Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216

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Computers in Human Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Why posters contribute different content in their positive online

reviews: A social information-processing perspective
Liping Yan*, Xiucun Wang
School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 South Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: It is becoming increasingly important for service managers and marketers to understand motivations for
Received 8 February 2017 posting online reviews. Previous studies mainly focused on factors influencing consumers' willingness to
Received in revised form post online reviews, but paid little attention to why posters contribute different content in their reviews.
6 January 2018
This study aimed to identify various types of positive online reviews in terms of their content and to
Accepted 9 January 2018
investigate the mechanisms that influence them. Study 1 conducted a content analysis to verify three
types of positive reviews: complimentary, constructive, and prosocial. Study 2 developed a scale to
evaluate the three types of reviews and surveyed 526 members of online travel websites in China to test
Keywords:
Online reviews
our hypotheses with structural equation modeling. Both complimentary and constructive reviews were
Social information processing positively related to posters' beliefs about firms' appreciation and sincerity, which were promoted by
Emotional cues firms' responses to online reviews. Complimentary reviews were positively associated with posters'
Situational cues positive emotions, but negatively affected by belief about a firm's performance-driven motive, which was
Interpretation of cues induced by a firm's request for online reviews. Service quality moderated this negative relationship.
Appreciation from peers and peers' prosocial information contributions had a positive effect on the belief
that peers' need information-support, which in turn, positively affected prosocial reviews.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
“We love this hotel”
Excellent welcome and very comfortable stay in a hotel located
in the 7th arrondissement. Unlike other hotels Le Walt offers great
facilities and service. Loved it! Rooms were air conditioned, calm
and tasteful. (Example 1).
“Thank you”
Very nice and clean hotel. Small room but adequate as I am a
single traveler. Nice dinner on Saturday night. Very pleasant staff
and helpful. Very close to underground station. The only one tiny
drawback is that the bar is closed at 11pm. The hotel is trying very
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: yanliping11@163.com (L. Yan), wangxiucun@bit.edu.cn
(X. Wang).
hard to get an extension of its license. I wouldn't let it put me off
staying there because there are facilities around. Room Tip: I was
on 3rd floor at the front; it was good, didn't notice any noise.
(Example 2).
These two online reviews, which are posted on TripAdvisor.com,
represent just two examples of the ways customers currently use
online opinion platforms to post information about their service
experiences. Online reviews posted on social media sites such as
TripAdvisor.com are increasingly affecting service businesses (Moe
& Schweidel, 2012). Approximately 49% of customers read online
reviews before booking a hotel (Wu, Mattila, Wang, & Hanks, 2016),
and 35% change their travel plans after reading online reviews. As a
result, online reviews have a significant impact on service com-
panies' profitability. For example, a study by Anderson (2012)
showed that a 1% improvement in a merchant's online reputation
would increase revenue by 1.4% per available room. Due to the
impact of online reviews on firms' performance, service managers
are increasingly concerned about consumers' motivations for
posting in order to develop appropriate strategies to promote
positive online reviews (Wu et al., 2016).
In recent years, several academic studies have investigated the
antecedents of online reviews (Dellarocas, Gao, & Narayan, 2010;

