Search results

1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 5 October 2022

Chunfeng Chen and Depeng Zhang

Negative word-of-mouth has a variety of negative effects on companies. Thus, how consumers process and evaluate negative word-of-mouth is an important issue for companies. This…

Abstract

Purpose

Negative word-of-mouth has a variety of negative effects on companies. Thus, how consumers process and evaluate negative word-of-mouth is an important issue for companies. This research aims to investigate the effect of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on consumers' perceived helpfulness.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model was developed based on attribution theory. A four-study approach involving two field experiments and two online experiments was employed to examine the proposed hypotheses.

Findings

The results show that the emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth negatively affects altruistic motive attributions, while altruistic motive attributions positively affect perceived helpfulness and plays a mediating role in the relationship between the emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth and perceived helpfulness. Consumers' self-construal moderates the effects of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on altruistic motive attributions and perceived helpfulness, with the negative effects of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on altruistic motive attributions and perceived helpfulness being weaker for consumers with high interdependent self-construal than for those with high independent self-construal.

Originality/value

The findings not only have a significant theoretical contribution, deepening the understanding of the effects of negative word-of-mouth but also have useful implications for practitioners to improve the management of negative word-of-mouth.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 122 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 February 2022

Hongliu Li, Xingyuan Wang, Shuyang Wang, Wenkai Zhou and Zhilin Yang

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of the numerical cues (NC) used in online review comments on perceived review helpfulness and the underlying…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of the numerical cues (NC) used in online review comments on perceived review helpfulness and the underlying psychological mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental design approach was employed to investigate the proposed research questions. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. Mplus 7 and Stata 14.0 were used for data analysis.

Findings

Empirical findings support the positive correlation between the presence of NC in online review comments and perceived review helpfulness across different product categories. This relationship is mediated by two psychological responses of consumers: cognitive elaboration and credibility perception.

Research limitations/implications

This research adds to the existing literature by focusing on the value of NC in online review comments and how they can enhance perceived review helpfulness. Some practical implications are also addressed. For example, marketers can encourage consumers to post reviews that contain quantitative information to facilitate their target markets' comprehension of a product or brand.

Originality/value

Building on the previous literature, the work adds incremental knowledge on the role NC in online review comments play in affecting consumers' perceptions. In addition, the research uncovers the underlying psychological responses that mediate the relationship between NC in review comments and perceived review helpfulness.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2018

Hans Risselada, Lisette de Vries and Mariska Verstappen

This study aims to study to what extent the helpfulness votes others attach to a review affect a consumer’s perceived helpfulness of that review. In addition, the purpose of this…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to study to what extent the helpfulness votes others attach to a review affect a consumer’s perceived helpfulness of that review. In addition, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether this social influence moderates the relationships among several content presentation factors and perceived helpfulness.

Design/methodology/approach

A choice-based conjoint experiment was carried out in which 201 respondents evaluated different reviews and chose the review they perceive as most helpful.

Findings

Consumers perceive reviews as more (less) helpful in the presence of clearly valenced positive (negative) helpfulness votes. In addition, helpfulness votes of others diminish the positive impact of structure and the negative impact of spelling errors.

Research limitations/implications

The experimental setup may limit the external validity of the study.

Practical implications

Providing a helpfulness button gives firms an instrument to offer content that consumers perceive as more useful and to exert some influence on the effects of content presentation factors on the review’s helpfulness.

Social implications

Consumers tend to follow other consumers’ opinions without forming their own opinion. Firms could misuse this tendency by hiring people to vote on reviews that are not necessarily helpful for consumers, but are helpful for the firm.

Originality/value

This study is the first to assess the extent to which social influence affects consumers’ evaluation of reviews. Given that consumers use helpfulness votes to distinguish reviews, it is important to understand to what extent these votes reflect the actual helpfulness of the information in the review and to what extent they reflect previous helpfulness votes.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 January 2021

Yi Liu and Han-fen Hu

Consumers’ evaluation of online review helpfulness has been widely examined. The extant literature suggests that the attributes of review content (e.g. review length and…

1816

Abstract

Purpose

Consumers’ evaluation of online review helpfulness has been widely examined. The extant literature suggests that the attributes of review content (e.g. review length and extremity) influence review helpfulness. However, review length cannot fully reflect the richness of the review content. Anchoring on information diagnosticity and extremity bias, this study aims to explore the effect of review comprehensiveness on its helpfulness.

Design/methodology/approach

Field observations were obtained from 11,812 online restaurant reviews on a popular restaurant review platform. A controlled experiment was conducted to further delineate the effect of review comprehensiveness.

Findings

Review comprehensiveness moderates the effects of review length and an extremely negative review on helpfulness. It also confirms that for reviews of the same length, one covering more aspects is perceived by consumers as more helpful.

Practical implications

Different aspects of information in a review can efficiently assist decision-making. The results suggest that review platforms can better design their interface by providing separate areas for different product aspects. The platform can then receive more comprehensive and helpful reviews and increase the diagnosticity of these.

