What impacts the helpfulness of online multidimensional reviews? A perspective from cross-attribute rating and ranking Inconsistency

This paper proposes investigations of the effects of information inconsistency, particularly ranking inconsistency, on the review helpfulness in a multidimensional rating system, based on information diagnosticity and attribution theory. The insight findings of this paper are: (a) The product cross-attribute dispersion has a significant negative impact on review helpfulness, while the overall attribute ranking consistency and the ranking consistency of the product’s best prominent attribute positively impact review helpfulness. (b) The product cross-attribute dispersion negatively impacts the review helpfulness for non-luxury products but it positively impacts that for luxury products, while the cross-attribute rating difference of a single review positively impacts it helpfulness only if the product is non-luxury. (c) The overall attribute ranking consistency significantly impacts the review helpfulness only for luxury products, whereas the ranking consistency of the product\u27s best and worst prominent attributes impact the review helpfulness only for non-luxury products