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.009
0747-5632/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
200 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
Henning-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004; Litvin, Gold-
smith, & Pan, 2008; Moe & Schweidel, 2012; Nambisan & Baron,
2007; Picazo-Vela, Chou, Melcher, & Pearson, 2010; Schlosser,
2005; Wu et al., 2016; Zhou & Duan, 2015). Most of these studies
have treated online reviews as a unidimensional construct
(Dellarocas et al., 2010; Henning-Thurau et al., 2004; Litvin et al.,
2008; Nambisan & Baron, 2007; Picazo-Vela et al., 2010; Wu et al.,
2016), while a few have treated online reviews as a multidimen-
sional construct based on their valence or publication-based fac-
tors. For example, Schlosser (2005) compared the motives behind
positive reviews and negative reviews. Zhou and Duan (2015)
investigated the interplay between retailer-hosted online reviews
and online reviews hosted by third-party websites. However,
several questions remain regarding the characteristics and moti-
vations of online reviews. For example, both of the online reviews
in examples 1 and 2 have “excellent” ratings, which indicate that
posters' overall evaluation of the hotels is positive. However, it
remains an emerging question how individual posts differ in terms
of specific content (Bone, Fombelle, Ray, & Lemon, 2015). To fill this
gap, the first aim of our study was to investigate different types of
positive online reviews in terms of their specific content.
Two aspects of the antecedents of consumers' willingness to
post online reviews were analyzed in previous research: internal
motivations and external factors. Internal causes include posters'
expectation of helping companies (Henning-Thurau et al., 2004;
Yoo & Gretzel, 2008), concern for other consumers (Litvin et al.,
2008; Munar & Jacobsen, 2014; Verhagen, Swen, Feldberg, &
Merikivi, 2015; Yoo & Gretzel, 2008), seeking a sense of
belonging to online communities (Henning-Thurau et al., 2004;
Nambisan & Baron, 2007), exerting power over companies
(Henning-Thurau et al., 2004), achieving self-enhancement (Munar
& Jacobsen, 2014; Nambisan & Baron, 2007; Verhagen et al., 2015;
Wu et al., 2016; Yoo & Gretzel, 2008), obtaining an economic
reward (Baldus, Voorhees, & Calantone, 2015), expressing positive
emotions, and venting negative feelings (Baldus et al., 2015;
Henning-Thurau et al., 2004; Litvin et al., 2008). The other line of
investigation addressed the effect of external factors on posting
online reviews, such as pressure from sellers (Picazo-Vela et al.,
2010), peer members' postings (Moe & Schweidel, 2012;
Schlosser, 2005), and the perceived market popularity of a prod-
uct (Dellarocas et al., 2010). While most existing studies have
focused on why customers are willing to post online reviews, little
research has examined why posters contribute different types of
content in their online reviews. In addition, although most early
investigations identify psychoanalytic and motivational factors that
may induce the behavior of posting online reviews, few trace the
process of creating online reviews. The social information pro-
cessing (SIP) model proposed by Dodge and Crick (1990) maintains
that an individual's behavior is usually contingent on information-
processing patterns. This processing involves an individual's
perception of, interpretation of, and responses to social cues. In the
context of online reviews, posters are usually embedded in a broad
social network structure in the virtual opinion community (Wang &
Li, 2013) in which service providers and community peers are
important sources of social influence that provide setting-specific
cues (Cheng & Guo, 2015; Moe & Schweidel, 2012; Schamari &
Schaefers, 2015; Verhagen et al., 2015). According to SIP, the
response style of online review posts displays a zone of plasticity
that is conditioned by the processing of setting-specific cues.
Hence, the second aim of the current study was to use the SIP
model to elucidate posters' social information-processing patterns
involved in their contribution of different types of positive online
reviews.
This paper intends to make several contributions. First, it re-
sponds to Bone et al.'s (2015) call to examine whether posts differ in
terms of content, and to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to
identify the various forms of positive online review content. As
such, this study deepens our knowledge of the qualitative nature of
positive online reviews. Second, we develop scales to measure
different forms of positive online reviews, which will provide op-
erators and business practitioners with a tool to measure posters'
contributions in positive online reviews. Finally, we use the SIP
model to elucidate posters' psychological processes that affect their
contribution of different types of positive online reviews. Specif-
ically, posters' interpretations of situational cues are tested as in-
termediate variables within our framework, which has seldom
been attempted in past research. This step should improve our
understanding of the mechanisms underlying the specific social
information processes involved in posting online reviews. Thus, our
results should enable researchers and managers to better under-
stand posters' motivations and should provide platform operators
and business managers with practical guidance for customizing
strategies to motivate posters to make valuable contributions in
their positive reviews.
The rest of the article is organized as follows. In the second
section, we provide a review of the literature related to online re-
view posting behavior and the SIP model. The third section in-
troduces our research's theoretical framework and develops our
hypotheses. In the fourth section (Study 1), we verify three forms of
positive online reviews (i.e., complimentary, constructive, and
prosocial online reviews) by conducting a content analysis. In the
fifth section (Study 2), we develop scales to measure positive online
reviews as multidimensional constructs. Then, we estimate our
theoretical hypotheses and report on the findings using survey data
collected via two online travel websites in China. Finally, we
conclude with a discussion of this study's implications for theory
and practice.
2. Research background
2.1. Online reviews
Online reviews are defined as “user-generated contents that are
posted on e-vendor or third-party websites” (Elwalda, Lü, & Ali,
2016). Previous studies have classified online reviews mainly
from the perspective of a firm or of a potential customer, and most
have categorized them as positive or negative (e.g., Pan & Zhang,
2011; Wei, Li, & Huang, 2013; Zhang, Zhang, & Law, 2014). Other
scholars have identified the attributes of online reviews. For
example, Sparks, Perkins, and Buckley (2013) proposed that online
hotel reviews can be divided into specific content and vague con-
tent. Fang, Ye, Kucukusta, and Law (2016) indicated that text
readability is a crucial characteristic of hotel reviews, while Xiang,
Du, Ma, and Fan (2017) explored the data quality of online reviews
in hospitality and tourism, including their linguistic characteristics,
semantic features, sentiments, and ratings. A recent study by Filieri
(2015) focused not only on the informational cues of online reviews
(e.g., the quality and quantity of information) but also on the
normative cues (e.g., overall ranking score) that help consumers
infer product performance. Filieri (2015) measured the information
quality of online reviews in terms of the dimensions of depth and
breadth, factuality, relevance, and credibility, and an interview
study by Filieri (2016) found that a customer's perception of the
trustworthiness of an online review is influenced by its character-
istics, including the length of the review, the type of information,
the type of detail, the writing style, and the consumer's perspective.
Liu and Park (2015) found that the usefulness of an online con-
sumer review could be positively predicted by its enjoyability and
readability. In the context of electronic commerce, Korfiatis, García-
Bariocanal, and Sa nchez-Alonso (2012) classified product reviews
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
by their comment length and readability, Willemsen, Neijens,
Bronner, and de Ridder (2011) classified online consumer reviews
according to their expertise and argumentation, Huang, Chen, Yen,
and Tran (2015) suggested that the word count of an online review
has effects on its perceived helpfulness, and Elwalda et al. (2016)
classified reviews according to their usefulness, ease of use,
enjoyability, and control. A few existing studies have classified
online reviews from posters' perspective to understand the motives
for posting reviews (Table 1). For example, Moe and Schweidel
(2012) proposed that an individual's behavior regarding the sub-
mission of reviews should be assessed in terms of his or her deci-
sion of whether to contribute (incidence) and what to contribute
(evaluation). Zhou and Duan (2015) classified online reviews into
two categories based on the review's source: word-of-mouth
(WOM) hosted by a retailer (internal WOM) and WOM hosted by
third-party websites (external WOM).
To understand the motives for posting reviews with different
content requires adopting the posters' perspective. van Doorn et al.
(2010) posited that dimensions of online reviews should be viewed
with respect to the post's intended target. Wei et al. (2013) argued
that the targets of online reviews include business firms and po-
tential customers, while Willemsen et al. (2011) reported that these
targets usually include e-venders, suppliers, and logistics providers.
Additionally, Picazo-Vela et al. (2010) reported that the most
frequently mentioned objects in online reviews were in-
termediaries, sellers, manufacturers, and potential customers. In
addition, the value of online reviews for firms is an important
attribute. Kumar et al. (2010) proposed that customers' online re-
views have referral value, knowledge value, and influence value.
Referral value involves current customers converting prospective
customers into actual customers. Additionally, posters provide
knowledge value by helping companies understand customer
preferences (Kumar et al., 2010), while influence value refers to a
customer's ability to enhance a firm's customer base by sharing
information, providing assistance, showing new customers how to
maximize the utility of a product, or minimizing buyer remorse,
thereby reducing defections (Kumar et al., 2010). Our study defined
three types of positive online reviews (i.e., complimentary,
constructive, and prosocial) based on their targets and value.
We defined complimentary online reviews as those describing a
poster's favorite product or service, appreciation, or other compli-
mentary information. Complimentary reviews usually target a
service provider (van Doorn et al., 2010). Although complimentary
reviews are a statement about customers' positive experiences with
or feelings about products or services, they may have referral value.
Constructive online reviews refer to those describing posters'
personal preferences, opinions, or suggestions that may help a
service provider improve its products or services. Constructive re-
views are usually directed toward a service firm. According to
Kumar et al. (2010), constructive reviews can have knowledge
value, and constructive comments may reflect positive attitudes
about and expertise in innovation (Pan & Zhang, 2011), which
implies that they are a form of participatory behavior.
Prosocial online reviews are defined as those containing helpful
tips or advice for peers. Prosocial information shows the poster's
concern about the interests and wellbeing of peer members.
Complimentary or constructive online reviews may also be helpful
to peers, but these two types of reviews are directed toward service
providers, whereas prosocial reviews target peers. Although a
poster's goal in sharing prosocial information is to help others, the
review ultimately has influence value for the firm (Kumar et al.,
2010). Prosocial reviews expand posters' concerns about products
and services to peers' wellbeing. Past studies have applied social
exchange theory and reciprocity theory to understand the moti-
vation of the unidimensional construct of online reviews (Yang, Li,
201
Kim, & Kim, 2015; Cho, Park, & Kim, 2015; Park & Kim, 2014; Chang
& Chuang, 2011; Chan & Li, 2010; Nambisan & Baron, 2010; Porter
& Donthu, 2008; Hsu, Ju, Yen, & Chang, 2007; Lee, Cheung, Lim, &
Sia, 2006). However, the relationship between posters and their
peers in the online community seems difficult to understand in
terms of exchange or reciprocity. Hence, the phenomenon of pro-
social online reviews should encourage researchers to explore the
psychological mechanisms of review posters from a new
perspective.
2.2. Social information-processing model
Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, and Brown (1986) SIP model provides
a theoretical basis to understand why posters include different
content in their positive online reviews. Dodge incorporated attri-
bution theory, decision-making theory, information-processing
theory, and social learning theory and extended these ideas into
an elaborate model of SIP steps. This SIP model proposes that in-
dividuals encode and interpret cues before they act.
The first processing step usually involves selective attention to
particular situational and internal cues. Situational cues are an in-
dividual's perceptions of external information in a particular social
context (Crick & Dodge, 1994), while internal cues include emotions
related to specific events (Crick & Dodge, 1994). Although some
scholars believe that emotional information and social information
are distinct, Greenberg and Safran (1984) argued that affect and
cognition are integrated, as Crick and Dodge (1994) stated that the
separation of thinking and feeling is a sign of psychopathology
rather than the normal state of affairs. In keeping with this view,
Crick and Dodge (1994) proposed that emotions are an integral
component of an individual's perceived cues.
Crick and Dodge's (1994) viewpoint has some empirical support
with respect to online reviews. For example, several situational
cues, including platform assistance, economic incentives (Henning-
Thurau et al., 2004), perceived behavioral control, perceived pres-
sure (Picazo-Vela et al., 2010), and peer opinions (Moe & Schweidel,
2012) influence an individual's willingness to post online reviews.
Moreover, some internal cues, including negative feelings
(Henning-Thurau et al., 2004) and customer attitudes (Picazo-Vela
et al., 2010), affect a poster's contribution to online reviews.
The second step of the SIP model e the interpretation of cues e
involves an individual's interpretations of another's intentions and
attributions about the causes of a stimulus (Crick & Dodge, 1994).
Causal attribution refers to an individual's inferences about why a
particular social event occurred (Crick & Dodge, 1994), and the
causal attribution of social events can help individuals judge the
motivations underlying social events. Additionally, causal attribu-
tion may have a mild or hostile attribution bias; the former may
promote prosocial responses, while the latter may be counterpro-
ductive. For example, Perry and Perry (1987) found that individuals
are more likely to show indifference if they infer that one's mis-
fortunes are their fault (e.g., caused by their own mistakes).
Intentional attributions about a stimulus in the environment can
also affect one's response to the stimulus (Crick & Dodge, 1994). For
example, an individual who infers that others could pose a threat of
harm is more inclined to demonstrate offensive or evasive behav-
iors (Keil & Price, 2009). In the context of online reviews, even
though some research has addressed the influence of environ-
mental cues on reviews, studies have seldom classified or measured
posters' causal and intentional attributions or investigated how
these attributions affect the posting of online reviews.
The next step in the SIP model is response access or construction
(Crick & Dodge, 1994). Once an individual formulates a mental
representation of a stimulus, he/she accesses behavioral responses.
Generally, the construction of responses involves an individual's
202 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216

Table 1
Overview of relevant antecedent factors of online reviews in the virtual community.

Author (s) Online context Construct definition Dimensionality/measures Antecedent factors

Henning-Thurau et al.
(2004)
Schlosser (2005)
Nambisan and Baron (2007)
Litvin et al. (2008)
Yoo and Gretzel (2008)
Dellarocas et al. (2010)
Picazo-Vela et al. (2010)
Moe and Schweidel (2012)
Munar and Jacobsen (2014)
Zhou and Duan (2015)
Wu et al. (2016)
Opinion platforms Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication is Unidimensional/Number of Platform assistance;
defined as “any positive or negative statement made by comments Desire to vent negative
potential, actual, or former customers about a product feelings;
or company, which is made available to a multitude of Concern for others;
people and institutions via the Internet.” P. 39 Extraversion;
Social benefits;
Economic incentives;
Desire to help the
company;
Advice seeking
Opinion website In posting reviews, “individuals inform strangers of Multidimensional/One Another's opinion
their product experiences.” P. 2005 item:
Positive or negative
Online product Customers' interactions in virtual customer Unidimensional/Number of Learning;
forums environment refer to “customers sharing product- postings Social integration;
related information with peer customers as well as Personal integration;
solving peer customers' product usage problems.” P. 43 Hedonic benefits;
Customer attitude
Electronic eWOM can be defined as all informal communications Unidimensional Affect;
media directed at consumers through Internet-based Altruism;
technology related to the usage or characteristics of Self-interest;
particular goods and services or their sellers. Reciprocation
Online travel Online travel reviews refer to a customer's statements Unidimensional Enjoyment/Positive self-
review site about travel-related information on an online travel enhancement;
review site. Desire to vent negative
feelings and collective
power;
Concern for other
Consumers;
Desire to help the company
Online product Online reviews' contribution is defined as “the Unidimensional/Volume of Products' popularity
review forums conditional probability that a ‘representative’ consumer user ratings
of a population will contribute a review for a product
conditional on having purchased it.” P. 129
Online opinion Providing an online review refers to “an individual's Unidimensional/Survey Attitude;
platform willingness to provide an online review.” P. 687 Subject norm;
Perceived behavioral
Control;
Perceived pressure;
Personality
Online social media Online product opinions is defined as an “individual's Multidimensional: Others' posted ratings
decision to provide a product rating.” P. 372 Whether to contribute
(incidence);
What to contribute
(evaluation)
Tourism social Sharing a tourism experience refers to a traveler's Multidimensional: Self-efficacy;
media willingness to provide facts about holiday attributes and Textual content; Self-centered motivations;
to communicate emotions, imaginations and fantasies Visual content Community-related
about features of a holiday. motivations
Online opinion Online word-of-mouth is a “consumer's likelihood to Multidimensional: External WOM
Retail
platform write reviews.” P. 17 Retailer-hosted word-of- sales;
mouth (internal WOM); Free sampling
Retail sales
WOM hosted by third-party
websites (external WOM)
Online travel Willingness to post online reviews is consumers' Unidimensional/Scale Self-enhancement
review site willingness to post feedback about their experiences. P. Motivation
226

