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The authors hope to filter valuable information from online reviews, obtain objective and accurate information about the demands of auto consumers and help auto companies develop more reasonable production and marketing strategies for healthy and sustainable development. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

The authors collected review data from online automotive forums and generated a corpus after pre-processing. Then, the authors extracted consumer demands and topics using the LDA model. Finally, the authors used a trained Word2vec tool to extend the consumer demand topics.

Different types of vehicle consumers have the same demands, such as “Space,” “Power Performance,” and “Brand Comparison,” and distinct demands, such as “Appearance,” “Safety,” “Service,” and “New Energy Features”; consumers who buy new energy vehicles are still accustomed to comparing with the brands or models of fuel vehicles; new energy vehicles consumers pay more attention to services and service quality during the purchasing and using process.

The development time of new energy vehicles is relatively short, with some models being available for only one year or even six months. The smaller amount of available data may impact the applicability of topic models. The sample size, especially for new energy vehicles, needs to be increased to improve the general applicability of topic models further.

First, this measure helps online review websites improve their existing review publication mechanisms, enhance the overall quality of online review content, increase user traffic and promote the healthy development of online review websites. Second, this allows for timely adjustments in future product production and sales plans and further enhances automotive companies' ability to leverage online reviews for Internet marketing.

The authors have improved the accuracy and stability of the fused topic model, providing a scientific and efficient research tool for multi-dimensional topic mining of online reviews. With the help of research results, consumers can more easily understand the discussion topics and thus filter out valuable reference information. As a result, automotive companies may gain information about consumer demands and product quality feedback and thus quickly adjust production and marketing strategies to increase sales and market share.

This study aims to explore the use of consumer-generated online product reviews as a source of brand associations in a sport setting.

A total of 800 reviews were collected and categorized into 13 brand association dimensions derived from previous literature. Reviews were further categorized into three valence types (i.e. positive, negative and neutral) via a correspondence analysis.

A correspondence analysis revealed that positive product reviews were highly linked to performance and product-related attributes, while negative reviews were related to conformance associations. Additionally, the results showed that product-related (90.8%) attributes, experiential benefits (89.1%) and functional benefits (86.6%) were the most frequently communicated brand associations. The findings of this study underline the credibility of assessing brand associations from the consumers’ experience, through online consumer reviews.

The findings of the current investigation contribute to existing knowledge by examining consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) in an online setting. Previous, CBBE literature suggests that brand associations are held in the minds of the brand's consumers. To date, however, few studies have examined brand associations generated by consumers and instead have relied upon brand association dimensions developed by the researcher as opposed to the consumer (Ross et al., 2006). This, study however, utilized online sport product reviews as a source of consumer derived brand associations, and, therefore, will further the knowledge as to how brand associations are identified and measured.

Webrooming (i.e. searching information online and making the final purchase in a physical store) has become a popular shopping practice, but remains insufficiently studied. To address this, a research framework encompassing online and offline channel attributes (i.e. online review diagnosticity, online search convenience, expected price loss, offline purchase effort and offline after-sales service convenience), consumer traits (i.e. anticipated regret) and shopping experience (i.e. smart-shopping perception) as determinants of webrooming continuance intention is proposed.

The proposed model was validated by conducting a questionnaire-based survey that yielded 354 useable responses. The data was subjected to partial least squares structural equation modelling and importance-performance map analysis.

According to the obtained results, online review diagnosticity, offline after-sales service convenience and anticipated regret are the vital antecedents of webrooming continuance intention, while smart-shopping perception acts as the mediator.

The current study adds significantly to the body of knowledge about webrooming by validating the inter-relationships between online review diagnosticity, after-sales service convenience, anticipated regret, smart-shopping perception and webrooming continuance intention.

Given the socialisation of men and women to their gender roles and expression of emotion, this study aims to investigate whether there are gender differences in the use of emotive language in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), specifically in online reviews. The authors propose that female reviewers will use strong emotive terms, such as love, more frequently in online reviews than do male reviewers. The authors further propose that the gender of the reviewer influences audience responses to the reviewer’s use of emotive terms in online reviews.

