In search of plagiarism behaviors: an empirical study of online reviews

Abstract

Plagiarism has been a common phenomenon in the online environment. But the plagiarism phenomenon in online product reviews has been an uninvestigated issue, in spite of various studies in the product review domain. Readers of the plagiarized review could obtain the needed information for understanding the quality or other features of the products through reviews. Besides, the positivity or negativity of the plagiarized review might have different influences on people’s perception towards the target products. In this study, we first probe into the current situation of online review plagiarism. Then drawing on the frameworks of attribution theory, in order to examine the effects of plagiarism, we develop and test a model of reviews’ diagnosticity perception. The moderation effects of review rating and sentiment are also investigated on the relationship of review plagiarism and review perception. A research plan to analyze reviews collected from Amazon.com is discussed and the results are expected to shed lights upon the understanding of plagiarism behaviors for online reviews, contributing to both theoretical and managerial implications.