idea of how to behave in a particular situation, including the
number of actions and the specific content of these actions. This
study examined three types of online reviews as potential re-
sponses generated by posters, and we applied the SIP model to the
context of online reviews to help us understand the motivations
that lead posters to generate different types of comments in their
positive online reviews.
3. Theoretical framework and hypotheses
We draw on the SIP model and integrate direct and indirect
reciprocity theory, psychological condition theory, and psycholog-
ical reactance theory as the theoretical bases on which to develop
our theoretical framework. In particular, we developed a process-
based model to explore the mechanisms underlying posters' as-
sessments of internal and situational cues, which influence their
willingness to contribute different forms of content in positive
online reviews (see Fig. 1). Past research suggested that the situa-
tional cues that affect online reviews are related primarily to the
service provider (Henning-Thurau et al., 2004; Picazo-Vela et al.,
2010; Schamari & Schaefers, 2015; Verhagen et al., 2015; Verleye,
Gemmel, & Rangarajan, 2014; van Doorn et al., 2010) and peer
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216 203

members in a virtual community (Moe & Schweidel, 2012;
Schlosser, 2005; Verleye et al., 2014). The current study examined
cues from service firms, including management responses to and
requests for online reviews. In the subsequent theoretical analyses,
we limited the scope of service firms to the hotels covered by online
travel communities (e.g., TripAdvisor.com, Ctrip.com and Qunar.
com). This study also considered the cues from peer members,
such as appreciation from peers and prosocial information
contributed by peers. Posters' interpretations of situational cues
were tested as mediating variables within our framework, which
has seldom been attempted in past research.
3.1. Posters' emotional cues
Crick and Dodge (1994) considered emotions to be internal cues
that cannot be ignored when processing social information.
Customer emotions are defined as feelings induced by stimuli
during consumption (Namkung & Jang, 2010). Emotions are
enduring feelings that play a decisive role in the interaction of
customers and organizations (e.g., Liu, Sparks, & Coghlan, 2016;
Mattila & Ro, 2008; Namkung & Jang, 2010) because people usu-
ally make judgments based on their emotional responses to
external events (Namkung & Jang, 2010). Furthermore, studies have
found that intuitive responses have a greater effect on individual
decision-making than reflective thinking does (Shiv & Fedorikhin,
1999).
We expected that posters' positive emotions will positively affect
their willingness to provide complimentary online reviews. Posters'
positive emotions entail positive feelings induced by satisfying
services or products, such as joy, fun, and enjoyment (Harwood &
Garry, 2015; Namkung & Jang, 2010). Research has confirmed that
positive emotions arising from service experiences with organiza-
tions can lead to positive WOM and/or re-patronage (Liu et al.,
2016; Namkung & Jang, 2010; Verleye et al., 2014). Based on so-
cial exchange theory (Blau, 1964), we believe that a reciprocal
motive underlies complimentary online reviews. The reciprocity
norm is a basic principle in social-exchange relationships and is
defined as a form of interaction that centers on mutuality, which
may stem from calculating the benefit of an “exchange” or from a
sense of obligation or duty (Gobel, Vogel, & Weber, 2013). Social
exchange by one party engenders a diffuse obligation in the other
party to reciprocate (Bettencourt, 1997). We propose that positive
emotions enhance customers' willingness to submit complimen-
tary online reviews because they believe that this step honors the
service provider. In addition, Yoo and Gretzel (2008) stated that
customers' positive experience with a product/service creates an
inherent psychological tension, and sharing their positive feelings
with other people alleviates this tension. Hence, we speculate that
customers' compliments about service providers through online
communities can be considered a way to alleviate the tension
arising from positive feelings. Based on the discussion above, we
propose the following hypothesis.
H1. Posters' positive emotions are positively related to compli-
mentary online reviews.
3.2. Cues from service firms
Situational cues from service firms are considered the major
factors affecting online reviews (e.g., Henning-Thurau et al., 2004;
Picazo-Vela et al., 2010). This study investigated two kinds of
objective situational cues: management responses to online re-
views and online review requests.
Management responses to online reviews refer to a poster's
perception that service providers actively respond to customers'
online reviews. This behavior is regarded as engagement in an
online interaction with consumers (Gu & Ye, 2014; Li, Cui, & Peng,
2017; Nguyen & Coudounaris, 2015; Schamari & Schaefers, 2015;
Wei et al., 2013). Drawing on resource exchange theory (Foa,
1971), some service providers not only provide core products, ser-
vices, and information for customers but also care about customers'
emotional needs to improve the communication quality of the two

Service quality
Poster's internal cues

Positive emotion H1 H7

Belief about a firm's H4a

Cues from service firms Conplimentary online review
H2a appreciaton
H4b
Management responses to
online reviews H2b
H5a
Belief about a firm's
Constructive online review
sincerity H5b
Requests for online reivews H4c
H3

Belief about a firm's H6

Cues from peer members performance-driven motive Prosocial online review

Appreciation from peers H9

Peers' prosocial information
contribution
H8a
Belief about peers' need for Control variable:
information support Venting negative feelings
H8b

Fig. 1. Proposed conceptual framework.

