Measurement of online review helpfulness: a formative measure development and validation

Existing measures of Review Helpfulness do not systematically capture the helpfulness of a review according to the content quality of the review. In a bid to answer this issue, we have developed and validated a formative measurement instrument of review helpfulness based on key review characteristics namely: (i) feature-wise information, (ii) comparison with other brands, (iii) grammar, and (iv) timeliness of the review post. This study adopted a mixed method approach to develop the construct. Focus groups were used to elicit the review characteristics that determine review helpfulness. Pre-tests were conducted to finalize the product and brand for which online reviews were to be assessed. Study has used orthogonal design for building survey questionnaires which contained example reviews with varying levels of the review characteristics. After validating the formative measure of review helpfulness, the theoretical as well as managerial implications of the measure were also discussed in detail.

Automated summary

Existing measures of Review Helpfulness fail to capture the impact of content quality on the helpfulness of a review. This study introduces and validates a formative measurement instrument based on key review characteristics, using mixed methods including focus groups and pre-tests.