The impact of context clues on online review helpfulness
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 12 August 2022
Issue publication date: 17 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to propose and empirically validate a conceptual model on the antecedents of review helpfulness comprising three constructs, namely, valence dissimilarity, lexical dissimilarity and review order.
Design/methodology/approach
A panel dataset of customer reviews was collected from Amazon. Using deep learning and text processing techniques, 650,995 reviews on 13,612 products from 570,870 reviewers were analyzed. Using negative binomial regression, four hypotheses were tested.
Findings
The results indicate that new reviews with high valence dissimilarity and lexical dissimilarity compared to existing reviews are less helpful. However, over the sequence of reviews, the negative effect of review dissimilarity on review helpfulness can be moderated. This moderation differs for valence and lexical dissimilarity.
Research limitations/implications
This study explains review dissimilarity in the context of online review helpfulness. It draws on the elaboration likelihood model and explains how the impacts of peripheral and central cues are moderated over the sequence of reviews.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide benefits to online retailers planning to implement online reviews to improve user experience.
Originality/value
This paper highlights the importance of review dissimilarity in identifying user perception of online review helpfulness and understanding the dynamics of this perception over the sequence of reviews, which can lead to improved marketing strategies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, Christy M.K. Cheung, for her timely and constructive feedback. The authors are also obliged to Marten Risius for his insightful suggestions that significantly improved our manuscript. This paper is developed upon our earlier paper presented in “Social Media and e-Business Transformation” track of Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2021). The authors would like to thank the track chairs, and three anonymous reviewers for their in-depth and invaluable guidance.
Citation
Namvar, M. and Chua, A.Y.K. (2023), "The impact of context clues on online review helpfulness", Internet Research, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 1015-1030. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-02-2021-0093
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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