204 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
parties. Customers have an emotional need for others to recognize
and appreciate their effort. Beliefs about a firm's appreciation refer to
posters' perceptions of a firm's gratitude for and recognition of
customers for their contributions. Previous studies indicate that
firms' management responses to online reviews promote cus-
tomers' beliefs about a firm's appreciation. For example, Schamari
and Schaefers (2015) reported that service providers' online re-
sponses to online reviews promote customers' perceptions of a
brand's humanity. Li et al. (2017) proposed that a hotel's effective
online management response increases customers' perception of
the organization's concern and caring for its customers. A recent
qualitative study by Wei et al. (2013) found that customers believe
one of the reasons for firms' responses to online reviews is to ex-
press their gratitude to customers. Hence, we propose that a firm's
management responses to online reviews e especially positive
online reviews e can be considered to reflect the firm's caring and
appreciation for posters' efforts to provide commentary.
We also expect that online management responses to posted
reviews promote a poster's belief about a firm's sincerity, which
entails a poster's inference about a firm's openness and trustwor-
thiness. A survey by Wei et al. (2013) indicated that some cus-
tomers attribute online management responses to the merchant's
professionalism and trustworthiness. Similarly, Porter and Donthu
(2008) reported that the interaction between businesses and cus-
tomers on social platforms enhance customers' trust and their
perception that the firm respects its customers. Gu and Ye (2014)
confirmed that responding to customers' comments promotes
customer perceptions of a firm's fairness in delivering services.
Schamari and Schaefers (2015) found that a firm's response to
online comments gave customers the impression of “open”
communication. We propose that firms' responses to online re-
views also promote posters' causal attributions about firms to
sincerely and willingly communicate openly with customers. Thus,
we offer the following hypothesis.
H2. Posters' perceptions of service firms' online responses are
positively related to their beliefs about a firm's (a) appreciation and
(b) sincerity.
Service providers often use emails, phone calls, or face-to-face
invitations to invite or attempt to persuade customers to submit
online comments; these actions are called service firms' requests for
online reviews. From the perspective of service providers, some
scholars of CRM strategies agree that efforts that encourage cus-
tomers to generate positive e-WOM are aimed at acquiring new
customers (Kumar et al., 2010; van Doorn et al., 2010). Picazo-Vela
et al. (2010) found that sellers who believe they provide good
products and/or services may attempt to push customers to submit
online reviews because these reviews may increase their ratings as
preferred sellers and boost their sales. From customers' standpoint,
the link between service providers' requests for online reviews and
promoting their performance is likely taken for granted. Past
research confirms that customers' perceptions of a business are
formed in two main ways: direct experience and indirect experi-
ence (Gursoy & McCleary, 2004; Xu & Chan, 2010). Direct experi-
ence includes mainly customers' personal experience, whereas
indirect experience refers to the effect of mass media or other in-
formation sources (Meyer & Schwager, 2007). Due to the increased
development of online media, indirect experience plays an
increasingly important role in customers' perceptions of businesses
(Wei et al., 2013). Reports of fake and promotional reviews appear
regularly in online media (Filieri, 2016; Li, 2016; Zhao, 2016). In
addition to the mass media, customers are often encouraged by
businesses to post online reviews by providing different incentives
(e.g., small economic rewards) (Ahrens, Coyle, & Strahilevitz, 2013).
We propose that customers' indirect and/or direct experiences
contribute to their attribution of requests for online reviews to
firms' performance-driven motives. Thus, we hypothesize the
following.
H3. Posters' perceptions of requests for online reviews are posi-
tively related to beliefs about a firm's performance-driven motive.
Previous studies have indicated that individuals ascribe
anthropomorphic dispositional traits to an organization (e.g.,
Aaker, 1997). Hence, studies on an individual's gratitude provide a
theoretical reference point for understanding a business's grati-
tude. Past studies have shown that people who are more appre-
ciative of their partners during dyadic interactions will give an
outside observer the impression of being relatively more respon-
sive and committed during dyadic interactions (Gordon, Impett,
Kogan, Oveis, & Keltner, 2012). Algoe (2012) stated, “perceived
responsiveness sends the message that the responsive person un-
derstands, approves, or cares about others.” Additionally, perceived
responsiveness leads the grateful partner to have a higher level of
social support from outside observers (Wood, Maltby, Gillett,
Linley, & Joseph, 2008). Indirect reciprocity theory (Alexander,
1987) provides a theoretical basis for third-party observers' social
support. Indirect reciprocity suggests that when an outside
observer sees a partner's reputable behaviors during dyadic in-
teractions, he will join the interaction and provide support for the
reputable partner (Alexander, 1987). Although outside observers
cannot obtain direct benefits from their supportive behaviors, these
behaviors are deemed as instinctive actions that stem from social
cooperation, which could promote the wellbeing of society as a
whole in the long run (Nowak & Highfield, 2011).
In the context of our study, firms that were appreciative of
posters left observing customers with the impression that they
were responsive, committed, and willing to solidify a connection
with posters. According to previous studies (e.g., Bartlett &
DeSteno, 2006), grateful firms are deemed as being trustworthy
because they have repaid a provided benefit. According to indirect
reciprocity theory, observing customers are more likely to provide
positive online reviews for grateful firms than for ungrateful firms,
with all else being equal. In the context of our study, providing
positive online reviews can be considered a form of social support
for firms. The value of providing social support for grateful firms
promotes society's overall interests. Specifically, society's overall
wellbeing includes the maintenance of long-term benefits for all
potential customers by supporting firms that are more responsive
and committed to customers. A recent study suggests that firms
that express appreciation toward posters give a positive impression
to observing customers (Wei et al., 2013), which should increase
these customers' willingness to provide positive online reviews. For
example, a recent study found that a grateful post directed by a firm
toward positive consumer engagement behaviors (e.g., actively
participating in discussions, saying positive things about a brand,
recommending a brand, or supporting other members) increased
similar behaviors by observing consumers on social media plat-
forms (Schamari & Schaefers, 2015). Similarly, Yoo and Gretzel
(2008) indicated that posters can be motivate to write online re-
views as a result of a belief that good travel service providers should
be supported. Hence, we speculated that a firm's appreciation
should encourage posters to give positive online reviews (i.e.,
complimentary, constructive, and prosocial reviews). Thus, we
propose the following hypothesis.
H4. Belief about a firm's appreciation is positively related to
posters' willingness to contribute (a) complimentary, (b)
constructive, and (c) prosocial online reviews.
According to psychological condition theory (Kahn, 1990),
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
feelings of meaningfulness and safety are necessary conditions for
individuals to take action. A sense of meaningfulness engenders the
feeling that one's efforts can produce rewards or other valuable
results, i.e., that one's behavior is meaningful and worthwhile.
Perceived security entails the feeling that one's environment is
trustworthy and predictable. Several studies confirm that trust in
the online community provides a safe environment for customers
because it reduces their perceptions of the potential risk of their
engagement behavior (e.g., Porter & Donthu, 2008). Wei et al.
(2013) reported that a customer's perceived sincerity and trust-
worthiness of firms promoted quality communication, which in
turn increased customers' engagement behavior. Referring to the
study of Aaker (1997), we define belief in a firm's sincerity as a
poster's perception of an organization's honesty and truthfulness in
dealing with customers and genuinely caring about its customers'
welfare. Aaker (1997) described firms' sincerity as their quality of
being honest and down-to-earth. Choi and Chung (2013) found that
organizations' sincerity was delivered to customers by showing
care and consideration for customers. Wang, Luo, and Tai (2017)
found that an organization showed its sincerity to customers by
delivering the feeling of being respected and valued. In the context
of our study, a firm's sincerity may manifest in behavioral in-
tentions, including taking the customers' feedback seriously
(instead of ignoring customers' opinions) and adjusting the service
strategies accordingly. For example, a firm is willing to continually
improve its customers' wellbeing by further enhancing its
strengths and improving service deficiencies based on customer
feedback. We expect that a firm's sincerity may promote a cus-
tomer's sense of meaningfulness of its positive engagement
behavior. Customers' constructive online reviews can be seen as
expectations of goodwill because posters hope their suggestions
can help firms improve service. Constructive information can be
viewed as a poster's knowledge contribution to a firm, which brings
knowledge value to the firm (Zhou & Duan, 2015). Hence, we
propose that perceptions of a firm's sincerity should increase the
belief that a firm is concerned about and accepts posters'
constructive suggestions, which encourages posters to believe that
submitting a review is worth their effort.
Finally, a firm's sincerity can convince customers that a firm is
truly concerned about customers' wellbeing, which encourages
customers to submit complimentary online reviews as a form of
reciprocal behavior to favor the firm (Porter & Donthu, 2008). In
addition, customers think that it is meaningful to describe their
positive experiences with a firm in online reviews because an or-
ganization that is sincere will continually strive to satisfy cus-
tomers' need by further enhancing its strength. Based on the above
discussion, we propose the following hypothesis.
H5. Belief about a firm's sincerity is positively related to the
willingness to contribute (a) complimentary and (b) constructive
online reviews.
According to psychological reactance theory (Brehm, 1966),
people believe they have control over their actions. When in-
dividuals feel that others are trying to influence their behavior, they
are often motivated to resist or counteract social influences. Jones,
Taylor, and Reynolds (2014) found that customers who were asked
to complete a satisfaction questionnaire felt this action posed a
threat to their freedom, which reduced their willingness to com-
plete the questionnaire. Brehm and Sensenig (1966) believed that
the perception of such threats to ones' freedom and independence
tended to lead to the opposite behavior, which has been called the
“boomerang effect” because individuals move in the opposite di-
rection of social pressure (Wendlandt & Schrader, 2007). In our
research, online reviews are seen as voluntary and independent
acts beyond purchases. Customers are usually inclined to freely
205
express their satisfaction with and appreciation for a business.
However, if they perceive a firm's motive to be profit driven, they
will feel pressure and worry that their online reviews will be
considered a tool for the firm to acquire benefits, violating the in-
dependent principle of online reviews. Based on the “boomerang
effect,” we propose the following hypothesis.
H6. Belief about a firm's profit-driven motivation is negatively
related to the willingness to contribute complimentary online
reviews.
Service quality refers to customers' overall judgment about the
quality and value of a firm's services (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, &
Berry, 1988). Studies have found that when employees attempt to
persuade customers to give positive assessments and actual service
quality is low, customers perceive such requests as an improper
attempt to influence them since the request is inconsistent with
service quality. However, high service quality reduces this sense of
threat (Jones et al., 2014). Thus, we expect that service quality af-
fects customers ‘psychological resistance to online reviews. When
customers perceive service quality is high, they tend to believe that
the service provider deserves its profits and that its profit drive is
reasonable, which reduces psychological resistance. Hence, we
hypothesize the following.
H7. The negative effects of beliefs about a firm's profit-driven
motive on complimentary online reviews will be weaker under
conditions of higher perceived service quality than in conditions of
lower perceived service quality.
3.3. Cues from peer members
Our study also investigated situational cues from peer members.
Past studies imply that peers' behaviors affect posters' commenting
behavior in virtual communities. For instance, Moe and Schweidel
(2012) confirmed that peer-posted ratings influenced posters' de-
cisions about whether and what to contribute. Our study investi-
gated two kinds of peer behaviors: appreciation from peers and
prosocial information contributed by peers.
Appreciation from other peers refers to peer feedback that ex-
presses appreciation or gratitude toward posters. TripAdvisor.com
has a “helpful” icon that one can click to express thanks for an
online review. The number of “thanks” received from peers is dis-
played next to a poster's avatar. This peer recognition is a reward
that goes beyond money, giving posters a sense of accomplishment,
pride, status, and even honor (Wang, Chan, & Yang, 2013). Past
research indicates that the reason peers show appreciation is that
they believe that the information provided by posters is helpful, i.e.,
the information provided by online reviews meets their need for
informational support (e.g., Baldus et al., 2015; Henning-Thurau
et al., 2004; Liang, Ho, Li, & Turban, 2011). We define the need for
