Determinants of Votes of Helpfulness for Chinese Online Customer Reviews: A Moderating Effect of Product Type

Abstract

Abstract:

Currently, helpfulness voting mechanism of online consumer reviews used by e-commerce websites helps consumers cope with information overload and facilitates purchase decision-making. However, many online consumer reviews do not have sufficient helpfulness votes. As such, the process of effectively identifying and taking advantage of helpful reviews becomes a major focused area of scholars. This study empirically explores and identifies the determinants of helpfulness votes on online consumer reviews for search goods and experience goods on Amazon.cn. Our findings show that product type moderates the effect of review extremity on the helpfulness of the review. Our findings are expected to help consumers to better understand the helpfulness of online reviews and help e-commerce websites enhance their online review systems to receive more helpfulness votes.

Key words: votes for helpfulness, online customer reviews, e-WOM, search goods, experience goods

Wang Zhisheng, Li Huiying, Sun Rui. Determinants of Votes of Helpfulness for Chinese Online Customer Reviews: A Moderating Effect of Product Type[J]. , 2016, 28(7): 143-153.

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