Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness

Representative online customer reviews are critical to the effective functioning of the Internet economy. In this study, I investigate the representativeness of online review distributions to examine how extremity bias and conformity impact it, and explore whether online review solicitations alter r...

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Main Author: KARAMAN, Hülya
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6586
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7585/viewcontent/ONLINE_REVIEW.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.lkcsb_research-75852021-10-16T17:17:34Z Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness KARAMAN, Hülya Representative online customer reviews are critical to the effective functioning of the Internet economy. In this study, I investigate the representativeness of online review distributions to examine how extremity bias and conformity impact it, and explore whether online review solicitations alter representativeness. Past research on extreme distribution of online ratings commonly relied solely on observed public online ratings. One strength of the current paper is that I observe the private satisfaction ratings of customers regardless of whether they choose to write an online review or not. I show that both extremity bias and conformity exist in unsolicited online word-of-mouth (WOM) and introduce online review solicitations as a mechanism that can partially de-bias ratings. Solicitations increase all customers’ engagement in online WOM, but if solicited, those with moderate experiences increase their engagement more than those with extreme experiences. Consequently, while extremity bias still exists in solicited online WOM, solicitations significantly increase the representativeness of rating distributions. Surprisingly, the results demonstrate that without conformity, unsolicited online WOM would be even less representative of the original customer experiences. Further, I document that both solicited and unsolicited reviews equally overstate the average customer experience (compared to average private ratings) despite stark differences in their rating distributions. Finally, I establish that solicitations for reviews on the company-owned website, on average, decrease the number of one-star reviews on a third-party review platform. 2021-07-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6586 info:doi/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3758 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7585/viewcontent/ONLINE_REVIEW.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University review solicitation reporting biases representative reviews extremity bias social influence conformity online reviews online word-of-mouth third-party review platforms TripAdvisor E-Commerce Marketing Social Media
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic review solicitation
reporting biases
representative reviews
extremity bias
social influence
conformity
online reviews
online word-of-mouth
third-party review platforms
TripAdvisor
E-Commerce
Marketing
Social Media
spellingShingle review solicitation
reporting biases
representative reviews
extremity bias
social influence
conformity
online reviews
online word-of-mouth
third-party review platforms
TripAdvisor
E-Commerce
Marketing
Social Media
KARAMAN, Hülya
Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
description Representative online customer reviews are critical to the effective functioning of the Internet economy. In this study, I investigate the representativeness of online review distributions to examine how extremity bias and conformity impact it, and explore whether online review solicitations alter representativeness. Past research on extreme distribution of online ratings commonly relied solely on observed public online ratings. One strength of the current paper is that I observe the private satisfaction ratings of customers regardless of whether they choose to write an online review or not. I show that both extremity bias and conformity exist in unsolicited online word-of-mouth (WOM) and introduce online review solicitations as a mechanism that can partially de-bias ratings. Solicitations increase all customers’ engagement in online WOM, but if solicited, those with moderate experiences increase their engagement more than those with extreme experiences. Consequently, while extremity bias still exists in solicited online WOM, solicitations significantly increase the representativeness of rating distributions. Surprisingly, the results demonstrate that without conformity, unsolicited online WOM would be even less representative of the original customer experiences. Further, I document that both solicited and unsolicited reviews equally overstate the average customer experience (compared to average private ratings) despite stark differences in their rating distributions. Finally, I establish that solicitations for reviews on the company-owned website, on average, decrease the number of one-star reviews on a third-party review platform.
format text
author KARAMAN, Hülya
author_facet KARAMAN, Hülya
author_sort KARAMAN, Hülya
title Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
title_short Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
title_full Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
title_fullStr Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
title_full_unstemmed Online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
title_sort online review solicitations reduce extremity bias in online review distributions and increase their representativeness
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2021
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6586
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7585/viewcontent/ONLINE_REVIEW.pdf
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