IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v15y2025i2p21582440251337195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Aspect-Level Emotion Expression of Online Restaurant Reviews on Perceived Helpfulness: An Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Dasom Jeong
  • Dongeon Kim
  • Jinzhe Yan
  • Jiaen Li

Abstract

Few studies have explored how emotional expressions regarding various aspects affect review helpfulness despite having emotionally charged online reviews of various topics or aspects. The ultimate purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of how different emotional expressions in online reviews influence their perceived helpfulness, specifically focusing on the moderating effect of restaurant type. To achieve this, we developed and empirically verified a research model using 85,117 online reviews collected from Yelp.com based on cue utilization theory. Specifically, it investigates the moderating effect of restaurant type on the relationship between emotional expression and review helpfulness in five aspects of online restaurant reviews (location, food, price, service, and ambiance). A BERT-based ABSA was performed to measure the emotional expression of each aspect of online restaurant reviews accurately, and a negative binomial regression model was used for the regression analysis. Emotional expressions regarding food and ambiance affected review helpfulness negatively. By contrast, services, prices, and locations affected review helpfulness positively. Negative reviews of food and ambiance were more helpful in luxury restaurants than in casual dining restaurants. In addition, a positive price evaluation had a more significant effect on review helpfulness for luxury restaurants than for casual-dining restaurants. Positive evaluations of service and location aspects significantly influence review helpfulness more in luxury restaurants than in casual-dining restaurants. Therefore, this study’s results can help restaurant practitioners to identify useful restaurant attributes and reduce information overload when potential consumers search for information.

Suggested Citation

  • Dasom Jeong & Dongeon Kim & Jinzhe Yan & Jiaen Li, 2025. "Effect of Aspect-Level Emotion Expression of Online Restaurant Reviews on Perceived Helpfulness: An Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(2), pages 21582440251, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:21582440251337195
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440251337195
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440251337195
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440251337195?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:21582440251337195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.