information support as a need to obtain helpful or problem-solving
information (e.g., referrals, advice, or knowledge) from the virtual
community. Studies suggest that seeking supportive information is
an important motive for people who participate in virtual com-
munities (Baldus et al., 2015; Verhagen et al., 2015). We suggest
that when peers' appreciation is transmitted as a signal to posters,
they learn that their reviews are valuable to their peers, which
stimulates their belief about their peers' need for information
support.
In most situations, posters not only contribute online reviews,
but also browse online reviews from other community members to
help themselves make purchasing decisions. According to Salancik
and Pfeffer (1978), the prosocial information provided in peers'
online reviews may direct a poster's attention to community users'
206 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
needs for information support. We define peers' prosocial informa-
tion contributions as posters' perceptions of peers' contributions of
useful information, such as useful tips, suggestions, or opinions.
When a poster finds that others' prosocial information is helpful to
him/her, he/she will infer that other community members need
similar information. Based on the above discussion, we propose the
hypothesis below.
H8. (a) Appreciation from peers and (b) peers' prosocial infor-
mation contributions are positively related to the belief about
peers' need for information support.
Prosocial online reviews are similar to altruistic behavior in that
they reflect posters' concerns for others' wellbeing and interests
(Henning-Thurau et al., 2004). Hoffman (1975) said that altruism
reflects not only empathy but also a responsibility to alleviate
others' plight. This view is supported by research on participant
behaviors in virtual communities, confirming that community
members expect their online reviews to be useful to other cus-
tomers (Baldus et al., 2015; Henning-Thurau et al., 2004; Verhagen
et al., 2015). We propose when posters perceive peers' need for
information support, they are inclined to contribute prosocial in-
formation that alleviates others' plight and enhances their sense of
self-worth. Hence, we propose the following.
H9. Belief about peers' need for information support is positively
related to prosocial online reviews.
Henning-Thurau et al. (2004) proposed that customers may
reduce the discontent associated with their negative emotions by
sharing a negative consumption experience in a publicly posted
online review. In the context of our research, a poster may discuss
the shortcomings of a firm's service or management that he or she
expects the service provider to be able to overcome. Although the
subject of our study is positive online reviews, we cannot rule out
the relationship between posters' venting of negative feelings and
their willingness to use constructive comments to note a problem
in a firm's service delivery. Based on the discussion above, we used
venting negative feelings (Henning-Thurau et al., 2004) as a control
variable that may influence constructive online reviews. In addi-
tion, complimentary online reviews refer to a poster's publicly
expressed appreciation for a favorite product or service from a firm.
We speculate that customers who have experienced higher service
quality are more likely to publish complimentary online reviews.
Thus, we incorporate service quality as a potential predicator var-
iable that may influence posters' willingness to submit compli-
mentary online reviews into the model as a control variable.
4. Study 1
In this study, we conduct a content analysis using actual positive
reviews posted on TripAdvisor.com to investigate whether the
content of real positive online reviews can be grouped into three
types (i.e., complimentary, constructive and prosocial online re-
views). We believe using natural data to verify our proposition
makes our findings and conclusions more generalizable (Pan &
Zhang, 2011; Willemsen et al., 2011).
4.1. Data
We chose positive online reviews on TripAdvisor.com for our
data for several reasons: (1) TripAdvisor.com is the most popular
online travel website in the world, operating in 45 countries and 28
languages, and (2) it offers posters a five-star rating system, which
made it easy for us to identify positive reviews.
The samples were selected using stratified sampling. We
selected lists of hotels and restaurants located mainly in Beijing,
New York, and London, which were selected for four reasons. First,
although TripAdvisor.com lists hotels and restaurants in many
countries and cities, we could not sample all of them because of the
effort required to analyze such a large number of online reviews.
Second, most travelers to New York and London speak English,
whereas travelers to Beijing speak mainly Chinese. Because English
and Chinese are the two most widely used languages in the world,
we could conduct our research across a wide range of backgrounds.
Moreover, our researchers have greater proficiency in Chinese and
English than in other languages. Third, because Beijing is the capital
of China, it attracts more tourists than other Chinese cities, whereas
New York and London are two of the most famous cities in the
world and attract visitors from all over the globe. Hence, these
three cities provided us with a wealth of data. Fourth, these three
cities represent Eastern and Western cultures, allowing us to avoid
the effect of cultural differences and enhance the generality of our
findings.
We searched for positive reviews of international star-class
hotels and full-service restaurants in Beijing, New York, and Lon-
don posted on TripAdvisor.com during November 2015. The results
showed that Beijing, New York, and London offered 1505 (4981),
426 (8158), and 951 (16,080) hotels (restaurants), respectively. We
randomly selected 600 hotels and 600 restaurants from the total
sample; to ensure equal distribution of the samples, we randomly
selected 200 hotels and 200 restaurants in each of the three cities.
The samples contained a range of hotels (from five-star to one-star),
and the samples of restaurants included fine-dining and popular-
catering restaurants (Davis, Lockwood, Pantelidis, & Peter, 2008).
Our sample also included 84, 160, 227, 99, and 30 hotels from five-
star to one-star, respectively, and 132 fine-dining restaurants and
468 popular-catering restaurants. We randomly selected two pos-
itive online reviews (i.e., online reviews corresponding to five-star
and four-star ratings) for each of the service providers, and ulti-
mately, we obtained 2400 positive online comments.
4.2. Content analysis
We coded text for analysis with Nvivo 10. The samples of posi-
tive reviews were coded sentence-by-sentence in accordance with
open-coding methods (Strauss, 1987). The first author developed
codebooks for the textual data analysis.
The NET method (Kleinnijenhuis, Ridder, & Rietberg, 1997) was
used to analyze the text of positive online reviews. Willemsen et al.
(2011) confirmed that the NET method is useful for analyzing the
structure and valence of online commentary. The method describes
the relationships between objects in a triangular form by dividing a
text into core phrases (Kleinnijenhuis et al., 1997). A core phrase
refers to a triangular relationship in the form of “subject/predicate/
object,” in which the predicate indicates whether a subject is
associated with an object (Willemsen et al., 2011). For example, if a
poster states that the “Check in lady was very pleasant,” the
reviewer associates the staff with the attribute “pleasant,” while
“pleasant” is evaluated as an ideal attribute of staff (i.e., staff/þ1/
ideal) (Table 2). Similarly, in the statement “Breakfast starts too late
at 7:00 am; a 6:00 am start would be better,” “breakfast” is asso-
ciated with the attributes “too late” and “a 6:00 am start would be
better,” which are evaluated as a deficient attribute of the breakfast
and the poster's suggestion for “breakfast.” Sometimes, a core
phrase's object may be the subject of another core phrase.
Willemsen et al. (2011) suggested that one can construct an argu-
mentative structure of these indirect statements. For example, two
core phrases can be found in the statement “Anytime I needed
anything, it was given to me right away”; the two parts of the
sentence were constructed as “a poster's need has been satisfied
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
Table 2
Content analysis using the NET method.
Sentence Subject Predicate
(1) Staff Pleasant
(2) Staff Professional and Helpful
(3) Reviewer's need Be satisfied
(4) Facility Clean
(5) Breakfast Too late
(5) Breakfast 6:00 am. would be better
(6) Tip Top floors and at the back are quieter
right away.”
Next, we judged the target (i.e., service provider or peer mem-
bers) based on the subject of the core phrase and the value for firms
(i.e., referral, knowledge, and influence value) in terms of the ob-
ject. For example, the subject “staff” indicates that the posters'
commentary is aimed at the service provider, whereas “tip” sug-
gests that the target of the posters' advice is peer members. When
the subject of a core phrase was the service provider and the object
was evaluated as “ideal,” we assumed that the review would bring
referral value for the firm and categorized it as complimentary
online review (see Table 2). However, when the target was the
“service provider” and it was associated with “deficiency” or
“suggestion,” the phrase was assumed to bring knowledge value for
firms, and it was classified as constructive online review. The target
“peer members” was usually accompanied by the poster's personal
advice; these reviews were deemed prosocial online reviews.
“Positive experience”
Several examples of positive experiences included: (1) Check in
lady was very pleasant; (2) Staff were very professional and very
helpful; (3) Anytime I needed anything, it was given to me right
away; (4) Rooms were really clean; (5) Breakfast starts too late at
7:00 am.; a 6:00 am. start would be better; and (6) Room Tip: Top
floors and the back are quieter.
In total, the most frequent words and phrases in complimentary
online reviews (also see Table 3) were “great,” “friendly,” “helpful,”
“exceeded our expectations,” “perfect,” “favorable,” “easy check-
in,” “great location,” “I have always liked …” and “I was not
disappointed”.
The most common phrases to appear in constructive online
reviews included but were not limited to “The only problem I had
was …,” “The only reason I didn't rate it five stars was …,” “I like the
place but I am not sure I could accept …,” “One aspect of the service
that was disappointing was …,” “The only problem is that …,” “One
tiny drawback is …,” and “My only gripe is …,” “… would be better,”
“… but it would have been better if …,” “The only reservation I
have, the hotel has to improve …,” “I would like to see improve-
ment on …,” “… but please consider …,” “A couple of minor sug-
gestions …,” and “I would suggest …”. These phrases convey a
poster's advice or suggestions that could help firms improve their
services or products.
The most frequent phrases that existed in prosocial online re-
views included “Don't order …,” “Try …. ,” “Make sure …,” “Be
aware of …,” “if you …,” “Recommend …,” and “Tip”. This infor-
mation could help potential consumers to make appropriate
choices and thus maximize their interests.
To reduce noise and ensure the measures' internal reliability,
this study was completed by three coders. The first author was
responsible for developing codebooks for the textual data analysis
and for training the independent coder. The independent coder
coded the text independently without being aware of the study's
207
Object Expectant target Value Type
Ideal Service provider Referral value Complimentary online review
Deficiency Service provider Knowledge value Constructive online review
Suggestion
Advice (for peer members) Peer members Influence value Prosocial online review
purpose. Content attributed to complimentary, constructive, and
prosocial reviews was coded as 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Reviews
that did not contain complimentary, constructive, or prosocial
comments were coded as 1, 2 or 3, respectively. The results
showed that some of the online reviews contained two or three
types of comments. The second author of the study verified both
the process and the results of data coding.
We tested the inter-coder reliability by calculating Cohen's
Kappa. Cohen's Kappa for complimentary, constructive, and pro-
social reviews was 1.0, 0.82, and 0.81, respectively, which were all
above the desired level of 0.70 (Kolbe & Burnett, 1991). Disagree-
ments were resolved by consensus.
Finally, we calculated the frequency of the three types of posi-
tive online reviews. The results showed that complimentary com-
ments were present in all the reviews; 21% of the reviews included
constructive comments, and 13.8% of the reviews included proso-
cial comments.
4.3. Conclusions
We conducted a content analysis of actual positive online re-
views collected from TripAdvisor.com. The results confirmed the
existence of three types of online reviews. Complimentary online
reviews appeared in almost all the samples. For our sample, 21% of
the posters not only expressed praise for the business but also
noted deficiencies in the service delivery process; some of them
even offered specific suggestions for improvement. In contrast, only
13.8% of the reviews in the sample contained tips and suggestions
specifically for other potential customers. This smaller proportion
indicates that a prosocial online review is a type of higher social
participatory behavior. Our results indicate that not all the reviews
consisted of three types of comments. The results showed that
some of the reviews consisted of only one of the three types of
comments, while other reviews were made up of two or three
types. The findings of this study suggest that our proposition about
the division of positive online reviews is worthwhile and indicate
that the use of the unidimensional construct of “positive online
reviews” is insufficient to measure the multidimensional content
included in positive online reviews.
5. Study 2
5.1. Scale development
Because there is no scale to measure these three types of online
reviews, we developed scales using the procedures described by
Churchill (1979). First, we generated sample items by reviewing the
findings of relevant studies and conducting an interview study.
Compared to scales used in previous studies, our multidimensional
scale was unique. Hence, following Churchill (1979), we conducted
in-depth interviews to generate the item pool. We invited three
hotel guest-relationship managers, two restaurant proprietors, and
ten people who had published or read online reviews on the online
208 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216

