The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies (한국전자거래학회지)

Society for e-Business Studies (한국전자거래학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Factors Affecting the Usefulness of Online Reviews: The Moderating Role of Price

온라인 리뷰 유용성에 영향을 미치는 요인: 가격의 조절 효과

  • Yun, Jiyun (TIME Technical Support) ;
  • Ro, Yuna (College of Business School, Seoul National University) ;
  • Kwon, Boram (College of Business School, Seoul National University) ;
  • Jahng, Jungjoo (College of Business School, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2022.03.18
  • Accepted : 2022.05.09
  • Published : 2022.05.31
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

This study analyzes yelp's online restaurant reviews written in 2019 and explores the factors influencing the decision of the usefulness for online reviews in the restaurant consumption decision process. Specifically, factors expected to affect review usefulness are classified according to the Elaboration Likelihood model. Also, it is assumed that the price range of the restaurant would have a moderating role. For the analysis, datasets provided by yelp.com in February 2020 are used. Among the datasets, online reviews of businesses located in Nevada in the US and belonging to the Food and Restaurant categories are targeted. As a result of the negative binomial regression analysis, it is confirmed that the central cues including review depth and readability and the peripheral cues including review consistency, reviewer popularity, and reviewer exposure positively affect the review usefulness. It is also confirmed that the influences of antecedents that affect the review restaurant prices moderate the effect of the central and peripheral cues on the review usefulness. It also provides implications for the need for price-differentiated review management strategies by review platforms and restaurant businesses.

본 연구는 yelp.com에서 2019년 작성된 온라인 음식점 리뷰를 분석하고, 음식점 소비 의사결정 과정에서 온라인 리뷰의 유용성 결정에 영향을 미치는 요인을 탐색한다. 구체적으로 리뷰 유용성에 영향을 미칠 것으로 예상되는 요인들을 정교화 가능성 모델에 따라 분류하고, 레스토랑의 가격대에 따라 그 영향이 달라질 것이라고 가정하였다. 2020년 2월 yelp.com에서 제공한 데이터 중, 미국 네바다주에 위치한 Food and Restaurant 카테고리에 속하는 업체들의 온라인 리뷰를 분석 대상으로 하였다. 음이항회귀분석 결과, 리뷰 깊이, 가독성을 포함한 중심단서 및 리뷰 일관성, 리뷰어 인기, 리뷰어 노출을 포함한 주변 단서가 리뷰 유용성에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었다. 또한 음식점의 가격대가 높아질수록 리뷰 유용성에 영향을 미치는 선행요인의 영향이 달라지는 것으로 확인되었다. 본 연구는 레스토랑 가격이 리뷰의 유용성에 대한 중심 및 주변 단서의 영향을 조절한다는 것을 밝혔으며, 또한 리뷰 플랫폼과 외식업에 가격에 따라 차별화된 리뷰 관리 전략의 필요성에 대한 시사점을 제공한다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

본 논문은 서울대학교 경영대학 경영연구소 연구비 지원으로 수행되었습니다.

