• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.153-173
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• 2022

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.