The authors conducted secondary data analysis of restaurant reviews (Study 1) to provide evidence on whether the gender of the reviewer affects the frequency of use of emotive terms in an online review. In addition, three separate experiments (Studies 2–4) were conducted to test the theoretical arguments.

The results of the secondary data analysis indicated that female online reviewers used the term “love” much more frequently in their reviews than male reviewers, whereas there was no usage difference for the term “like”. The experimental studies further showed that an emotive review by a male reviewer containing the word “love” resulted in a higher evaluation of the restaurant being reviewed than a non-emotive review containing the word “like”. This difference was stronger when the overall rating was less salient and for consumers who believe (vs do not believe) that men and women use emotional language differently.

First, the paper extends our understanding of gender differences in emotional expression within the domain of eWOM and online reviews as well as our understanding of consumer responses to these gender differences. Second, the authors identify a boundary condition for these gender effects, namely, the overall rating score. Third, the authors find that consumer beliefs regarding gender stereotypes in emotional expression provide an explanation for these effects.

The results of the research indicate that the electronic algorithms operating on review sites might be modified in terms of their criteria for selecting the reviews to display to consumers, as consumer decision-makers may find greater utility in reviews written by male reviewers that contain strongly positive emotive terms.

The research extends the knowledge on gender differences in emotional expression in online reviews by demonstrating the actual usage patterns and differing responses to the emotional expressions of each gender.

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of pictures (consumer pictures vs. product pictures vs. no pictures) in online consumer reviews on product evaluation and to determine the mechanism and boundary conditions behind such effects.

The research consisted of three laboratory experiments.

The results showed that consumer pictures led to the most favorable product evaluation. Study 1 showed that persuasive effect was the mechanism behind the main effect. Study 2 showed that for problem-solving products, consumer pictures increased product evaluation significantly; for enhancing products, there was no significant difference of product evaluation among consumer pictures, product pictures and no picture. The results of Study 3 showed that for the unfamiliar brand, consumer pictures significantly enhanced product evaluation; for the highly familiar brand, there was no significant difference among consumer pictures, product pictures and no picture. The present research used persuasive effects to examine the mechanism behind the interaction effects.

The study provides managerial implications for online store owners about how to manage pictures in online reviews.

This study supplements the literature on online consumer reviews and enriches the study of effects of pictures.

This study aims to investigate the impact of a salesperson’s babyface in his/her profile picture on the number of online reviews the salesperson receives. In addition to testing the direct relationship, this study explores the moderating roles of salesperson gender and consumer involvement.

Responding to the call for field-based consumer research, the authors test their theory using an experimental design and a field study. Study 1 employs an experimental design in high and low involvement service settings to test the effect of a babyface on consumers’ intention to write online reviews. Study 2 uses field data, utilising real estate salespeople’s online profile pictures to test the effect of salespeople’s babyface on the number of online reviews they receive. It does so by using an artificial intelligence facial recognition application interface.

A salesperson’s babyface results in fewer online reviews in situations in which consumers are highly involved in the purchase process. By contrast, a salesperson’s babyface engenders more online reviews when consumers purchase low involvement services. The adverse effect of a babyface on the number of online reviews, however, attenuates when a salesperson is female.

Limited information about salespeople, a skewed number of online reviews and blurry online profile pictures from a real-world data set constitute the study’s limitations.

When consumers are highly involved in the purchase process, salespeople should appear mature in their online profile photos to engender more online reviews. However, salespeople providing low involvement services should opt for online profile pictures reflecting babyish facial features to generate more online reviews.

Research has shown that salespeople’s physical appearance plays an important role in consumers’ perceptions of salespeople and their performance. Although abundant research and practice have shown the importance of online reviews, less is known about how online profile pictures affect online reviews. Thus, building on well-studied cases of an overgeneralization effect, this work examines the extent to which salespeople’s babyface features in their online profile picture affects the number of online reviews received in a real-world setting.

