Is a most helpful eWOM review really helpful? The impact of conflicting aggregate valence and consumer’s goals on product attitude

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of signaling a review as the most helpful review according to other users’ votes on product attitude. Thus, the first study focuses on the influence of signaling a review as the most helpful on consumer attitude and analyzes whether the interaction between that signaled review and incongruent aggregate information in valence clarify the main effect. Additionally, the authors further investigate whether the level of fit between the consumer’s goals and the content of the signaled review moderates the initial effect.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted two experiments: a 3 (presence of most helpful review) × 2 (overall valence) between-subjects design and a 2 (presence of a most helpful review) × 3 (level of fit between the consumers’ goals and the most helpful review content) × 2 (overall valence) design.Findings– The results confirm that the presence of a “most helpful” review whose valence is incongruent with the overall valence of the reviews significantly impacts attitude towards the product. Specifically, the authors found that the impact of a review which has been voted as the most helpful on consumers’ attitudes depends on: the congruity between the valence of the most helpful review and the overall average valence of all the reviews received by the product; and the congruity between the consumer’s goals and the most helpful review content.Originality/value– This paper contributes to the electronic WOM literature by examining how signaling a review as the most helpful affects attitude, being that effect moderated by the congruency between that signaled review and the aggregated overall valence of the reviews and the level of fit with the consumer’s goals.