Originality/value

The study enriches the literature by introducing review comprehensiveness and examining the joint effects of review length and comprehensiveness on helpfulness. It also contributes to the literature by indicating how to reduce the effect of review extremity.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 October 2021

Wenjie Fan, Yong Liu, Hongxiu Li, Virpi Kristiina Tuunainen and Yanqing Lin

Drawing on attribution theory, the current paper aims to examine the effects of review content structures on online review helpfulness, focusing on three pertinent variables…

4456

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on attribution theory, the current paper aims to examine the effects of review content structures on online review helpfulness, focusing on three pertinent variables: review sidedness, information factuality, and emotional intensity at the beginning of a review. Moreover, the moderating roles of reviewer reputation and review sentiment are investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

The review sentiment of 144,982 online hotel reviews was computed at the sentence level by considering the presence of adverbs and negative terms. Then, the authors quantified the impact of variables that were pertinent to review content structures on online review helpfulness in terms of review sidedness, information factuality and emotional intensity at the beginning of a review. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression was employed to test the model.

Findings

The results reveal that review sidedness negatively affects online review helpfulness, and reviewer reputation moderates this effect. Information factuality positively affects online review helpfulness, and positive sentiment moderates this impact. A review that begins with a highly emotional statement is more likely to be perceived as less helpful.

Originality/value

Using attribution theory as a theoretical lens, this study contributes to the online customer review literature by investigating the impact of review content structures on online review helpfulness and by demonstrating the important moderating effects of reviewer reputation and review sentiment. The findings can help practitioners develop effective review appraisal mechanisms and guide consumers in producing helpful reviews.

Article
Publication date: 2 December 2019

Ming-Yi Chen, Ching-I Teng and Kuo-Wei Chiou

Online reviews are increasingly available for a wide range of products and services in e-commerce. Most consumers rely heavily on online reviews when making purchase decisions, so…

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Abstract

Purpose

Online reviews are increasingly available for a wide range of products and services in e-commerce. Most consumers rely heavily on online reviews when making purchase decisions, so an important topic is that of understanding what makes some online reviews helpful in the eyes of consumers. Researchers have demonstrated the benefits of the presence of customer reviews to an online retailer, however, few studies have investigated how images in review content and the facial expressions of reviewers’ avatars influence the judgment of online review helpfulness. This study draws on self-construal theory, attribution theory and affect-as-information theory to empirically test a model of the interaction effects of images in review content and the facial expressions of reviewers’ avatars on online review helpfulness. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper is to identify an underlying mechanism of causal attribution toward store performance on the above effects.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted two online experiments. Study 1 is a 2 (images in review content: one person with a product vs a group of people with a product) ×2 (facial expression of the reviewer’s avatar: happy vs angry) between-subjects design. Study 2 is a 3 (image: product alone vs one person with a product vs a group of people with a product) ×2 (facial expression of the reviewer’s avatar: happy vs angry) ×3 (valence of the review: positive vs negative vs neutral) between-subjects design.

Findings

The results indicate that when consumers were exposed to a happy-looking avatar, they were likely to express higher perceptions of online review helpfulness in response to an image showing a group of people in a restaurant than they would for an image of one person in the same situation. In contrast, when consumers were exposed to an angry-looking avatar, their perceptions of online review helpfulness did not differ in response to images of either a group of people or of one person. Furthermore, cause attribution toward store performance mediated the interaction between images in content of reviews and the facial expression of a reviewer’s avatar on the perceptions of online review helpfulness.

Practical implications

The authors provide insights into how to develop guidelines on how online reviews should be written so that readers perceive them to be helpful, and how to design effective reward mechanisms for customer feedback.

Originality/value

Compared with previous studies, this study provides further contributions in three ways. First, it contributes to the literature on review content by showing which images in reviews are deemed to be helpful. Second, it extends previous findings from the literature relating to online peer reviews by demonstrating the importance of facial expressions in reviewers’ avatars (i.e. happy vs angry) when explaining helpfulness, rather than the strength of purchase intent. Third, this study contributes by further highlighting a novel mechanism which shows that a causal attribution toward store performance motivates the perceptions of online review helpfulness.

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2022

Yajie Hu and Shasha Zhou

Online reviews in online health communities (OHCs) have been a vital information source for patients. The extant literature on the bias effects of helpful reviews mainly…

Abstract

Purpose

Online reviews in online health communities (OHCs) have been a vital information source for patients. The extant literature on the bias effects of helpful reviews mainly concentrates on traditional e-commerce, whereas research on OHCs is still rare. Thus, based on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), this research explores how two unique reviewer characteristics in OHCs, which may induce attribution bias and confirmation bias, affect review helpfulness and how review length moderates these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

This research analyzed 130,279 reviews collected from haodf.com (one of the representative OHCs in China) by adopting the negative binomial regression to test our research model.

Findings

The results indicate that reviewer cured status positively influences review helpfulness, whereas reviewer recommendation source negatively affects review helpfulness. Moreover, the effects of the two reviewer cues on review helpfulness will be weaker for longer reviews.

