Impacts of temporal contiguity on creation and consumption of e-WOM in hotel context: A combined perspective of review rating and text

Abstract

This study aims to explore the impacts of temporal contiguity (i.e., time proximity between review writing and consumption) on review helpfulness. Integrating construal level theory and attribution theory, this study constructs a moderated mediation model to uncover the direct and indirect impact of temporal contiguity and the moderating effect of experience valence. Utilizing 140,578 hotel reviews collected from TripAdvisor, this study conducts the two-step analysis and demonstrates the findings as follows: (a) the main effect of temporal contiguity on review helpfulness is positive and significant; (b) temporal contiguity is associated with the strengthening of review extremity and review depth, which leads to a further increase in review helpfulness, moreover, the mediation effects are partial; (c) experience valence significantly moderates the mediation effects, but insignificant in the direct path. The mediation effects are stronger for negative experiences than for positive ones. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.