Exploring the influence of emotionality and expertise on online wine reviews: does greater knowledge lead to less review?
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
ISSN: 0959-6119
Article publication date: 16 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Wine producers and marketing professionals increasingly recognize the significance of online wine reviews. Emotions have long been acknowledged as influential in online review behaviors. However, considering the multisensory nature of the wine experience, consumers’ wine expertise also plays a substantial role. Hence, this study aims to examine the online review behaviors exhibited by wine consumers through the dual lens of wine expertise and emotionality.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted to address the research question. Study 1 explored the relationship among expertise, emotionality and review behaviors using a panel data model, with a data set consisting of 4,600,922 reviews from Vivino.com. Study 2 used a multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using data obtained from an online survey. Study 2 aimed to investigate the interactive impact of emotionality and expertise on online review intention mediated by customer engagement.
Findings
The findings from Study 1 demonstrated a positive correlation between emotionality and online wine reviews. In addition, expertise displayed a bell-shaped relationship with both emotionality and online wine reviews. Study 2, in turn, uncovered that novices and experts experienced a direct influence of emotionality on their review intentions. In contrast, for those classified as ordinary, the influence of emotionality on review intention occurred indirectly through the mediation of customer engagement.
Originality/value
This paper extends the current literature on online wine review by integrating the effect of emotion and expertise on online wine review behaviors, expanding the examination of Dunning–Kruger effect in the wine literature. It also adds value by introducing emotionality and the Evaluative Lexicon into the hospitality literature, extending the measurement of emotion from valence and extremity to a third dimension, emotionality, in hospitality and wine domains.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This study was supported by Science Research Fund of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education (Project No. 2024J0598), Cross-Disciplinary Science Foundation from Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology (Project No. BIP T CSF-22032205003/036) and 2023 Science Research Fund of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics (Project No. 2023D26).
Citation
Qi, X., Chang, W., Liu, A., Sun, J. and Fan, M. (2024), "Exploring the influence of emotionality and expertise on online wine reviews: does greater knowledge lead to less review?", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-08-2023-1302
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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