%A LIU Wei, XU Peng-tao %T A Study on Influencing Factors of the Helpfulness of Online Reviews in O2O of Restaurant Industry——Based on Tobit Model %0 Journal Article %D 2016 %J Chinese Journal of Management Science %R 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2016.05.019 %P 168-176 %V 24 %N 5 %U {http://www.zgglkx.com/CN/abstract/article_15470.shtml} %8 2016-05-20 %X Online reviews are an effective way of commodity recommendation and its helpfulness has an important impact on consumer's decision. Online retail sites with more helpful reviews offer greater potential value to customers, which can help them to avoid the uncertainty and risk of purchase decision. But there is huge volume of reviews on online websites sometimes, which cause customers confused when they make decisions according to the reviews. Especially O2O is an emerging pattern of e-commerce, which factors will affect the helpfulness of online reviews in O2O. For this research, a dual process model of the helpfulness of online reviews that consumer perceives in O2O of restaurant industry is established based on ELM and extensional IAM. Central cue and peripheral cue are included in the dual process model. Focus is put on information richness, review readability and review negativity in the central cue, and consumer's response, rating inconsistency and reviewer experience in the peripheral cue. Then 2,372 online consumer reviews of 6 restaurants are collected from dianping.com, and an empirical test is conducted using Tobit regression model. Our findings show the central cue, including information richness, information readability and review negativity has a significant positive impact on the helpfulness of online reviews. The relation of the paragraphs, observational variable of information readability and the helpfulness of online reviews present an inverted U-shape. Brand value has a regulating effect on the relation between review negativity and the helpfulness of online reviews, and high brand value will weaken positive effect which review negativity affects the helpfulness of online reviews. The peripheral cue, including consumer's response and reviewer's experience has a positive impact on the helpfulness of online reviews. Meanwhile we also find early reviews are better than recent reviews. This study contributes to both theory and practice. First, theoretical framework is provided to understand the context of online reviews. Based on dual process theories of ELM and IAM, this research revealed that information processing occurs in either peripheral cue or central cue when consumers read online reviews. Second, our findings may help online retailers recognize what factors constitute helpful online reviews for online markets. The results of this study can be used to develop guidelines for creating and choosing more valuable online reviews. Furthermore, the results of the current research can be used to design Web sites by considering certain review factors that affect helpfulness of review, depending on which products consumers intend to buy.