References

  1. Baek, H. M., Ahn, J. H., and Choi, Y. S., "Helpfulness of online consumer reviews: Readers' objectives and review cues," International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 99-126, 2012. https://doi.org/10.2753/jec1086-4415170204
  2. Baek, H. M., Ahn, J. H., and Ha, S. W., "Identifying factors affecting helpfulness of online reviews: The moderating role of product price," The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 93-112, 2011. https://doi.org/10.7838/JSEBS.2011.16.3.093
  3. Beuscart, J. S., Mellet, K., and Trespeuch, M., "Reactivity without legitimacy? Online consumer reviews in the restaurant industry," Journal of Cultural Economy, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 458-475, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2016.1210534
  4. Chaiken, S. and Eagly, A. H., "Communication modality as a determinant of message persuasiveness and message comprehensibility," Journal of personality and social psychology, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 605-614, 1976. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.34.4.605
  5. Chen, M. Y., "Can two-sided messages increase the helpfulness of online reviews?," Online Information Review, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 316-332, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2015-0225
  6. Cheng, Y. H. and Ho, H. Y., "Social influence's impact on reader perceptions of online reviews," Journal of Business Research, Vol. 68, No. 4, pp. 883-887, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.046
  7. Cheung, M. Y., Luo, C., Sia, C. L., and Chen, H., "Credibility of electronic wordof-mouth: Informational and normative determinants of on-line consumer recommendations," International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 9-38, 2009. https://doi.org/10.2753/JEC1086-4415130402
  8. Cho, S. H. and Yi, M. Y., "Business implications of the factors that determine online review helpfulness," Entrue Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 29-40, 2014.
  9. Clemons, E. K., Gao, G. G., and Hitt, L. M., "When online reviews meet hyperdifferentiation: A study of the craft beer industry," Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 149-171, 2006. https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222230207
  10. Cruz, R. A. and Lee, H. J., "The effects of sentiment and readability on useful votes for customer reviews with count type review usefulness index," Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 43-61, 2016. https://doi.org/10.13088/JIIS.2016.22.1.043
  11. Fang, B., Ye, Q., Kucukusta, D., and Law, R., "Analysis of the perceived value of online tourism reviews: Influence of readability and reviewer characteristics," Tourism Management, Vol. 52, pp. 498-506, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.07.018
  12. Filieri, R., Hofacker, C. F., and Alguezaui, S., "What makes information in online consumer reviews diagnostic over time? The role of review relevancy, factuality, currency, source credibility and ranking score," Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 80, pp. 122-131, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.039
  13. Ghose, A. and Ipeirotis, P. G., "Estimating the helpfulness and economic impact of product reviews: Mining text and reviewer characteristics," IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering, Vol. 23, No. 10, pp. 1498-1512, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2010.188
  14. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., and Tatham, R. L., Multivariate data analysis, Vol. 5, No. 3, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.
  15. Herr, P. M., Kardes, F. R., and Kim, J., "Effects of word-of-mouth and product-attribute information on persuasion: An accessibility-diagnosticity perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 454-462, 1991. https://doi.org/10.1086/208570
  16. Johnson, E. J. and Payne, J. W., "Effort and accuracy in choice," Management Science, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 395-414, 1985. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.31.4.395
  17. Kim, S. M., Pantel, P., Chklovski, T., and Pennacchiotti, M., "Automatically assessing review helpfulness," In Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pp. 423-430, 2006.
  18. Kusumasondjaja, S., Shanka, T., and Marchegiani, C., "Credibility of online reviews and initial trust: The roles of reviewer's identity and review valence," Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 185-195, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766712449365
  19. Kwon, J. and Lee, M. Y., "A study on the determining factors of online review helpfulness," Journal of Korea Intelligent information Systems Society, pp. 205-211, 2012.
  20. Lascu, D. N., Bearden, W. O., and Rose, R. L., "Norm extremity and interpersonal influences on consumer conformity," Journal of Business Research, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 201-212, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(94)00046-H
  21. Lee, E. J. and Shin, S. Y., "When do consumers buy online product reviews? Effects of review quality, product type, and reviewer's photo," Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 31, pp. 356-366, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.050
  22. Lee, H. A., Chung, N. H., and Koo, C. M., "The relational analysis between types of online hotel review and usefulness according to the hotel class," Korea Management Review, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 137-156, 2017. https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2017.46.1.137
