Telling Both Sides of the Story: the Role of Risk in the Perceived Helpfulness of Online Reviews (original) (raw)
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The Reliability Of Online Review Helpfulness
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 2014
Many online reviews have a helpfulness rating, and such ratings are being widely used by online shoppers for shopping research. Researchers also use them as a review quality benchmark. However, there is scant research about the reliability of such ratings. This paper explores the reliability of helpfulness ratings and their resistance to manipulations. We found that the existing helpfulness ratings for most helpful reviews are inflated and significantly higher than ratings we collected from a random population due to online shopper self-selection behavior. We also found existing helpfulness ratings for most helpful favorable reviews have an anchoring effect on subsequent votes, thus could be potentially manipulated to boost sales. In contrast, ratings for most helpful critical reviews have a counter-anchoring effect due to risk aversion, thus could backfire if manipulated. Implications and future research are discussed.
2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2011
As online reviews increasingly become part of the purchasing process, it is important to understand which components of these reviews consumers consider most helpful in facilitating the purchase decision process. Online retailer and rating websites with more helpful reviews offer greater potential value to their consumers. Through two studies, we seek to identify and better understand what makes a helpful consumer review. After an open-ended analysis of the qualities of a review identified by subjects' as helpful, we conducted a controlled experiment that manipulated both the review content and the description of the reviewer. One key finding is that reviews written by a self-described expert are more helpful than those that are not. This information can provide guidance to online retailers and rating websites in their efforts to provide value to their customers.
A study of factors that contribute to online review helpfulness
Computers in Human Behavior, 2015
Helpfulness of online reviews is a multi-faceted concept that can be driven by several types of factors. This study was designed to extend existing research on online review helpfulness by looking at not just the quantitative factors (such as word count), but also qualitative aspects of reviewers (including reviewer experience, reviewer impact, reviewer cumulative helpfulness). This integrated view uncovers some insights that were not available before. Our findings suggest that word count has a threshold in its effects on review helpfulness. Beyond this threshold, its effect diminishes significantly or becomes near non-existent. Reviewer experience and their impact were not statistically significant predictors of helpfulness, but past helpfulness records tended to predict future helpfulness ratings. Review framing was also a strong predictor of helpfulness. As a result, characteristics of reviewers and review messages have a varying degree of impact on review helpfulness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.