Can Positive Online Cues Always Reduce User Avoidance of Sponsored Research Results?

Online social cues that utilize user-generated data, such as user reviews and product ratings, have become one of the key factors influencing online user behavior and decisions. Online users who shared their reviews and ratings about a product (or aseller)become an abstract reference group toafocal user interested inthe sameproduct. This study focuses onsponsoredsearchresults (SSRs), a type of unsolicitedinformationthat matchesusers' searchqueries andreceives highevaluations frompriorconsumers. We investigate the effects ofpositive social cues onalleviating users' avoidance responses towardanencounteredSSR whensearchingfora product in a C2C e-commerce context. We synthesize the avoidance literature andidentify three forms ofSSR avoidance, namely, cognitive, behavioral, andaffective avoidance. We apply users' implicit concerns onSSRs toexplainusers' avoidance of anencounteredSSR. Inaddition, we extendsocial influence theory toonline settings where abstract reference groupsare positedtotrigger social influence. We examine how andunder what conditions the three forms of SSR avoidance canbe reducedby various positive online social cues(i.e., product- andseller-related). We conduct three laboratory experiments. Results attest tousers' implicitconcerns onSSRs and their avoidance of SSRs and reveal different effects of various socialcues on reducingthe threeformsofSSR avoidance. This study uncovers the theoretical mechanisms of social influence onreducing SSR avoidance in online settings. It also offers practical implications for online search service providers to help online users' decision making in their search process