Examining the Development Trajectory of Online Review Helpfulness: A Perception-Affordance-Actualization Perspective

The literature of online review helpfulness has evolved, through a shifting focus and expanding scope that have blurred the concept of understanding. This research examines the development trajectory of online review helpfulness to avoid limitations stemming from ambiguous concepts, specifically aiming to deepen the understanding of online review helpfulness. This study adopts a systematic review approach, main path analysis (MPA), to trace the progression of the online review helpfulness literature. In total, 1033 studies were gathered for analysis, revealing three distinct developmental phases within this field: taking an online review as an IT artifact and actor perception, the potential of helpfulness-oriented online review, and enacted online review helpfulness. To sum up, our study develops the Perception Affordance Actualization Model to better capture the process of actualizing online review helpfulness.