The Dimensions of Review Comprehensiveness and Its Effect on Review Usefulness: A Latent Dirichlet Allocation Approach

Online review sites like Yelp.com, TripAdvisor.com and AngiesList.com provide values to both business and consumers. A large body of literature investigates drivers of online review usefulness. Review comprehensiveness has been identified as one the most important dimension of review quality and an important predictor of review usefulness. This study contributes to the literature by crafting and operationalizing review comprehensiveness using a text mining approach. We also empirically test the effect of the operationalized review comprehensiveness construct on review usefulness. In practice, online review providers, especially Yelp.com, can benefit from this study by integrating review comprehensiveness in their sorting algorithms

Essays on the Influence of Review and Reviewer Attributes on Online Review Helpfulness: Attribution Theory Perspective

With the emergence of digital technology and the increasing availability of information on the internet, customers rely heavily on online reviews to inform their purchasing decisions. However, not all online reviews are helpful, and the factors that contribute to their helpfulness are complex and multifaceted. This dissertation addresses this gap in the literature by examining the antecedents that determine online review helpfulness using attribution theory. The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines the impact of authenticity (review attribute) on review helpfulness, showing that the expressive authenticity of a review enhances its helpfulness. The second essay investigates the relationship between the reviewer attributes i.e., motivation, activity, and goals in online reviews. The study employs various machine learning techniques to investigate the influence of these factors on reviewers\u27 goal attainment. The third essay explores how the reviewer attributes are related to the helpfulness of online reviews. The dissertation offers significant theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the dissertation provides new insights into novel review and reviewer attributes. The study proposes a taxonomy of online reviews using means-ends fusion theory offering a framework for understanding the relationships between different components of online reviewer attributes and their contribution to the attainment of specific goals, such as emotional satisfaction. The study also highlights the importance of understanding the motivations and activities of online reviewers in predicting emotional satisfaction and the conditional effects of complaining behavior on emotional satisfaction. The findings inform review platform owners, business owners, reviewers, and prospective consumers in decision-making through helpful reviews. To review platform owners, the findings help segregate helpful reviews from the humongous number of reviews by determining the authenticity of the review. To business owners, the findings can help in understanding consumer behavior and taking necessary actions to provide better service to their customers. To reviewers, this dissertation can act as a guideline to write helpful reviews and to determine their helpfulness. Finally, to consumers or review readers, this dissertation provides an understanding of helpful reviews, thus allowing them to take product or service purchase decisions

Determinants of online review helpfulness that steer consumer purchase decision and their willingness to give review:an extended study in a cross-cultural context

Abstract. The increased use of social media and other online platforms have enabled consumers to communicate and discuss the products and services of brands with others. Consumers’ look for information in online reviews that assist them in informed purchase decisions. Previous literature has identified factors that influence consumers in adopting those online reviews, but whether consumers are willing to provide an online review after the purchase decision is not yet been studied previously. Another gap in the literate that is addressed is to base this study on output obtained from two countries. Therefore, our study is aimed at identifying factors that contribute to a consumer purchase decision and their willingness to give a review in a cross-cultural context. Our study aimed at restaurant reviews in Finland and Pakistan. Adopting and extending the Information Acceptance Model (IACM) proposed by Erkan and Evans (2016), that is developed by integrating Information Adoption Model (IAM) and related aspects of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). This study examines the influence of online review helpfulness factors on consumer purchase decision, consequently influencing them to give a review to others. We also aim to identify if review adoption directly influences consumers in providing online review without purchasing the product or service. The proposed model of our study was validated through Structural Equation Modelling by using Smart Partial Least Squares software. A questionnaire was adopted from earlier studies. The questionnaire was measured on a sample size of 104 from Finland and 141 from Pakistan. This study identified review adoption leading towards consumer purchase decision, whereas, onsumers’ willingness to give is not directly linked with their adoption of information, but it is a post-purchase process. The commonalities between the two countries depict the needs of information behind seeking online review information. If the required information is being provided to the customer through online reviews, it will lead to review adoption. Generally, review positiveness, review perceived informativeness and review quality were identified most important factors in consumers review adoption that leads consumers in choosing a restaurant and try the food there. Whereas, the general attitude of consumers towards online reviews was found to be the most exciting factors identified in Pakistan output. Consumers’ perception of online reviews encourages them to read online reviews, and they think that it is always a risk to try a restaurant without referring to online reviews. Pakistani consumers find online reviews useful, providing relevant information about the restaurants that help them in choosing the best restaurant

