Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

7-2021

Abstract

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.

Keywords

review solicitation, reporting biases, representative reviews, extremity bias, social influence, conformity, online reviews, online word-of-mouth, third-party review platforms, TripAdvisor

Discipline

E-Commerce | Marketing | Social Media

Research Areas

Marketing

Publication

Management Science

Volume

67

Issue

7

First Page

4420

Last Page

4445

ISSN

0025-1909

Identifier

10.1287/mnsc.2020.3758

Publisher

INFORMS

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3758

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