Looking for negativity! How review sentiment and review subjectivity form review helpfulness across cultures

Nowadays, many consumers rely heavily on product reviews before making decisions; however, not all reviews are similar in terms of sentiment and helpfulness. Moreover, reviewers' linguistic styles vary according to their culture. Although various multinational companies such as eBay and Amazon operate worldwide, little research has been devoted to understanding how review sentiment influences the subjectivity and helpfulness of product reviews in a multicultural marketplace. Therefore, the present research identifies how review subjectivity explains the relationship between review sentiment and review helpfulness in individualistic (i.e., the U.S.) and collectivistic (i.e., India) cultures. By means of two studies, the first using secondary data collected from Amazon.com and the second a controlled experiment setting, we find that review subjectivity mediates the influence of review sentiments only in individualistic cultures such as the U.S., but not in collectivistic cultures like India. Furthermore, we find that the moderated mediation is evident only when comparing positive and negative sentiments. This research has implications for academic and industry practitioners in terms of incorporating culture in decisions on review helpfulness.