributes) to examine the hypothesized relationships. Findings The results show that the negative impact of online NCRs of search attribute, experience attribute and credence attribute on purchase intention is gradually increasing according to correlation level with the individual and trust plays a significant mediating role on this relationship. In addition, online NCRs exert a more pronounced negative effect on low-standardization products (e.g. apple) than that of standardized products (e.g. milk) and green certification effectively mitigates the negative impact of search attribute NCRs, but fails to alleviate the negative effects of experience or credence attribute NCRs. Originality/value This is a pioneering work in the current electronic word of mouth literature that classifies three types of NCRs based on food attributes, and reveals a relatively less-explored relation between NCRs and consumer purchase intention. Besides, this study uncovers the role of product quality standardization and green certification in shaping consumer attitude. It accentuates the implication for enterprises to underpin production standardization and government should strengthen supervision to curb enterprises’ act of greenwashing.