With the expansion of internet as a tool for exchanging information, companies include in their websites a virtual space to share information among users. The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of consumers’ reviews (electronic word-of-mouth quantity, credibility and quality) as antecedents of customers’ online repurchase intentions. Specially, it proposes a model where trust on an online seller and perceived usefulness of a website mediate the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) characteristics on repurchase intentions.

Structural equation modeling was employed on a sample of 252 online customers. An online questionnaire was aimed at internet users who had previously made an online purchase and read online reviews received from the vendor’s website.

Results show that only EWOM quality has a positive direct effect on consumers’ repurchase intention while quantity has a negative influence. Perceived usefulness mediates the influence of all EWOM characteristics on online repurchase intention. EWOM credibility and quality also indirectly influence repurchase intentions through trust on the online vendor.

This paper outlines ways to improve managerial implications by developing mobile applications or websites where the reviews have an appropriate volume and quality of information. Moreover, it suggests general advice to present online reviews in a useful manner to users who visit these websites.

This study is one of the first to propose an integrative model that studies in depth the three main EWOM characteristics and customer responses for understanding their repurchase behavior.

This paper aims to explore how emotional expressions embedded in online hotel reviews influence consumers’ helpfulness perceptions. In particular, this study develops and tests hypotheses analyzing empirical data with a text-mining method in the context of hotels to investigate how review valence influences the perceived helpfulness of online hotel reviews and to examine the role of negative emotional expressions embedded in online consumer reviews with respect to perceived helpfulness.

This study collected 520,668 online reviews involving 488 hotels in New York City (NYC) on Tripadvisor.com. Of these reviews, 69,202 reviews (13.29 per cent) that had received helpfulness votes were analyzed by a text mining method and negative binomial regression.

This study demonstrates that negative reviews are considered more helpful than positive reviews when potential customers read online hotel reviews for their future stay. However, when intensively negative emotions were expressed, the degree of helpfulness regarding negative reviews was diminished.

While emotional expressions prevail in online consumer reviews, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the consequences of emotional expressions in consumers’ information processing and decision-making. Due to the nature of service, given the inseparability of production and consumption, which often hinders the execution of flawless service, consumers tend to be more dependent on reviews to minimize any potential failures they may encounter later on. Therefore, this study fills a gap by demonstrating that negative reviews and emotional expressions play a more crucial role in consumers’ information processing and decision-making.

With the growing online review manipulation and fake reviews in the hospitality industry, it is not uncommon that a consumer encounters disconfirmation when comparing the existing online reviews with his/her own product or service evaluation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of review disconfirmation on customer online review writing behavior.

This study used a mixed-method combining online secondary big data modeling and experimental design.

Review disconfirmation influences customers’ emotional responses embedded in the review; a customer who encounters review disconfirmation tends to exert more reviewing effort, manifested by writing longer reviews; negativity bias exists in disconfirmation effects, in that negative review disconfirmation shows more significant and stronger effects than positive review disconfirmation.

Findings from this study provide important managerial implications for business owners and marketers who attempt to influence online reviews. The study suggests that fictitious online review manipulation might be detrimental to the business.

This research contributes to two literature streams, including research on the social influence of online consumer reviews, and the relationship between disconfirmation and consumers’ post-consumption behavior, by extending the influence of disconfirmation from the offline context to the online context.

This study aims to highlight the importance of brand equity dimensions which act as a mediator between online reviews and consumer’s purchase intention. In particular, the present study tries to determine which the Aaker’s (1991) brand equity dimensions have the mediating roles between source credible online reviews and purchase intention.

Data were collected from select e-commerce site’s brand community on Facebook social media platform through Google form application. The present study first determines the reliability of the variables. To check the unidimensionality of the variables, exploratory factor analysis has been performed. This study makes use of structural equation modeling bootstrapping method to examine the mediating effects of brand equity dimensions between source credible online reviews and purchase intention.

Data analysis reveals that marketers should concentrate more on brand awareness and perceived value, which ultimately influence the purchase intention of the consumers.

This paper is one of the first that examines the mediating effects of consumer-based brand equity dimensions between source credible online reviews and consumer’s purchase intention. Further, the present study integrates source credibility theory and attribution theory to develop the research model.