The Impact of Online Reviews on Product Sales: What’s Role of Supplemental Reviews

Author(s):  
Hao Liu ◽  
Jiangning Wu ◽  
Xian Yang ◽  
Xianneng Li
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 638-669
Author(s):  
Miriam Alzate ◽  
Marta Arce-Urriza ◽  
Javier Cebollada

When studying the impact of online reviews on product sales, previous scholars have usually assumed that every review for a product has the same probability of being viewed by consumers. However, decision-making and information processing theories underline that the accessibility of information plays a role in consumer decision-making. We incorporate the notion of review visibility to study the relationship between online reviews and product sales, which is proxied by sales rank information, studying three different cases: (1) when every online review is assumed to have the same probability of being viewed; (2) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most helpful mechanism; and (3) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most recent mechanism. Review non-textual and textual variables are analyzed. The empirical analysis is conducted using a panel of 119 cosmetic products over a period of nine weeks. Using the system generalized method of moments (system GMM) method for dynamic models of panel data, our findings reveal that review variables influence product sales, but the magnitude, and even the direction of the effect, vary amongst visibility cases. Overall, the characteristics of the most helpful reviews have a higher impact on sales.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 638-669
Author(s):  
Miriam Alzate ◽  
Marta Arce-Urriza ◽  
Javier Cebollada

When studying the impact of online reviews on product sales, previous scholars have usually assumed that every review for a product has the same probability of being viewed by consumers. However, decision-making and information processing theories underline that the accessibility of information plays a role in consumer decision-making. We incorporate the notion of review visibility to study the relationship between online reviews and product sales, which is proxied by sales rank information, studying three different cases: (1) When every online review is assumed to have the same probability of being viewed; (2) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most helpful mechanism; and (3) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most recent mechanism. Review non-textual and textual variables are analyzed. The empirical analysis is conducted using a panel of 119 cosmetic products over a period of nine weeks. Using the system generalized method of moments (system GMM) method for dynamic models of panel data, our findings reveal that review variables influence product sales, but the magnitude, and even the direction of the effect, vary amongst visibility cases. Overall, the characteristics of the most helpful reviews have a higher impact on sales.


2020 ◽  
pp. 004728752093886
Author(s):  
GuoQiong Ivanka Huang ◽  
IpKin Anthony Wong ◽  
Rob Law

A comprehensive model is proposed to understand how travelers manage copious and even competing online reviews through a validation process, by examining the impact of social support, persuasive message compliance, persuasive message resistance, and metacognition on tourists’ willingness to be involved in social commerce. Based on the theories of signaling and reactance, the model explores how social forces, such as online social support and personal information-processing drivers (i.e., information processing and validating procedure), can explain customers’ social commerce intentions. A survey of tourists in 61 mid- to high-end hotels indicates that social support is positively related to persuasive message compliance, resistance, and social commerce intention. The findings indicate that persuasive message compliance and resistance mediate the relationship between social support and social commerce intention, whereas the mediation relationships are conditioned on metacognition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135676672110632
Author(s):  
Lujun Su ◽  
Qingyue Yang ◽  
Scott R Swanson ◽  
Ning Chris Chen

This study explores the impact of the valence (positive/negative) and emotional intensity (strong/weak) of online reviews on potential Chinese visitors’ travel intentions and trust of a destination. An experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. Findings suggest that online review valence and emotional intensity affect travel intentions and that destination trust can partially mediate this relationship. Changes in destination trust and travel intention due to positive/negative review emotional intensity changes are not equivalent. Furthermore, online review trustworthiness moderates the valence and destination trust and travel intention relationships, but not the effect of review emotional intensity on the same outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 728-739
Author(s):  
Marie Ozanne ◽  
Stephanie Q. Liu ◽  
Anna S. Mattila

Purpose While online reviews are of paramount importance in brand evaluations and purchase decisions, the impact of a reviewer’s attractiveness is not well understood. To bridge that gap, this paper aims to explore how physical attractiveness cues through profile photos influence customers’ brand evaluations. Design/methodology/approach The first study assesses the impact of attractiveness and review valence on brand evaluations. The authors used an experimental design and tested the model with an ANCOVA. Study 2 examines the impact of attractiveness in the context of multiple reviews and tests attractiveness heuristic as the underlying mechanism. Findings The findings indicate that when an attractive (vs less-attractive) reviewer writes a positive review, brand evaluations are enhanced. However, such an effect does not occur with a negative review. With multiple reviews varying in valence, cognitive load activates the use of an attractiveness heuristic when a positive review is written by an attractive (vs less-attractive) reviewer, thus leading to enhanced brand evaluations. Originality/value These findings highlight the presence of the attractiveness halo effect in online reviews and offer important implications to social media marketers. While previous studies have largely focused on review characteristics (e.g. star ratings, strength of the argument, etc.), this study focuses on reviewer characteristics (i.e. attractiveness) and cognitive biases associated with online brand evaluations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Guoquan Zhang ◽  
Haibin Qiu

