The Internet has provided a competitive platform for online marketing, and online shopping has become an important part of daily life for consumers who view online reviews as an effective channel of acquiring product information before making purchase decisions. Based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM; , 1986, in the present study the effects of online reviews on purchasing intention are explored using need for cognition as a moderator. Findings that emerge from the results are: Firstly, when online reviews are high quality this has a positive effect on the purchasing intention of online shoppers. Secondly, when there are a high number of online reviews this positively affects the purchasing intention of online shoppers. Finally, shoppers with a high need for cognition take the central route in attitude change, but shoppers with a low need for cognition tend to adopt the peripheral route in forming attitude. Marketing implications are suggested.

Using a factorial experiment design, we investigated the causal relationship between personality factors and cognitive responses, as well as the relationship between cognitive responses and purchasing intentions. We found that participants with high need for cognition (NFC) had better advertising recall than those with low NFC and that advertising recall was related to purchasing intention in that those who had good recall of the advertisement had a higher purchase intention than those who had poor recall. The results contribute to personality literature by extending findings relating to the antecedent effects of NFC on cognitive responses. In addition, a contribution was made to attitude research by identifying advertising recall as a viable explanatory variable. Managerial implications are suggested.