Table 3
Sample coding for complimentary, constructive and prosocial reviews.

Category Service firms Examples

Complimentary online review
Constructive online review
Prosocial online review
Hotel “The hotel was everything we expected and much more.”
“The hotel exceeded our expectations, especially with the staff.”
Restaurant “The food is unfailingly excellent: high quality, superbly cooked, with a sophisticated fusion of Asian flavours and
more western dishes.”
“This is one of my favorite places in New York for dinner and drinks.”
Hotel “Breakfast starts too late at 7:00 am.; a 6:00 am. start would be better.”
“If there are two things I would like to see improvement on. Clean the laundry room thoroughly and more often.
Automatically change sheets on service day.”
Restaurant “Atmosphere is great very comfy however some tables are close together.”
“A couple of minor suggestions I believe that could enhance the clients experience. First, bigger print on the wine list.
Second, the sauces to go with the steak could be clarified at the time of ordering.”
“I would only suggest to other waiters to be more interested in what they are doing, to smile and be positive. It
creates the atmosphere in the restaurant.”
Hotel “Check in as close to 2:00pm to get best rooms.”
“Stay ‘in land’ as far from the road as you can.”
Restaurant “TIP: The bagel and filling was massive and can easily be shared unless you're hungry.”
“They do not accept reservations, so get there early or stop by on a week night.”

travel website to participate in the interviews. The hotels and res- To test our theoretical model, we selected Qunar.com and Ctrip.
taurants in which five managers were employed were retrieved com e two of the largest online travel websites in China (Iresearch,
from the catalog of online travel sites (e.g., TripAdvisor.com; Qunar. 2015) e as appropriate sources of data for our main survey. Similar
com; Ctrip.com). Ten of the online travel site participants were to Tripadvisor.com, these sites provide users with online review
acquaintances whose occupations included general staff and pro- platforms. Posters can rate service providers on a five-star scale,
fessionals. Their ages ranged from 20 to 49 years old, and their which indicates a poster's evaluation as positive, average, or
genders were balanced. Participants were asked to state their ex- negative. The reviewers can then give more detailed evaluations of
periences with online reviews and to describe the information a service provider. If community members feel that the information
contained in positive online reviews and the characteristics of the in the review is helpful, they can click a “helpful” icon to thank
information and the value this information had for service pro- posters. Service providers can respond to reviews online.
viders and peer members. They were also asked to describe the We invited members of these two travel websites to participate
above issues based on their personal experiences. We generated an in our survey in two ways. We sent private messages (that included
item pool of 29 items based on this exploratory study. the survey link) through the website to more than 20,000 members
Second, the research team refined the items according to the who posted reviews on the websites. To reduce selection bias, we
construct definitions by removing redundant items and selecting invited two college students from the department of marketing to
items with good surface validity. Finally, two marketing faculty send the messages. These students were unfamiliar with the pur-
members and three marketing PhD students evaluated the items pose of our research, and they randomly selected the addresses. We
and assigned them to the most representative constructs. If the vast
majority of experts accurately assigned an item to the expected
construct, it was retained for future evaluation. A total of 18 items Table 4
Demographic information of the respondents (N ¼ 526).
were retained after the expert reviews.
Subsequently, a pilot test including 148 sample items was con- Variables Items Count %
ducted to purify the measures. We calculated the Cronbach's alphas Gender Male 231 43.9
and item-to-total correlations and conducted exploratory factor Female 295 56.1
analysis. We removed items that had Corrected Item-Total Corre-
lations (CITC) below 0.40. To identify the items overlapping across Age 18 or below 0 0
>18 and  24 34 6.5
dimensions, we performed a principal component analysis using
>24 and  30 192 36.5
Varimax rotation. According to the exploratory factor analysis, >30 and  35 173 32.9
items that had factor loadings below 0.50, cross-loadings above >35 and  40 82 15.5
0.40, or commonalities below 0.30 were removed. In addition, >40 and  50 45 8.6
Above 51 0 0
scales with Cronbach's alphas below 0.70 were removed (Bagozzi &
Yi, 1988). In total, seven items were deleted; the final list of items
Education High school or below 24 4.6
retained for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is presented in Two-year college 163 31.0
Table 5. Four-year college 283 53.8
Graduate school or above 56 10.6

5.2. Sample and data collection Member duration 1 month 0 0

>1 and  6 months 11 2.1
To increase the reliability and validity of each question, we >6 months and 1 year 20 3.8
>1 year and 3 years 193 36.7
conducted a pilot study was conducted before our main survey. The Over 3 years 302 57.4
pilot study was held at two universities in Beijing, China, with
students who contributed online reviews to travel platforms. We Online reviews posted in the past 1-2 times 237 45.1
posted online survey links on the Campus BBS (Bulletin Board 3-5 times 119 22.6
System) of the two universities and received 128 valid responses. 6-8 times 88 16.7
Over 8 times 82 15.6
The pilot study allowed us to refine the survey questionnaire.
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216 209

Table 5
Summary of measurement scales.

Standard loading Alpha AVE CR

Positive emotions .84 .72 .88

Harwood and Garry (2015); Lin and Liang (2011)

Fun .83
Enjoyment .86
Excitement .85

Management responses to online reviews .89 .76 .90

Schamari and Schaefers (2015); Gu and Ye (2014)

I found the representative of XYZ responded to some customers' online reviews. .90
I observed XYZ's online response to customers' reviews. .84
I noticed XYZ's interventions with customers' online reviews. .87

Requests for online reviews .80 .57 .80

Picazo-Vela et al. (2010); Porter and Donthu (2008)

I received invitations from XYZ to provide online reviews. .67

XYZ expect me to provide online reviews. .81
XYZ encouraged me to provide online reviews. .78

Appreciation from peers .88 .75 .90

Dholakia, Blazevic, Wiertz, and Algesheimer (2009); Baldus et al. (2015)

Other community members gave me a “helpful” vote for my previously posted review(s). .87
I have received other community members' thanks for my previously contributed comment(s). .86
I have received other community members' affirmation of the value of my previously posted comment(s). .86

Peers' prosocial information contributions .89 .79 .92

Verhagen et al. (2015)

I noticed some helpful tips in other community members' online reviews. .88
I found some useful advice in other community members' online reviews. .89
I observed some beneficial suggestions in other community members' online reviews. .90

Belief about a firm's appreciation .71 .60 .82

Wei et al. (2013); Porter and Donthu (2008)

XYZ expresses its gratitude for customers' reviews. .79

XYZ shows it appreciates its customers' reviews. .70
XYZ takes time to acknowledge its customers' reviews. .83

Belief about a firm's sincerity .88 .73 .89

Paswan, Pelton, and True (2005)

XYZ is sincere in dealings with its customers. .90

XYZ is honest and truthful. .89
XYZ is genuinely interested in its customers' welfare. .76

Belief about a firm's performance-driven motive .72 .51 .81

Delaney and Huselid (1996)

XYZ aims to implement its marketing strategy. .77

XYZ aims to drive growth in sales. .71
XYZ aims to enhance profitability. .68
XYZ aims to increase market share. .69

Belief about peers' need for information support .86 .72 .88
Henning-Thurau et al. (2004); Liang et al. (2011)

Community members expect to receive tips or support from peers .84

Community members demand helpful advice from peers. .90
Community members expect useful suggestions from peers. .80

Service quality .87 .71 .88

Jones et al. (2014)

High-quality .88
Good .85
Excellent .79

Complimentary online reviews .88 .65 .88

Share positive information about XYZ in my online review. .85

Describe my good experience with XYZ in my online commentary. .77
Describe the gratifying experience I get from XYZ in my comments. .81
Praise XYZ about its good service in my reviews. .79

