The Dual Effects of Membership Programs on Online Review Helpfulness: Indirect Content Pathways and Direct Credibility Signals

ABSTRACT

As e‐commerce markets mature and competition intensifies, online retailers are increasingly turning to membership programs to strengthen customer retention and long‐term consumer–platform relationships. Although prior research has extensively examined their transactional outcomes, their implications for consumer‐generated content remain underexplored. This study investigates how membership programs influence online review behavior, focusing on review content characteristics and review helpfulness, defined as the extent to which a review is helpful for consumers' product evaluation and purchase decision‐making. Drawing on a large‐scale dataset of 153,525 online reviews from JD.com and two complementary laboratory experiments, we identify two distinct pathways linking membership programs to review helpfulness. First, field evidence shows that member‐generated reviews are associated with higher ratings, greater emotional intensity, and greater linguistic concreteness, all of which are negatively associated with review helpfulness. Complementary experiments support the proposed economic and psychological mechanisms underlying these content differences. Second, after accounting for observed review content characteristics, member‐generated reviews are positively associated with review helpfulness, consistent with the proposed credibility‐signaling pathway. Experimental results further show that membership badges enhance perceived reviewer experience and expertise and increase perceived review helpfulness. Overall, the negative content‐based association outweighs the positive credibility‐related association, resulting in a negative overall association between member‐generated reviews and review helpfulness. This research extends the membership literature beyond transactional outcomes by demonstrating how membership programs shape consumer‐generated reviews through competing content‐based and credibility‐signaling pathways. It also offers practical implications for balancing incentives, information quality, and consumer trust in membership‐based ecosystems.