The role of explained actions and reactions in the helpfulness of online reviews

Mengmeng Zhan (), Liping Liu, Xiaoxue Wang and Ran Ju
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Mengmeng Zhan: Wuhan University
Liping Liu: Nanjing Normal University
Xiaoxue Wang: Nanjing Normal University
Ran Ju: The Ohio State University

Electronic Commerce Research, 2025, vol. 25, issue 3, No 22, 2067-2096

Abstract: Abstract Online review helpfulness has been a hot topic of discussion among academics and practitioners. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the two types of explanation content, explained actions and explained reactions, on online review helpfulness, along with the moderating effects of product type and sentiment polarity. We developed and empirically examined the proposed hypotheses with data collected from 57,491 product reviews and 415 experimental participants. The word-of-bag was used for measuring the explanation content (explained actions and explained reactions), and negative binomial regression results showed that both explained actions and explained reactions in the reviews have positive effects on review helpfulness. The main results were further verified by three experiments with strict controls. The current study could help online retailers identify the most helpful review, thereby reducing consumer search costs and helping reviewers contribute more valuable online reviews.

Keywords: Explained actions; Explained reactions; Online review helpfulness; Product type; Sentiment polarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10660-023-09752-y

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