Valence or Volume? Maximizing Online Review Influence Across Consumers, Products, and Marketing

Evidence shows that products with online reviews have a higher chance to stay in the consideration set of consumers than products with no online reviews do. Online reviews, as consumer-generated content, affect consumers’ purchase decision-making process. Most of the studies in this area have looked at valence and volume of online reviews. Generally, valence and volume of online reviews are considered to positively influence sales; however, the findings in the literature are inconclusive. While some studies have reported a positive relationship between valence/volume and sales, others have failed to find any significant relationship. Using both lab experiments and real-world data, this dissertation addresses the conflicting findings from previous studies by introducing the role of the individual, the product, and firm-generated promotional message. In the first essay of the dissertation, I attempt to explain the inconsistencies in the literature by examining the moderating effect of regulatory focus on the relative role of valence versus volume of online reviews in consumer purchase decisions. Regulatory focus theory suggests that people tend to have either a promotion or a prevention orientation in approaching their desired goals. The current research argues that depending on consumers’ regulatory orientation, the effect of either review valence or review volume on consumers’ likelihood to purchase the product will become more salient. Moreover, specific products also activate a certain regulatory orientation. Therefore, depending on the products’ regulatory orientation, valence or volume of online reviews (i.e. valence and volume) will become more or less influential across different product categories. The second essay of the dissertation investigates the use of firm-generated promotional message to maximize online review volume versus valence effects. Specifically, it examines how a common online retail-marketing tactic, scarcity appeal, can be used to accentuate the effect of online review volume and valence on consumers’ purchase decisions. I argue that the mere presence of a scarcity appeal and the specific type of scarcity appeal used can influence the extent to which consumers weigh valence versus volume information. The integrative approach developed in this research advocates the simultaneous consideration of firm marketing tactics and consumer-generated content. It argues that firm-level actions can interact with online review components (i.e. volume and valence) to affect sales

A Power-threat View of The Role of Neighborhood Demographics on Airbnb Review Sentiments

Reviews in online sharing platforms hold value and drive sales. They also can include bias based on the review author\u27s racio-ethnicity. We set out to understand how racio-ethnicity bias impacts review sentiment. To do this, we draw on the power-threat view and propose two hypotheses. We find support for these hypotheses using archival data from 2,473 guest/host dyads and their associated Airbnb reviews. We find reviews with a more positive sentiment are left by guests from the national majority racio-ethnicity and hosted by a host from the same racio-ethnicity. This pattern is stronger in neighborhoods primarily inhabited by members of minority racio-ethnicities. This research contributes to the literature on online reviews and holds practical implications for digital platforms

What drives consumers to spread online book reviews

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research e CRMIn the context of cyberspace, consumers are strongly affected by their peers’ online opinions. The Internet has allowed for the rapid growth of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and thus, nowadays, we can find numerous product-related reviews and opinions from people around the globe. As a result, we are witnessing the rising of virtual communities, as well as new forms of social interaction. Regarding the book industry, research has highlighted the importance of online reviews as a reference when selecting and purchasing a book. However, the issue of what drives consumers to write online book reviews is seldom mentioned throughout the literature. This study focuses on the factors driving consumers to spread online book reviews. As a starting point, a Cheung and Lee’s model on what motivates consumers to spread eWOM was analysed, and other motivations that were found to be relevant in the literature were added to said model. The data was obtained through an online questionnaire published on Facebook and Goodreads book-related groups, as well as sent to the Nova Information Management School students. From the collected data, 225 responses were considered valid and were later analysed using PLS-SEM. The findings of this study showed that sense of belonging is the motivation with the greatest impact on consumer’s intention to write online book reviews, followed by venting negative feelings and desire for sharing, and, to a lesser extent, reputation. The results mentioned provide important insights that can be used both in future research and by managers in the book industry.No contexto do ciberespaço, os consumidores são fortemente influenciados pelas opiniões online dos seus pares. A Internet permitiu o rápido crescimento do passa-palavra eletrónico (eWOM) e, portanto, hoje em dia podemos encontrar inúmeras opiniões relacionadas com produtos, vindas de consumidores de todo o mundo. Consequentemente, estamos a testemunhar o surgimento de novas comunidades virtuais, bem como novas formas de interação social. No que diz respeito à indústria dos livros, a literatura tem destacado a importância das críticas online como referência para selecionar e comprar um livro. No entanto, a questão das motivações que levam os consumidores a escrever estas críticas online de livros raramente é mencionada na literatura. Este estudo centra-se nas motivações que levam os consumidores a escrever críticas online de livros, tendo como base o modelo de Cheung e Lee sobre as motivações dos consumidores para disseminar eWOM e adicionando a esse modelo outras motivações, que foram consideradas relevantes na literatura. Os dados foram obtidos através de um questionário disponibilizado em grupos relacionados com livros, no Facebook e no Goodreads, bem como enviado aos alunos da Nova Information Management School. A partir dos dados coletados, 225 respostas foram consideradas válidas e posteriormente analisadas através do PLS-SEM. Os resultados desde estudo mostraram que o sentimento de pertença é a motivação com maior impacto na intenção do consumidor para escrever críticas online de livros, seguindo-se as motivações partilhar sentimentos negativos e desejo de partilha e, em menor medida, a reputação. Os resultados mencionados fornecem informações importantes que podem ser usadas tanto em pesquisas futuras como a nível empresarial

