Sharing information now vs later: The effect of temporal contiguity cue and power on consumer response toward online reviews

Purpose: This study aims to address a novel information sharing phenomenon among many hospitality consumers, that is, sharing information during, rather than weeks after, a hospitality consumption experience. Specifically, this study tests if including a temporal contiguity cue in a review can significantly enhance the purchase intention of other consumers toward the reviewed business. Design/methodology/approach: A 2 (personal sense of power) × 2 (temporal contiguity cue: manipulated to be absent vs present) quasi-experiment was conducted in this research. Floodlight analysis with the Johnson–Neyman technique was used to test the interaction effect. Hayes’ PROCESS procedure was used to test the mediation effects. Findings: The study found that, for powerless consumers, temporal contiguity cue can effectively enhance the perceived trustworthiness of the review and purchase intention toward the reviewed business. Conversely, for powerful consumers, temporal contiguity cue can significantly reduce the perceived trustworthiness of the review and purchase intention toward the business. Mediation test further revealed evidence for the underlying psychological mechanism for these effects. Originality/value: Revealing the mixed effects of a novel factor, temporal contiguity cue, on consumer responses toward online hospitality reviews, the current research contributes to the expanding stream of theoretical and managerial knowledge on online review management in social media platforms.