Constructive online reviews .88 .72 .91

Make suggestion in my review to help XYZ provide customers with a better experience. .84
Provide advice in my comment to help XYZ to improve its service. .87
Discuss the shortcoming of XYZ's service or management that I expect they could overcome. .89
(continued on next page)
210 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
Table 5 (continued )
Point out the problem existing in XYZ's service delivery that it ought to solve.
Prosocial online reviews
Share friendly tips with peer members in my comments.
Provide information in my reviews that may be beneficial to peer members.
Share useful tips that may improve other members' wellbeing.
Desire to vent negative feelings
Henning-Thurau et al. (2004)
XYZ harmed me, and now I will harm XYZ!
I want to take vengeance upon XYZ.
My reviews help me to shake off frustration about bad buys.
I like to get anger off my chest.
also posted our online survey links on two of the largest online
forums in China to improve the response rate: Baidu Post Bar
(www.tieba.baidu.com) and Tianya Bulletin Board Service (www.
tianya.cn). We invited Ctrip and Qunar members to participate in
the survey, as explained in the survey link. Respondents completing
the questionnaire were eligible to receive bonus points that could
be used to redeem gifts. Data collection began in May 2016 and
lasted four months; 723 responses were received, of which 115
were from members who did not provide online reviews to either
website. Of those who posted reviews, 552 posted positive online
reviews about service providers; 26 of their questionnaires were
deemed to be invalid, yielding a final sample of 526 questionnaires.
The IP addresses of respondents were checked, and no duplicates
were found. Table 4 shows the respondents' demographic
information.
5.3. Measures
All the measures used in this study were adapted from the
literature, with the exception of the three scales measuring com-
plimentary, constructive, and prosocial reviews, which were
developed for this study. Three Chinese researchers in the MIS area
and four members of online travel websites provided feedback on
the items, and some items were modified based on these sugges-
tions. All the items (Table 5) used 5-point Likert scales ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
5.4. Results
5.4.1. Measurement validation
Because all the measures were self-reports, following Podsakoff
and Organ (1986), we conducted Harman's one-factor test to check
for common method variance. The results showed that the eigen-
values of fourteen factors were greater than 1 and that the first
factor accounted for 18.01% of the total variance, that is, more than
one factor emerged from the analysis and no factor accounted for
most of the covariance in the variables. Hence, it can be concluded
that our data did not have common method variance.
CFA of 46 items was conducted using AMOS 20.0 to examine the
measurement validity of the constructs. This procedure provided a
good model fit to the data: c2 ¼ 1463.74, df ¼ 898, p < .001;
CFI ¼ 0.94, TLI ¼ 0.93, NFI ¼ 0.90, and RMSEA ¼ 0.05 (Hair, Black,
Babin, & Anderson, 2010). The standard loadings of the remaining
items ranged from 0.67 to 0.90. The average variance extracted
(AVE) for every construct was above 0.50, which means that the
scales have good convergent validity (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). Com-
posite reliabilities (CR) and Cronbach's alphas were all above 0.70,
indicating high scale reliabilities (Nunnally, 1978). To evaluate the
discriminant validity of the measures, we compared the square root
Standard loading Alpha AVE CR
.80
.82 .68 .86
.80
.86
.81
.84 .63 .87
.88
.70
.83
.76
of the AVE score of each construct with the construct's correlations
with other constructs. For all comparisons, the square root of the
AVE score was greater than any of the other correlations among the
variables (see Table 6). As such, discriminant validity was
confirmed (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Podsakoff, 2011).
The absolute value of correlation coefficient greater or equal to
0.15, p < .001 (2-tailed); greater or equal to 0.13, p < .01 (2-tailed);
greater or equal to 0.10, p < .05 (2-tailed).
5.4.2. Structural model
Structural equation modeling was employed using AMOS 20.0 to
assess the direct relationships in the hypothesized model. The
overall fit of the structural model was highly acceptable:
c2 ¼ 1763.35, df ¼ 953, p < .001; CFI ¼ 0.95, TLI ¼ 0.94, NFI ¼ 0.91,
and RMSEA ¼ 0.06.
The results of the hypothesis testing are presented in Fig. 2. As
expected in H1, posters' positive emotions were positively related
to complimentary online reviews. The results support H1 (b ¼ 0.29,
p < .001), suggesting that posters' positive emotions about service
providers can promote their willingness to contribute compli-
mentary online reviews. The findings indicate that posters' per-
ceptions of service firms' online responses are positively associated
with their beliefs about a firm's appreciation (b ¼ 0.32, p < .001)
and sincerity (b ¼ 0.33, p < .001), supporting H2. Posters' percep-
tions of requests for online reviews had a significant influence on
posters' beliefs about a firm's performance-driven motive (b ¼ 0.27,
p < .001), thereby supporting H3. The results also indicate that
belief about a firm's appreciation had a significant positive effect on
posters' willingness to submit complimentary online reviews
(b ¼ 0.20, p < .001) and constructive online reviews (b ¼ 0.12,
p < .01), supporting H4a and H4b. However, belief about a firm's
appreciation had no significant effect on prosocial online reviews
(b ¼ .02, p > .05). Unexpectedly, the results failed to support H4c.
The effects of belief about a firm's sincerity on the willingness to
contribute complimentary online reviews (b ¼ 0.29, p < .001) and
constructive online reviews (b ¼ 0.47, p < .001) were significantly
positive; therefore, H5 was supported. The results showed that
belief about a firm's profit-driven motivation was negatively related
to posters' willingness to contribute complimentary online reviews
(b ¼ .39, p < .001), supporting H6. Appreciation from peers
(b ¼ 0.25, p < .001) and peers' prosocial information contributions
(b ¼ 0.32, p < .001) were positively related to posters' belief about
peers' need for information support, supporting H8. Finally, belief
about peers' need for information support was found to have a
significant positive influence on prosocial online reviews (b ¼ 0.54,
p < .001), supporting H9.
5.4.3. Moderating effects
Latent moderated structural equation modeling (LMS) was used
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216 211

Table 6
Discriminant validity and descriptive statistics.

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

1 .85
2 .17 .87
3 -.05 .01 .75
4 .01 -.07 .06 .87
5 .06 -.02 -.10 .35 .89
6 .15 .31 -.18 .01 -.11 .77
7 .24 .33 -.07 -.01 -.02 .32 .85
8 -.23 .02 .29 .01 .01 -.08 -.02 .71
9 -.04 -.04 .01 .33 .39 -.08 -.04 -.08 .85
10 .52 .36 -.05 -.02 .03 .35 .42 -.52 .02 .81
11 .29 .31 -.05 .03 .03 .22 .48 -.03 .01 .58 .85
12 .04 -.07 .04 .49 .46 -.06 .11 .09 .51 .02 .12 .82
13 .29 .16 .10 .18 .15 .16 .15 -.24 .16 .52 .25 .12 .84
14 .03 .00 -.07 -.34 -.34 -.01 .06 .04 -.13 -.08 -.01 -.29 -.31 .79
Mean 3.82 3.13 2.56 2.98 3.73 3.95 3.72 2.64 2.74 3.95 2.93 2.87 3.75 2.22
Stand Deviation .88 .70 .78 .72 .80 .52 .73 .72 .93 .64 .90 .74 .83 .72

Note. The bold scores are the square root of the AVE. The off-diagonal scores are factor correlations between the constructs. Variables numbered 1 to 14 are (1) positive
emotions, (2) management response to online reviews, (3) requests for online reviews, (4) appreciation from peers, (5) peers' prosocial information contributions, (6) belief
about a firm's appreciation, (7) belief about a firm's sincerity, (8) belief about a firm's performance-driven motive, (9) belief about peers' need for information support, (10)
complimentary online reviews, (11) constructive online reviews, (12) prosocial online reviews, (13) service quality and (14) desire to vent negative feelings.

Belief about a firm's performance- Service quality

driven motive × Service quality

Poster's internal cues

.56***
.35***
Positive emotion .29***

Belief about a firm's

Cues from service firms .20*** Conplimentary online review
appreciaton
.32*** .12** .29***
Management responses to
online reviews
.33***
Belief about a firm's
.47*** Constructive online review
sincerity
Requests for online reivews
.27*** -.39***
-.02
Belief about a firm's
Cues from peer members performance-driven motive Prosocial online review

Appreciation from peers

.25*** .54***
-.04
Belief about peers' need for
information support
.32*** Control variable:
Peers' prosocial information
contribution Venting negative feelings

Note. ***p < .001; **p < .01

Fig. 2. Results of hypothesis testing.

