Do topic consistency and linguistic style similarity affect online review helpfulness? An elaboration likelihood model perspective

•Top consistency between review and manager response was examined.•Top consistency moderated impacts of text sentiment and review length on review helpfulness.•Linguistic style similarity between review and manager response was tested.•Linguistic style similarity moderated impacts of text sentiment and review length on review helpfulness. Despite researchers has devoted to understanding the impacts of manager response on the helpfulness of online review, the underlying mechanism of how the topic consistency and linguistic style similarity between manager response and corresponding review may influence review helpfulness remains unclear. Based on Elaboration Likelihood Model, a research model reflected such effects on online review helpfulness was developed and empirical examined against 51,627 consumer reviews collected from Tripadvisor.com. Specifically, the moderating effects of topic consistency and linguistic style similarity between manager response and consumer review on the relationships between two important cues (text sentiment and review length) and review helpfulness were tested. The results of negative binomial regression showed that text sentiment as the central cue has a negative effect on review helpfulness, while review length as the peripheral cue has a positive effect on review helpfulness. As expected, the negative influences of text sentiment on review helpfulness will be weakened when the topic consistency level is high or when the linguistic style similarity level is high. The positive influences of review length on review helpfulness will also be weakened when topic consistency or linguistic style similarity are at its high level. This study thus can not only help retailers identify useful reviews, but also help potential consumers reduce information overload.