<![CDATA[Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is increasingly embedded in ranked, filtered, sponsored, cross-device, and algorithmically assisted interfaces. Existing studies explain credibility, information adoption, and purchase effects, but remain fragmented in explaining why similar review environments can facilitate, complicate, or reverse consumer responses. This study develops a digital decision architecture perspective and synthesizes 148 Scopus-indexed studies published between 2016 and 2026, including 103 core studies and 45 supporting or adjacent studies. A theory building systematic literature review was conducted through transparent identification, screening, eligibility assessment, structured coding, and context mechanism outcome synthesis. The review identifies six interacting layers: cues, sources, platforms, processing mechanisms, outcomes, and boundary conditions. Helping effects were identified in 106 studies, hindering effects in 20, and backfiring effects in 8; these categories are non-mutually exclusive. The novelty lies in distinguishing decision friction from persuasive reversal and proposing three paradoxes, diagnosticity overload, credibility commercialization, and social proof autonomy, to explain contingent eWOM effects. The framework positions review ecosystems as decision-support and governance infrastructure rather than merely promotional communication.]]>
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