WHEN DO ONLINE USER-GENERATED REVIEWS REALLY MATTER? A SELF-VALIDATION ANALYSIS

With the recent advances in electronic recommendation agents and social networking platforms, online review systems are becoming pervasive to transmit conventional interpersonal word-of-mouth communications to the World Wide Web. More and more online retailers have offered different opportunities for consumers to access various kinds of opinions and recommendations provided by their peers. Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying how consumers respond to other people’s recommendations regarding a product or service offering remain equivocal. The present research is proposed to understand how consumers may attend to online peer-generated recommendations under different conditions. Based on prior research on metacognition, the present study is intended to examine how online product reviews may in part affect the subjective judgements of consumers’ own evaluations of a product and under what conditions those peer recommendations may influence consumers’ subsequent preference and choice consistency. An experiment is proposed to show that different online consumer reviews or digital word-of-mouth could have comparable impacts in changing consumers’ expressed preferences, but under some conditions, preference shifts or attitude changes induced by online peer reviews may not necessarily reflect people’s purchase intentions. Findings of the proposed research may help to obtain a better understanding of the nature of online peer recommendations and their different influences in viewers’ decision making processes

The Valuation of User-Generated Content: A Structural, Stylistic and Semantic Analysis of Online Reviews

The ability and ease for users to create and publish content has provided vast amount of online product reviews. However, the amount of data is overwhelmingly large and unstructured, making information difficult to quantify. This creates challenge in understanding how online reviews affect consumers' purchase decisions. In my dissertation, I explore the structural, stylistic and semantic content of online reviews. Firstly, I present a measurement that quantifies sentiments with respect to a multi-point scale and conduct a systematic study on the impact of online reviews on product sales. Using the sentiment metrics generated, I estimate the weight that customers place on each segment of the review and examine how these segments affect the sales for a given product. The results empirically verified that sentiments influence sales, of which ratings alone do not capture. Secondly, I propose a method to detect online review manipulation using writing style analysis and assess how consumers respond to such manipulation. Finally, I find that societal norms have influence on posting behavior and significant differences do exist across cultures. Users should therefore exercise care in interpreting the information from online reviews. This dissertation advances our understanding on the consumer decision making process and shed insight on the relevance of online review ratings and sentiments over a sequential decision making process. Having tapped into the abundant supply of online review data, the results in this work are based on large-scale datasets which extend beyond the scale of traditional word-of-mouth research

eWOM: the effects of online consumer reviews on purchasing decision of electronic goods

Internet has become the primary source of information for a large number of consumers and it has dramatically changed the consumer behaviour. One of the main changes in modern consumer behaviour has been the transition from a passive to an active and informed consumer. Internet enables customers to share their opinions on, and experiences with, goods and services with a multitude of other consumers. Online consumer reviews are used by prospective buyers of related products who are interested in obtaining more information from people who have purchased and used a product of interest. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is one of the most important information sources when a consumer is making a purchase decision. The arrival and expansion of the Internet has extended consumers' options for gathering product information by including other consumers' comments, posted on the Internet, and has provided consumers opportunities to offer their own consumption-related advice by engaging in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). eWOM can be defined as all informal communications directed at consumers through Internet-based technology related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, or their sellers. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of, one type of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the online consumer review, on purchasing decision of electronic products. This empirical study also focuses on the relationship between reviews and purchasing behaviour. An instrument was prepared to measure the proposed constructs, with questionnaire items taken from prior studies but adapted to fit the context of e-commerce. The survey was applied to academicians in Turkey through internet. The data was analyzed using the SPSS package. The results show that consumer reviews have a causal impact on consumer purchasing behaviour and they have an effect on choosing the products by consumer. Finally, the results and their implications are discussed

Heterogeneity of Research Results: A New Perspective From Which to Assess and Promote Progress in Psychological Science

Heterogeneity emerges when multiple close or conceptual replications on the same subject produce results that vary more than expected from the sampling error. Here we argue that unexplained heterogeneity reflects a lack of coherence between the concepts applied and data observed and therefore a lack of understanding of the subject matter. Typical levels of heterogeneity thus offer a useful but neglected perspective on the levels of understanding achieved in psychological science. Focusing on continuous outcome variables, we surveyed heterogeneity in 150 meta-analyses from cognitive, organizational, and social psychology and 57 multiple close replications. Heterogeneity proved to be very high in meta-analyses, with powerful moderators being conspicuously absent. Population effects in the average meta-analysis vary from small to very large for reasons that are typically not understood. In contrast, heterogeneity was moderate in close replications. A newly identified relationship between heterogeneity and effect size allowed us to make predictions about expected heterogeneity levels. We discuss important implications for the formulation and evaluation of theories in psychology. On the basis of insights from the history and philosophy of science, we argue that the reduction of heterogeneity is important for progress in psychology and its practical applications, and we suggest changes to our collective research practice toward this end

A systematic review of the experience, occurrence, and controllability of flow states in elite sport

Objectives: This study aimed to provide an up-to-date summary of the literature on flow in elite sport, specifically relating to: (i) how flow is experienced; (ii) how these states occur; and (iii) the potential controllability of flow. Design: Systematic review. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of SPORTdiscus, PsycINFO, SAGE journals online, INGENTA connect, and Web of Knowledge was completed in August, 2011, and yielded 17 empirical studies published between 1992 and 2011. The primarily qualitative findings were analysed thematically and synthesised using a narrative approach. Results: Findings indicated that: (i) some flow dimensions appear to be experienced more consistently than others; (ii) key factors were consistently reported to induce or inhibit flow occurrence; and (iii) the perception that flow experiences could be controllable to some extent, and are not merely ‘coincidental’. Additionally, it is appears that physiology is also relevant in flow, and these experiences may be psychophysiological. Conclusions: Based on these findings, recommendations are made including the need for researchers to move from description to explanation of flow, the use of new methodologies, greater focus on the role of personality factors, and possible refinements of existing flow theory to be more specific to sport