Keyword

e-commerce; gist helpfulness; online review; online recommendations; purchase behaviors

Abstract

          The online-purchase trends suggest that consumers’ online reviews have become very important for customers and the sellers in purchase decisions and product sales respectively. Although the significance of online reviews has been examined, there are research gaps in studies on how to make title of online reviews helpful. The paper explores the traits that influence the formation of title of online reviews. 
           The study proposes gist helpfulness for the title of online reviews adopting elements such as online recommendation, online reviewer, and online review timeline, online review indicator. Our analysis of data from survey of 528 customers shows that daily use of internet positively influences gist helpfulness. The analysis was conducted through binary logistic regression. It is found that review depth and online reading experience have significance over gist helpfulness. The approach in this study is empirical where it attempts to improvise selection of reading reviews based on titles. The scope of the study is as such that it can be adopted by online companies to upgrade the current online review system and enrich customer experience to maintain relationship with their users. Besides, this paper aims to develop a normative model considering important strategic issues to develop an insight related to consumer reviews.


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9. Appendix A: Categorical Variables Coding

 

Frequency

Parameter coding

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Hours daily

Less than 1 hour (Reference group)

24

.000

.000

.000

.000

Hours daily (1)

1-2 hours

156

1.000

.000

.000

.000

Hours daily (2)

3-4 hours

180

.000

1.000

.000

.000

Hours daily (3)

5-6 hours

64

.000

.000

1.000

.000

Hours daily (4)

more than 6 hours

104

.000

.000

.000

1.000

online review reading

No reviews (Reference group)

28

.000

.000

.000

.000

online review reading (1)

1- 3 reviews

136

1.000

.000

.000

.000

online review reading (2)

4-7 reviews

184

.000

1.000

.000

.000

online review reading (3)

7-10 reviews

80

.000

.000

1.000

.000

online review reading (4)

more than 10 reviews

100

.000

.000

.000

1.000

Access medium

PC (Reference group)

80

.000

.000

 

 

Access medium (1)

Tablet

8

1.000

.000

 

 

Access medium (2)

Smartphone

440

.000

1.000

 

 

review_indepth

No (Reference group)

312

.000

 

 

 

review_indepth (1)

Yes

216

1.000

 

 

 

Access place

At home (Reference group)

456

.000

 

 

 

Access place (1)

At work

72

1.000

 

 

 

photos_inreview

No (Reference group)

188

.000

 

 

 

photos_inreview (1)

Yes

340

1.000