  23. Lee, J., Park, D. H., and Han, I., "The effect of negative online consumer reviews on product attitude: An information processing view," Electronic commerce research and applications, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 341-352, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2007.05.004
  24. Lin, L., Gang, R., Hong, T., and Yang, S. B., "Exploring simultaneous presentation in online restaurant reviews: An analysis of textual and visual content," Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 181-202, 2019. https://doi.org/10.14329/apjis.2019.29.2.181
  25. Liu, Z. and Park, S., "What makes a useful online review? Implication for travel product websites," Tourism Management, Vol. 47, pp. 140-151, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.09.020
  26. Lopes, A. I., Dens, N., De Pelsmacker, P., and De Keyzer, F., "Which cues influence the perceived usefulness and credibility of an online review? A conjoint analysis," Online Information Review, Vol. 45, Vo. 1, pp. 1-20, 2021.
  27. Lu, X., Ba, S., Huang, L., and Feng, Y., "Promotional marketing or word-of-mouth? Evidence from online restaurant reviews," Information Systems Research, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 596-612, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1120.0454
  28. Ludwig, S., De Ruyter, K., Friedman, M., Bruggen, E. C., Wetzels, M., and Pfann, G., "More than words: The influence of affective content and linguistic style matches in online reviews on conversion rates," Journal of Marketing, Vol. 77, No. 1, pp. 87-103, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.11.0560
  29. Manganari, E. E. and Dimara, E., "Enhancing the impact of online hotel reviews through the use of emoticons," Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol. 36, No. 7, pp. 674-686, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2016.1275807
  30. Mudambi, S. M. and Schuff, D., "Research note: What makes a helpful online review? A study of customer reviews on Amazon.com," MIS Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 185-200, 2010. https://doi.org/10.2307/20721420
  31. Nakayama, M. and Wan, Y., "The cultural impact on social commerce: A sentiment analysis on Yelp ethnic restaurant reviews," Information & Management, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 271-279, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2018.09.004
  32. Park, C. and Lee, T. M., "Information direction, website reputation and eWOM effect: A moderating role of product type," Journal of Business Research, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 61-67, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.11.017
  33. Park, D. H., Lee, J., and Han, I., "The effect of on-line consumer reviews on consumer purchasing intention: The moderating role of involvement," International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 125-148, 2007. https://doi.org/10.2753/JEC1086-4415110405
  34. Petty, R. E. and Cacioppo, J. T., "The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion," Communication and Persuasion, Springer, New York, NY, pp. 1-24, 1986.
  35. Schindler, R. M. and Bickart, B., "Perceived helpfulness of online consumer reviews: The role of message content and style," Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 234-243, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.1372
  36. Schuckert, M., Liu, X., and Law, R., "Hospitality and tourism online reviews: Recent trends and future directions," Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 608-621, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2014.933154
  37. Treisman, A. M. and Phil, D., "Selective attention in man," British Medical Bulletin, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 12-16, 1964. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a070274
  38. Veale, R. and Quester, P., "Do consumer expectations match experience? Predicting the influence of price and country of origin on perceptions of product quality," International Business Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 134-144, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2009.01.004
  39. Wang, E. Y., Fong, L. H. N., and Law, R., Review helpfulness: the influences of price cues and hotel class, In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020, Springer, Cham, pp. 280-291, 2020.
  40. Weiss, A. M., Lurie, N. H., and MacInnis, D. J., "Listening to strangers: whose responses are valuable, how valuable are they, and why?," Journal of marketing Research, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 425-436, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.45.4.425
  41. Willemsen, L. M., Neijens, P. C., Bronner, F., and De Ridder, J. A., "Highly recommended!" The content characteristics and perceived usefulness of online consumer reviews," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 19-38, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2011.01551.x
  42. Yang, S. B., Lee, S., Lee, J., and Koo, C., "An empirical examination of online restaurant reviews on Yelp. com: A dual coding theory perspective," International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 817-839, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2015-0643
  43. Ye, Q., Zhang, Z., and Law, R., "Sentiment classification of online reviews to travel destinations by supervised machine learning approaches," Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 6527-6535, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2008.07.035
  44. Zhu, L., Yin, G., and He, W., "Is this opinion leader's review useful? Peripheral cues for online review helpfulness," Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 267-280, 2014.