Does the length of a review matter in perceived helpfulness? The moderating role of product experience
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 29 July 2021
Issue publication date: 10 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer a framework explaining how product experience (i.e. think vs feel) and product involvement (high vs low) influence the helpfulness of online reviews. It also reexamined how online consumer review dimensions help to build online review helpfulness under different contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using content analysis on 1,200 online customer reviews on 12 products from four categories to measure the relationships between online review dimensions and the helpfulness of reviews. The regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings indicate that the effectiveness of length of a review is moderated by product type; for think products, longer reviews yield higher helpfulness. Furthermore, the level of consistency between individual review ratings and overall product ratings is associated with review helpfulness. The length of product descriptions and product ratings is moderated by the level of involvement. For products with high involvement, longer descriptions yield higher helpfulness.
Originality/value
A conceptual connection to customer interaction is proposed by online customer reviews that vary by product type. The findings provide implications for online retailers to better manage online customer reviews and increase the value of product ratings.
Keywords
Citation
Jia, H., Shin, S. and Jiao, J. (2022), "Does the length of a review matter in perceived helpfulness? The moderating role of product experience", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 221-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-04-2020-0086
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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