ABSTRACT

Studies have yielded mixed findings on the helpfulness determinants of online reviews in tourism and hospitality. To address this issue and unveil the overall sizes of helpfulness determinants, this research presents a systematic bare-bones meta-analysis of the six most investigated helpfulness determinants based on 86 effect sizes from 27 primary studies. Results reveal that the corrected mean effect sizes of four significant determinants – review length, reviewer expertise, review age, and profile disclosure – are 0.218, 0.064, 0.053, and 0.036, respectively; the effect sizes of two other determinants, review valence and readability, appear insignificant. Subgroup analyses also highlight several moderating factors related to effect sizes: service type, year of data collection, and helpfulness measurement. Overall, reviewer expertise and profile disclosure show larger effect sizes for restaurants (vs. hotels). The effect sizes of review valence and reviewer expertise are also found to decline over time while that of review profile increases.

摘要

关于在线评论对旅游业和酒店业的帮助决定因素，研究得出了不同的结果。为了解决这个问题并揭示有用性决定因素的总体规模，本研究基于来自27项主要研究的86种效应量，对六个研究最多的有用性决定因素进行了系统的系统荟萃分析。结果显示，四个重要决定因素的校正后平均效应大小分别为0.218、0.064、0.053和0.036，分别是评论时间，评论专家，评论年龄和个人资料披露。其他两个决定因素（复查价和可读性）的影响大小似乎微不足道。子组分析还强调了与影响大小相关的几个调节因素：服务类型，数据收集年份和帮助度评估。总体，评论者的专业知识和个人资料披露显示，餐厅（与酒店）的影响更大。随着时间的流逝，审查价和审查者专长的影响规模也逐渐下降，而审查概况的影响规模却随着时间的推移而下降。