Originality/value

First, as one of the initial attempts, the current study investigates the effects of confirmation bias and attribution bias of online reviews in OHCs by exploring the effects of two unique reviewer characteristics on review helpfulness. Second, the weakening moderating effects of review length on the two bias effects provide empirical support for the theoretical arguments of the HSM in OHCs.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 47 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 September 2021

Lejla Turulja and Merima Činjarević

This study aims to apply the stimulus-organism-response framework to uncover the underlying mechanism by which the perceived helpfulness of online customer reviews (OCRs) drives…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to apply the stimulus-organism-response framework to uncover the underlying mechanism by which the perceived helpfulness of online customer reviews (OCRs) drives behavioural intentions in mobile travel app commerce. Also, the current study explores how vendor-driven perceived usefulness of a product and its attributes influence the mediated relationship between perceived helpfulness of OCRs (OCRs helpfulness) and behavioural intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

The online survey (n = 151) was used to collect the data. The authors used structural equation modelling and the bias-corrected bootstrap method to test the proposed conceptual model for mediation and moderated-mediation effect.

Findings

Findings indicate that the perceived OCRs helpfulness has an indirect positive effect, via trust and attitude, on travel app downloading intention. Moreover, results suggest that the presence of vendor cues (vendor-generated informational content about a travel app) does not significantly moderate the mediating effect of perceived OCRs helpfulness on travel app downloading intention.

Originality/value

The present study reinforces the applicability of the warranting principle in the context of travel app commerce by exploring the relative effectiveness of customer-generated and vendor-generated informational content in influencing travel app downloading intention.

研究目的

本研究旨在应用SOR框架来解释在线评论的有效性影响在旅行APP行为意向的潜在机理。此外,本研究探索了供应商驱动的对产品的认知有效性和商品属性来影响认知有效性和行为意向的中介关系。

研究设计/方法/途径

本研究运用网络调研 (n=151)来收集数据。本论文运用结构方程建模和偏差纠正辅助程序来测试提出的理论模型和调节式中介作用。

研究发现

研究结果显示在线评论的有效性通过信任度和态度对旅行APP的下载使用意向具有间接正相关的作用。此外,结果显示当供应商信息(供应商制定的有关旅行APP的信息内容)并不能有效调节网络顾客评论对下载意向的中介作用。

研究原创性/价值

本研究加强了担保原则在旅行APP贸易背景下的适用性,探索了顾客驱动和供应商驱动的信息内容对旅行APP下载意向影响的相对有效性。

Article
Publication date: 12 January 2021

Lobel Trong Thuy Tran and Phuong Thanh Nguyen

Given the growing importance of blockchain technology (BT), the authors use the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), which posits that BT adoption intention…

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Abstract

Purpose

Given the growing importance of blockchain technology (BT), the authors use the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), which posits that BT adoption intention depends on the complementarity between UTAUT and blockchain transparency (BTRAN) and examine it in a new setting: the boundary condition of perceived helpfulness.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review the major conceptual literature on both UTAUT and BT to identify their principal common factors. They examine the complementarity between UTAUT and BTRAN and further test the moderating effect of perceived helpfulness. The authors used the PLS technique for data analysis because this technique can test the direct and interaction effects.

Findings

The complementarity between UTAUT and BTRAN strongly affects BT adoption intention. The authors further show that perceived helpfulness moderates the relationship between adoption intention and usage behavior. At high levels of perceived helpfulness, usage behavior increases rapidly with adoption intention.

Originality/value

The results indicate that UTAUT is a valuable theory to identify the determinants of adoption intention, confirming its robustness in blockchain-enabled supply chain management. The combination of UTAUT and BTRAN can contribute a plausible approach to the strategy literature: the complementarity effect might create more benefits than adopting a single practice.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 33 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 June 2020

Carla Ruiz-Mafe, Enrique Bigné-Alcañiz and Rafael Currás-Pérez

This paper analyses the interrelationships between emotions, the cognitive information cues of online reviews and intention to follow the advice obtained from digital platforms…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper analyses the interrelationships between emotions, the cognitive information cues of online reviews and intention to follow the advice obtained from digital platforms, paying special attention to the moderating effect of the sequencing of review valence.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from 830 Spanish Tripadvisor users. In a two-step approach, a measurement model was estimated and a structural model analysed to test the proposed hypotheses. SmartPLS 3.0 software was used. The moderating effect of sequencing of reviews is tested.

Findings

The data analysis showed a bias effect of review sequence on the impact of online information cues and emotions on intention to follow advice obtained from Tripadvisor. When the online reviews of a restaurant begin with positive commentaries, their perceived persuasiveness is a stronger driver of the pleasure and arousal elicited by online reviews than when they begin with negative reviews. On the other hand, the perceived helpfulness of online reviews only triggers arousal when the user reads negative, followed by positive, comments. The impact of pleasure on intention to follow the advice provided in an online travel community is higher with positive-negative than with negative-positive sequences.

Originality/value

While researchers have demonstrated the benefits of customer reviews on company sales, a largely uninvestigated issue is the interplay between emotions and cognitive information cues in the processing of online reviews. This is one of the first studies to examine the moderating effect of conflicting reviews on the impact of emotions and cognitive information cues on consumer intention to follow the advice obtained from digital services.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000