Sellers readily obtain consumer product evaluations from online reviews in order to identify competitive products in detail and predict sales. Firstly, we collect product review data from shopping websites, social media, product communities, and other online platforms to identify product competitors with the help of word-frequency cooccurrence technology. We take mobile phones as an example to mine and analyze product competition information. Then, we calculate the product review quantity, review emotion value, product-network heat, and price statistics and establish the regression model of online product review forecasts. In addition, the neural-network model is established to suggest that the relationships among factors are linear. On the basis of analyzing and discussing the impact of product sales of the competitors, product price, the emotional value of the reviews, and product-network popularity, we construct the sales forecast model. Finally, to verify the validity of the factor analysis affecting the sales and the rationality of the established model, actual sales data are used to further analyze and verify the model, showing that the model is reasonable and effective.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Sanz-Blas ◽  
Daniela Buzova ◽  
Walesska Schlesinger

The sustainability of cruise tourism has been questioned in relation to its negative effects on ports of call, among which crowding has recently become more pronounced. However, an understanding of how crowdedness influences cruise tourists’ experience onshore is lacking. The study analyzed online reviews on onshore experiences in the main European ports of call through Leximancer, an automated text analytics software. The results revealed that the perceived destination crowding was not always negatively evaluated by tourists, but was also discussed as a factor adding up to the authenticity of the visit under certain circumstances. Nevertheless, the evidence indicates that only human crowding might be positively assessed, while the spatial crowdedness was always reported as detracting from the enjoyment of the visit. The analysis also showed that the crowding phenomenon was represented differently in the accounts of the low, average and high satisfaction cruise tourists’ groups. The role of the guide, as well as the attractiveness of the sightseeing were identified as factors that can ameliorate the negative effect of crowding on the destination visit. The findings yield relevant implications for all actors involved in the cruise tourism activity, which should manage destination crowdedness in a more sustainably innovative way.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8649
Author(s):  
Chunting Liu ◽  
Shanshan Wang ◽  
Guozhu Jia

The purpose of this study is to make good use of the massive amount of online user comment data to explore and analyze the dimensions of customer-perceived value and the importance of each dimension, given the background of China’s huge e-commerce market. We compiled a web crawler program to collect online comment data from online reviews. The crawled data were pre-processed and content analysis were performed. A customer-perceived value dictionary was constructed based on the extraction of frequent terms, literature review, and expert opinions. We re-identified the dimensions of customer-perceived value to include four key dimensions and corresponding subdivisions. Both the rationality and operability of the dimension model of customer-perceived value were validated and applied. Thereafter, the importance of various dimensions and the impacts of customer-perceived value dimensions on customer loyalty were analyzed and discussed. The empirical research results reveal that all four dimensions of customer-perceived value play an important role in customer-perceived value and that the patterns and degrees of the role of each dimension are rather different. Further, only certain parts of the dimensions of customer-perceived value have an impact on customer loyalty, and the degree of the impact differs substantially.


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Papathanassis

Purpose This paper aims to explore and model tourists’ perceptions of corruption-related holiday incidents and their impact on travel preferences and behavior. Design/methodology/approach This research methodology reflects an exploratory-sequential, mixed-method design, comprising a content analysis of 205 online reviews, followed by a survey of 268 respondents. Findings According to the data collected and analyzed, exposure to corruption appears to be more than an exception for holidaymakers. Moreover, tourists often associate corruption with a wide spectrum of incident types; those ranging from personal integrity threats to service delivery failures and heritage/attraction mismanagement. The impact of such incidents on travel preferences and behavior of tourists is highly dependent on the perceived competence, effectiveness and professionalism of local (destination) public services and authorities. Practical implications Recommendations for destination stakeholders include the need to enable and take ownership of tourists’ complaints and the importance of recognizing the role of heritage attractions as corruption-related symbols and destination image carriers. Originality/value This paper attempts to establish the connection between corruption and tourism externalities within the context of the recent “over-tourism” debate. In exploring tourism-corruption, the authors adopt a “micro-behavioral” perspective, which represents a novelty in the related macro/systemic-level approach, characterizing the predominant research in this area. Moreover, in terms of research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative methods are combined. This is an ambitious and challenging research design, demonstrating the synergies between the two paradigms and contributing to the completeness of the paper.


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