Amidst the rising attention given to online reviews (i.e., consumers’ third-party evaluations of the product(s) or service(s) advertised on a website; Korfiatis, García-Bariocanal, and Sánchez-Alonso, 2012), as well as the proliferation of online review websites that facilitate travellers’ quest for information, little research has been devoted to whether tourists’ positive judgments are associated with the length (i.e., the number of words) of their reviews. The existing literature on this topic reports mixed and contradictory findings. For instance, Kwok and Xie (2016) found that review length has no effect on the perceived helpfulness of reviews; on the contrary, Fang, Ye, Kucukusta, and Law (2016) found this effect to be positive. Likewise, Liu and Park (2015) showed that review length has a positive impact on the review’s perceived usefulness, but Filieri, Hofacker, and Alguezaui (2018) found that it has no positive effect on perceived information diagnosticity. Finally, González-Rodríguez, Martínez-Torres, and Toral (2016) found that longer reviews provide more detailed information and are perceived as more helpful than shorter ones. However, Boo and Busser (2017) observed that the lengthier the review is, the less likely people are to recommend it. Additionally, prior research has mainly investigated review length in terms of text understandability and expressiveness (e.g., Korfiatis, García-Bariocanal, and Sánchez-Alonso, 2012), or text elaborateness (Liu and Park, 2015), or otherwise used it as a control variable (Tsang and Prendergast, 2009). Thus, there appears to be a scarcity of research investigating the possible linkage between review length and tourists’ appraisal of hotel stays. The aim of this study is to investigate whether tourists tend to report lengthier reviews according to the different rating type (i.e., favorable vs. unfavorable overall judgment) they attribute to the hotel where they stayed. Hence, as negative (unfavorable) reviews are often associated with complaints, and customers are inclined to consider negative information more diagnostic and informative than positive information (these reviews tend to describe in detail the negative patterns that cause guest dissatisfaction, cf. Berezina, Bilgihan, Cobanoglu, and Okumus, 2016), we hypothesize that unfavorable reviews are generally longer than favorable ones (H1). The study also assesses whether these effects vary on the basis of the structure classification (i.e., 3-, or 5-star hotels), as different hotel categories may lead to different consumer expectations. As hotel star class (HSC) is a well- established international scheme, thus reflecting the varying quality and services owned by hotels (Fang et al., 2016; Hu and Chen, 2016), we hypothesize that unfavorable reviews are significantly lengthier than favorable ones only for 5- star hotels (H2a). Additionally, we hypothesize that differences in emotional tone for unfavorable reviews are higher for 5-star hotels, as consumers place higher expectations on their quality and, therefore, tend to judge a possible disservice in more negative terms (H2b). Finally, the study examines whether the different rating type is also associated with further differences in the reviewers’ communication style: namely, the positive emotional tone of the review, and the use of words related to affective and cognitive processes when describing their experiences through the reviews. Hence, as favorable reviews tend to share positive feelings toward the experience, while unfavorable ones aim to describe unsatisfactory situations or to illustrate the reasons for complaint, we hypothesize that the former score higher on affective processes and the latter score higher on cognitive processes (H3).
When Less Is More and More Is Less: Review Length and Communication Styles in Online Hotel Rating
Pichierri Marco;
2019-01-01
Abstract
Amidst the rising attention given to online reviews (i.e., consumers’ third-party evaluations of the product(s) or service(s) advertised on a website; Korfiatis, García-Bariocanal, and Sánchez-Alonso, 2012), as well as the proliferation of online review websites that facilitate travellers’ quest for information, little research has been devoted to whether tourists’ positive judgments are associated with the length (i.e., the number of words) of their reviews. The existing literature on this topic reports mixed and contradictory findings. For instance, Kwok and Xie (2016) found that review length has no effect on the perceived helpfulness of reviews; on the contrary, Fang, Ye, Kucukusta, and Law (2016) found this effect to be positive. Likewise, Liu and Park (2015) showed that review length has a positive impact on the review’s perceived usefulness, but Filieri, Hofacker, and Alguezaui (2018) found that it has no positive effect on perceived information diagnosticity. Finally, González-Rodríguez, Martínez-Torres, and Toral (2016) found that longer reviews provide more detailed information and are perceived as more helpful than shorter ones. However, Boo and Busser (2017) observed that the lengthier the review is, the less likely people are to recommend it. Additionally, prior research has mainly investigated review length in terms of text understandability and expressiveness (e.g., Korfiatis, García-Bariocanal, and Sánchez-Alonso, 2012), or text elaborateness (Liu and Park, 2015), or otherwise used it as a control variable (Tsang and Prendergast, 2009). Thus, there appears to be a scarcity of research investigating the possible linkage between review length and tourists’ appraisal of hotel stays. The aim of this study is to investigate whether tourists tend to report lengthier reviews according to the different rating type (i.e., favorable vs. unfavorable overall judgment) they attribute to the hotel where they stayed. Hence, as negative (unfavorable) reviews are often associated with complaints, and customers are inclined to consider negative information more diagnostic and informative than positive information (these reviews tend to describe in detail the negative patterns that cause guest dissatisfaction, cf. Berezina, Bilgihan, Cobanoglu, and Okumus, 2016), we hypothesize that unfavorable reviews are generally longer than favorable ones (H1). The study also assesses whether these effects vary on the basis of the structure classification (i.e., 3-, or 5-star hotels), as different hotel categories may lead to different consumer expectations. As hotel star class (HSC) is a well- established international scheme, thus reflecting the varying quality and services owned by hotels (Fang et al., 2016; Hu and Chen, 2016), we hypothesize that unfavorable reviews are significantly lengthier than favorable ones only for 5- star hotels (H2a). Additionally, we hypothesize that differences in emotional tone for unfavorable reviews are higher for 5-star hotels, as consumers place higher expectations on their quality and, therefore, tend to judge a possible disservice in more negative terms (H2b). Finally, the study examines whether the different rating type is also associated with further differences in the reviewers’ communication style: namely, the positive emotional tone of the review, and the use of words related to affective and cognitive processes when describing their experiences through the reviews. Hence, as favorable reviews tend to share positive feelings toward the experience, while unfavorable ones aim to describe unsatisfactory situations or to illustrate the reasons for complaint, we hypothesize that the former score higher on affective processes and the latter score higher on cognitive processes (H3).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
