Two faces of review inconsistency: The respective effects of internal and external inconsistencies on job review helpfulness

Abstract

A job review is an essential source of information for job seekers. Since job reviews influence a job application that can be a life-changing decision, detecting helpful reviews is a significant task for both job seekers and job review platforms. Hence, this study hypothesizes the relationships between systematic factors (i.e., internal inconsistency within a review, external inconsistency with other reviews, and review length) and review helpfulness. We used negative binomial regression to confirm the hypotheses to analyze 514,929 job reviews collected from jobplanet. co.kr. Our findings show internal inconsistency is positively related to review helpfulness and external inconsistency is negatively related to review helpfulness. Moreover, review length moderates the respective relations of two inconsistencies and review helpfulness. This study provides a new perspective to review inconsistency by separating the construct and suggesting internal and external inconsistency measurements. This study also highlights the strength of the heuristic-systematic model by demonstrating the dynamics of systematic factors.