Conceptualizing the Electronic Word-of-Mouth Process: What We Know and Need to Know About eWOM Creation, Exposure, and Evaluation

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a prevalent consumer practice that has undeniable effects on the company bottom line, yet it remains an over-labeled and under-theorized concept. Thus, marketers could benefit from a practical, science-based roadmap to maximize its business value. Building on the consumer motivation–opportunity–ability framework, this study conceptualizes three distinct stages in the eWOM process: eWOM creation, eWOM exposure, and eWOM evaluation. For each stage, we adopt a dual lens—from the perspective of the consumer (who sends and receives eWOM) and that of the marketer (who amplifies and manages eWOM for business results)—to synthesize key research insights and propose a research agenda based on a multidisciplinary systematic review of 1050 academic publications on eWOM published between 1996 and 2019. We conclude with a discussion of the future of eWOM research and practice

The impact of online reviews on consumer evaluations and decision making: an analysis of review volume and user-generated photos

This thesis investigates the impact of online social influence on consumer behaviour, specifically within the context of online reviews. It examines how review volume and user-generated photos affect consumer evaluations and decision-making. In Chapter 2, I introduce a novel phenomenon, the N-effect, which explores how opinion volume influences the content of online evaluations. I find that as the number of opinions increases, the content becomes more emotional and less analytical. In Chapter 3, I investigate the role of user-generated photos in shaping purchase intentions. This research demonstrates that photos can enhance review helpfulness, even when they lack diagnostic information. This effect is driven by the confidence signalled by the reviewer when posting a review with a photo, which is later assimilated by readers, leading to increased perceived helpfulness and purchase likelihood. This thesis makes several theoretical and practical contributions to the literature on human interaction with technology. Theoretically, it expands our understanding of online social influence by examining the dynamics of online opinion expression and content. I contribute to the literature on group size by demonstrating how responsibility may be lost in online contexts. Furthermore, the findings provide insights into the social influence of photos on viewers and the role of pseudo-evidence in shaping beliefs and attitudes. From a practical standpoint, this research offers valuable insights for online platform managers and marketers on interpreting and using consumer-written reviews. Overall, this thesis contributes to the existing literature on online social influence and provides insights for businesses to improve communication and interpretation with consumers by better understanding and leveraging online reviews and opinions.Open Acces

Negative online word-of-mouth: Behavioral indicator or emotional release?

The influence of negative online word-of-mouth on the behavior of those receiving it has been addressed extensively in the academic literature. Remarkably, the question whether negative online word-of-mouth should also be seen as a behavioral indicator of its sender remains unaddressed. Answering this question is relevant as it provides companies with insight into the need to engage in interaction with those who negatively express themselves online or whether these expressions should be seen as temporary emotional releases without any intended conduct. To fill the existing research gap, this research paper proposes and empirically tests a sender-oriented model, investigating the influence of emotions, negative online word-of-mouth on repatronage and switching intentions. As disclosing negative feedback online may also reflect the sender's motivation to inform the consumer community or to provide constructive feedback to the company responsible for the dissatisfying consumption, community usefulness and company usefulness are included as behavioral moderators. The results of an empirical survey conducted amongst real senders of negative information confirm that negative online word-of-mouth is directly driven by positive and negative emotions and is strongly predictive for the sender's intended conduct. The motivation to help other consumers was demonstrated to function as behavioral moderator. The paper concludes with theoretical and managerial implications, and suggests avenues for further research. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Illuminating and applying “The Dark Side”: Insights from elite team leaders

In contrast to socially desirable behaviors, recent work has suggested that effective elite team leadership also relies on socially undesirable behaviors. Accordingly, this study aimed to further explore the authenticity of dark side leadership behaviors, what they look like, and how they may be best used. Via interviews with 15 leaders, behaviors associated with Machiavellianism/mischievousness, skepticism, social dominance, and performance-focused ruthlessness were found. Moreover, these behaviors were enabled by leaders’ sociopolitical awareness and engineering as well as their adaptive expertise. Findings promote practitioner sensitivity to dark side leadership and, for leader effectiveness, sociopolitical and temporal features of its application

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users