in Mplus 6.12 to estimate the interaction effect of service quality
and belief about a firm's performance-driven motive on compli-
mentary online reviews. Because LMS does not provide conven-
tional fit indices, log-likelihood difference tests were conducted
according to Dimitruk et al.’s (2007) recommendations. The LMS
results indicated that the interaction effect was positively and
significantly related to complimentary online reviews; the esti-
mated effect was 0.56 (p < .001). The log-likelihood ratio test was
significant (p < .001), indicating that the model without the
interaction effect represents a significant loss of fit relative to the
model with the interaction effect. As we predicted, service quality
played a moderating role on the influence of belief about a firm's
performance-driven motive on complimentary online reviews.
We further examined the moderating role of service quality
using a simple slope test (Aiken & West, 1991) (Fig. 3). The results of
this test revealed the following: at a high level of service quality (þ1
SD), the relationship between a performance-driven motive and
complimentary reviews was negative but not significant (b ¼ .02,
212
p > .05), whereas at low levels of service quality (1 SD), the
performance-driven motive had a significant negative relationship
with complimentary reviews (b ¼ .58, p < .01). The results sup-
port Hypothesis 7.
5.5. Conclusions
This study was designed to examine the underlying mechanisms
of internal and external cues on posters' willingness to contribute
complimentary, constructive and prosocial online reviews, where
the interpretation of the cues plays an intermediate role in the
process. The findings showed that the three types of positive online
reviews resulted from different reasons, providing answers to our
initial question of why posters contribute different content in their
positive online reviews. Reciprocal motivations are hidden behind
posters' willingness to contribute complimentary online reviews.
Hence, posters' positive emotions and perceptions of firms'
appreciation and sincerity are likely to promote their contribution
of complimentary information in their online reviews. With regard
to constructive online reviews, the results indicate that belief in
service providers' sincerity and appreciation positively promotes
posters' contributions of constructive online reviews because
posters are more likely to infer that their suggestions are valued
when firms demonstrate that they are grateful and sincere. Pro-
social online reviews reflect the poster's concern about the interest
and wellbeing of peer members, which is deemed as a type of
altruistic behavior. A poster's contribution of prosocial online re-
views implies that he/she has a tendency to try to reduce others'
dilemma. Hence, a poster's contribution of prosocial online reviews
is very likely to be stimulated once he/she perceives other peer
members' need for information support.
6. General discussion
6.1. Theoretical implications
This study identifies the components of positive online reviews
based on their value and targets. Many customers choose to provide
online reviews of service providers after consuming their services.
As our statements in the literature review mentioned, several
studies investigated the antecedent factors of online reviews, but
most treated the behavior of submitting an online review as a
unidimensional construct (e.g., Dellarocas et al., 2010; Henning-
Thurau et al., 2004; Litvin et al., 2008; Nambisan & Baron, 2007;
Picazo-Vela et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2016). Adopting posters'
perspective, this study identified that positive online reviews
5
Complimentary online reviews
4.5
4
3.5
3
Mean-1SD
Belief about a firm's performance-driven motive
Fig. 3. Complimentary online reviews predicted by belief about a firm's performance-driven motive and moderated by service quality.
L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
consist of complimentary, constructive, and prosocial information,
which was verified by actual data from the online travel commu-
nity. Our findings contribute to the existing research by deepening
our understanding of the dimensions of online commentary.
Moreover, this study investigated the psychological processes
behind commentators' contributions to different types of online
reviews using the SIP model (Dodge et al., 1986). We incorporated
posters' information processing of internal and environmental cues
into our research model to illustrate the psychological processes
behind the contribution of the three types of positive online re-
views. Our contribution to existing theory is our extension of the
application of the SIP model to the online review context.
This study's results demonstrate that posters' positive emotions
have positive effects on their willingness to provide complimentary
online reviews. Previous studies have confirmed that customers'
satisfaction (Filieri, Alguezaui, & McLeay, 2015) and positive emo-
tions (e.g., Picazo-Vela et al., 2010; Yoo & Gretzel, 2008) have a
positive effect on positive eWOM. Our findings enhance the exist-
ing research by clarifying the relationship between positive emo-
tions and the complimentary content contained in positive online
reviews. This result can be explained by the fact that when posters
write online reviews, their positive emotions naturally encourage
them to describe service providers' perceived advantages.
The results of this study indicate that a service provider's
managerial response to online reviews increase a poster's percep-
tion of the firm's appreciation and sincerity toward posters. Past
studies indicate that a firm's responses to online reviews are a form
of a firm's active intervention in online reviews (Gu & Ye, 2014; Li
et al., 2017; Nguyen & Coudounaris, 2015; Puzakova, Kwak, &
Rocereto, 2013; Schamari & Schaefers, 2015; Sparks, So, &
Bradley, 2016; Wei et al., 2013; van Noort & Willemsen, 2012).
Our results are consistent with the findings of Wei et al. (2013). In
the real world, observing customers are likely to interpret a firm's
expression of thanks to posters for online reviews as the firm's
appreciation of posters. In contrast, a firm's apology to posters and
its willingness to improve its service will increase other customers'
perceptions of the organization's honesty and truthfulness in
dealing with customers and its genuine caring for its customers'
welfare (Wei et al., 2013).
Furthermore, the results of this study demonstrate that a firm's
appreciation is one of the motivations that stimulate a poster's
contribution of complimentary and constructive online reviews.
Direct reciprocity theory has been emphasized in studies about the
motivation underlying eWOM (e.g., Chang & Chuang, 2011; Cho
et al., 2015; Park & Kim, 2014; Yang et al., 2015), whereas few
studies have focused on the indirect reciprocal motives that may
Service quality +1SD
Service quality -1SD
Mean+1SD
 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
underlie the behavior of posting online reviews. In fact, customers
do not always obtain direct benefits from posting online reviews, so
it is not very useful to try to explain customers' motives for posting
an online review in terms of direct reciprocity. This study revealed
the indirect reciprocal psychological process underlying online
review posting behavior by demonstrating the relationship be-
tween a poster's perceptions of a firm's appreciation and the pro-
vision of a complimentary and constructive online review.
However, posters' perceptions of service providers' appreciation
does not increase their contribution of prosocial online reviews.
This result may have arisen because posters treat service providers
and peer members as two different interest groups. In other words,
although prosocial online reviews objectively brings influence
value to service providers, from the standpoint of posters, these
reviews directly target other peer members. Hence, posters provide
support for the grateful firms with complimentary or constructive
online reviews, but this does not necessarily lead them to
contribute prosocial online reviews for peer members.
In addition, the findings reveal that posters' perception of firms'
sincerity increases their contribution of complimentary and
constructive online reviews. Posters believe that it is worth the
effort to give a sincere service provider praise or advice because
sincere service providers are more likely to improve the customer's
wellbeing by further enhancing the strengths and reducing the
deficiencies of their services in accordance with customer feedback.
The study's findings reveal that posters tend to attribute a firm's
requests for online reviews to the firm's performance-driven
motive. Furthermore, this study focused on posters' beliefs about
a firm's performance-driven motive as a potential antecedent factor
in the context of online reviews, advancing the literature on online
reviews. The results demonstrate that posters' beliefs about a firm's
profit-driven motive decrease their willingness to contribute
complimentary online reviews, whereas a firm's high level of ser-
vice quality can alleviate this negative effect. Jones et al. (2014)
found that service employees' requests for positive evaluations
decrease customers' satisfaction. Our findings advance the existing
literature by extending the application of psychological reactance
theory to the context of online reviews.
This study's findings demonstrate that posters tend to attribute
appreciation from other peers and peers' prosocial information
contributions to peers' need for information support, which in turn
promotes their willingness to contribute prosocial online reviews.
This study investigated the role of peers' need for information
support in the psychological process of posters' willingness to
contribute prosocial online reviews. Past studies have demon-
strated that altruism is among the motives that explain traditional
(offline) WOM (Sundaram, Mitra, & Webster, 1998) or eWOM (e.g.,
Munar & Jacobsen, 2014; Verhagen et al., 2015; Yoo & Gretzel,
2008). The results support and expand upon the findings of pre-
vious studies. Particularly, on one hand, the findings demonstrate
that posters' altruism plays a critically important role in the psy-
chological process of contributing prosocial online review. On the
other hand, perception of peers' need for information support is a
necessary condition for posters to contribute prosocial online re-
views. This result may due to the common-sense notion that
altruistic individuals will always be aware of the needs of others
first and then provide altruistic help to others.
6.2. Managerial implications
The results of this study imply that organization managers need
to understand positive online reviews from a new perspective.
Positive online reviews' referral value has been generally recog-
nized by organization managers (Kumar et al., 2010). Our findings
suggest that positive online reviews may also bring knowledge and
213
influence value to organizations, which should attend to and even
incorporate these reviews into relevant management strategies and
systems created by organization marketers.
Online community practitioners could set an icon or tip in a
prominent manner to remind customers to post constructive re-
views. Although some online travel websites, such as TripAdvisor.
com, remind posters to indicate what they like best or least in
their tips for writing a great review, this advice is easy for posters to
miss or ignore.
Information depth and breadth are major indicators for
measuring the quality of online reviews (Filieri, 2015; Mudambi &
Schuff, 2010). The three types of online reviews we explored pro-
vide a specific way to evaluate the richness of their content for
organization practitioners. Specifically, managers can judge the
richness of a review's content based on its target (Picazo-Vela et al.,
2010; Wei et al., 2013; Willemsen et al., 2011) and value (Kumar
et al., 2010).
The results of this study suggest that positive online reviews
consist of three types of information, which are the product of
different motivations. Market managers should refer to the ante-
cedents in our model to design specific management strategies to
promote posters' contributions to the three types of online reviews.
We propose some specific strategies for practice in the following
section.
The findings of this study demonstrate that service providers'
online managerial response is of great importance to posters' be-
liefs about firms and their supportive behaviors of providing online
reviews. The primary aim of providing an online opinion forum is
for customers to help one another, and forum practitioners often
have not considered the other potential interactions that occur in
such forums (Nambisan & Baron, 2007). This study indicates that
online review platforms are gradually coming to the forefront in
businesses' customer relationship-management strategies. Cus-
tomers not only pay attention to other posters' opinions but also
observe businesses' responses, which help observing customers to
form judgments about these service providers. In other words,
opinion communities expose a firm's customer management
strategy to the public. This situation poses a challenge for the or-
ganization in designing its customer management relationship
strategy, which also indicates the need for innovation. In fact, some
businesses have not yet realized the importance and urgency of
customer relationship management for online review platforms,
barring many service providers from having a strategy for mana-
gerial responses to online reviews. Firms should allocate more re-
sources to online commentary management. We recommend that
online community practitioners consider establishing a best
constructive opinion icon, which could be available to posters who
contribute the most valuable constructive comments. The most
valuable constructive reviews can be selected by service providers
and community members. Additionally, businesses should
strengthen the links between posters in the external online com-
munity and internal management teams. Certain manufacturer
companies, such as Microsoft, have assigned a dedicated staff to
connect online opinion forums and internal product development
teams (Nambisan & Baron, 2007). However, few service firms make
such attempts. Online review website practitioners could establish
a forum for an in-depth dialogue and discussion between com-
mentators and organizations. Additionally, organizations could
invite the most valuable constructive review contributors to
participate in the in-depth dialogue through the forum. This dia-
logue could help the organization gain more valuable knowledge
and stimulate customers' ideas for improving products and/or
services. In addition, businesses could use the forum to show the
public their performance with respect to service improvements,
which could promote observing customers' positive beliefs about
214 L. Yan, X. Wang / Computers in Human Behavior 82 (2018) 199e216
the service providers.
Some service providers invite customers to submit online re-
views through face-to-face invitations, phone calls, e-mails, or
short messages. Our findings suggest that organizations should
take care in implementing these strategies. Merchants should avoid
using economic incentives; instead, they should take measures to
lessen the customer's feeling of being manipulated. For example,
customers can be invited to submit constructive and prosocial in-
formation, which may discourage the stereotype that service pro-
viders simply want posters to create positive online reviews. This
step may reduce customers' rebellious attitudes and behavior.
Our research shows that posters' positive reviews are related to
their perception of peers' need for information support; hence,
platform operators should provide more communication channels
for community members. For instance, they should provide com-
munity members with support on interactive platforms, such as
links to chat platforms, message boards, e-mail, and social media. In
addition, giving honorary awards to posters who provide prosocial
information may be a useful way to increase posters' perceptions of
peers' need for information support.
6.3. Limitations and future research directions
Several limitations of this study must be acknowledged and
suggest further examinations for future research. First, this study
examined the hypotheses with a sample of Chinese posters. Future
research can verify whether the theoretical framework could be
generalized to international posters from other countries. Second,
because the authors used cross-sectional data to examine their
hypotheses, the results cannot address causal relationships in the
development of online reviews. Future research should use longi-
tudinal designs to better examine online reviews. Third, we used
structural equation modeling to test our theoretical model, and we
recognize that the acceptable fit indices of structural equation
models indicate only that the sample data do not negate the
theoretical model; they do not indicate that the model has been
confirmed. Moreover, structural equation modeling can be used
only to test the expected causal relationship among the hypothe-
ses; we cannot infer causal relationships from the structural
equation modeling results. Finally, because we used only data from
online travel sites to test our theoretical model, future research
could test our theoretical model with data from other virtual online
communities. In addition, future studies should consider testing
the influence of situational cues on not only positive online reviews
but also negative ones.
Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China [grant numbers 71472014].
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers
for suggestions and guidance offered during the review process.
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