Linguistic cues in online product reviews

Abstract

Online product reviews ("reviews" hereafter) are prevalent and valuable. Because of that, a large stream of research in marketing investigated reviews under the following three main topics: 1) the role of review writers, 2) the role of review readers, and 3) the role of linguistic cues in reviews. This dissertation further builds on this stream and proposes three new angles that were under-researched. Specifically, we compose three essays that focus on 1) the intents of review writers to write a review based on linguistic cues and their impact on perceived review helpfulness, 2) the effect of humanlike linguistic cues on perceived review helpfulness, and 3) the usage of emotional intent based on linguistic cues in fake reviews and its impact on review trustworthiness. All three essays are structured under the same pattern to use linguistic cues as a tool to provide a unique solution for the related issues in reviews from both writers' and readers' perspectives.