Do online reviews reflect a product's true perceived quality? An investigation of online movie reviews across cultures

This paper investigates when the reported average of online ratings matches the perceived average assessment of the population as a whole, including the average assessments of both raters and non-raters. We apply behavioral theory to capture intentions in rating online movie reviews in two dissimilar countries – China and the United States. We argue that consumers’ rating behaviors are affected by cultural influences and that they are influenced in predictable ways. Based on data collected from IMDB.com and Douban.com, we found significant differences across raters from these two different cultures. Additionally, we examined how cultural elements influence rating behavior for a hybrid culture – Singapore. To study whether online consumer reviews are subjected to under-reporting bias, which is, consumers with extreme opinions are more likely to report their opinions than consumers with moderate reviews causing online reviews to be a biased estimator of a product’s true quality, we compare the consumer reviews posted online with those from an experimental study. Our results shows that under-reporting is more prevalent among US online network, thus online reviews are a better movie perceived quality proxy in China and Singapore than in the US

Journey to the East: A Review of Hollywood’s Film Localization Efforts for China’s Film Market

The film market of China has been growing rapidly and is now the world’s second largest film market. Hollywood studios have been sending transnational films to China to receive additional revenues. This research investigates the three channels (i.e., flat-rate buyouts, co-productions, and revenue-sharing titles) through which Hollywood studios can enter their films in China’s film market and reviews the China-focused localization efforts that Hollywood studios have made to appeal to China. The review findings show that exporting Hollywood films to China as revenue-sharing titles has become the favorite approach for major Hollywood studios to gain additional revenues. To improve revenue-sharing films’ box-office performance, localization efforts of Hollywood studios are executed throughout a film’s theatrical life cycle, from a film’s planning and production stages to its distribution, promotion, and exhibition stages. Implications and suggestions as to how Hollywood studios can further utilize film localization efforts to enhance box-office success in China are also discussed in the present study

Negative online word-of-mouth: Behavioral indicator or emotional release?

The influence of negative online word-of-mouth on the behavior of those receiving it has been addressed extensively in the academic literature. Remarkably, the question whether negative online word-of-mouth should also be seen as a behavioral indicator of its sender remains unaddressed. Answering this question is relevant as it provides companies with insight into the need to engage in interaction with those who negatively express themselves online or whether these expressions should be seen as temporary emotional releases without any intended conduct. To fill the existing research gap, this research paper proposes and empirically tests a sender-oriented model, investigating the influence of emotions, negative online word-of-mouth on repatronage and switching intentions. As disclosing negative feedback online may also reflect the sender's motivation to inform the consumer community or to provide constructive feedback to the company responsible for the dissatisfying consumption, community usefulness and company usefulness are included as behavioral moderators. The results of an empirical survey conducted amongst real senders of negative information confirm that negative online word-of-mouth is directly driven by positive and negative emotions and is strongly predictive for the sender's intended conduct. The motivation to help other consumers was demonstrated to function as behavioral moderator. The paper concludes with theoretical and managerial implications, and suggests avenues for further research. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The role of cultural values in consumers’ evaluation of online review helpfulness: a big data approach

Purpose Online consumer reviews are increasingly used by third-party e-commerce organizations to shed light on the positive and negative sides of the brands they sell. However, the large number of consumer reviews requires these organizations to shortlist the most helpful ones to cope with information overload. A growing number of scholars have been investigating the determinants of review helpfulness; however, little is known about the influence of cultural factors in consumer's evaluation of review helpfulness. Design/methodology/approach This study has adopted Hofstede's cultural values framework to assess the influence of cultural factors on review helpfulness. We used a sample of 570,669 reviews of 851 hotels published by reviewers from 81 countries on Booking.com. Findings Findings reveal that reviewers from cultural contexts that score high on power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence are more likely to write helpful reviews. Originality/value This is one of the first cross-cultural studies in marketing using a big data approach in examining how users of reviews from different countries evaluate the helpfulness of online reviews

La Comunicación Persuasiva : electronic Word-of-Mouth. Estudio de Casos

Internet ha transformado la forma en que buscamos información, la forma en que interactuamos entre nosotros. En consecuencia, el comportamiento tradicional del boca a boca (WOM) ahora tiene un elemento electrónico que da como resultado un flujo de investigación sustancial: el WOM electrónico (eWOM) subsumió estos métodos y se volvió más común; en algunos casos, se ha convertido en el método preferido de comunicación. Por lo tanto, el eWOM permite a los consumidores interactuar socialmente entre sí, intercambiar información relacionada con el producto y tomar decisiones de compra informadas a través de una conversación mediada por ordenador. Como forma de boca a boca electrónico (eWOM), las reseñas de consumidores en línea han atraído una enorme atención por parte de investigadores y profesionales. Aunque la investigación existente nos ha ayudado a desarrollar una buena comprensión de una serie de temas relacionados con el eWOM, quedan por resolver varias cuestiones de investigación y gestión..