Managerial Response to Negative Online Reviews in the Service Industry: A Tactic-Based and Culture-Based Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Irina Y. Yu ◽  
Lisa C. Wan ◽  
Xiao (Shannon) Yi
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaid Alrawadieh ◽  
Mithat Zeki Dincer

PurposeDrawing on a sample of 520 negative reviews posted on TripAdvisor against all five-star hotels operating in Petra, Jordan, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the response of luxury hotels to negative online reviews by considering the Response Rate (RR), the Response Time (RT) and the Response Content (RC).Design/methodology/approachA deductive content analysis was used on hotels’ managerial responses. Based on the literature review, a four-construct scheme was identified to guide the analysis including Appreciation; Apology; Explanation; and Incentive. The managerial responses were carefully read and manually coded based on the four-construct scheme. The time between the review posting date and the date of the managerial response was also recorded. Luxury hotel managers were also surveyed to obtain insights into their perceptions and practices with respect to online reputation management.FindingsThe findings call into question luxury hotels’ awareness of the harmful impact of negative online reviews. Specifically, the findings suggest that less than half of the negative reviews received a managerial response, and that more than half of these were standardized and did not refer to the issues raised in the reviews. The low response rate coupled with the hotel managers’ consensus on the importance of answering all online reviews indicates inconsistency between hotel managers’ perceptions and practices with regard to online reputation management.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the ongoing debate on reputation management in the hospitality industry by considering the managerial response to negative online reviews. The paper discusses several managerial implications for hotel managers as well as avenues for future research.


2020 ◽  
pp. 109467052097514
Author(s):  
Fei Ye ◽  
Qian Xia ◽  
Minhao Zhang ◽  
Yuanzhu Zhan ◽  
Yina Li

In today’s global service industry, online reviews posted by consumers offer critical information that influences subsequent consumers’ purchasing decisions and firms’ operation strategies. However, little research has been done on how the same information can be used to identify key competitors and improve services to increase competitiveness. In this article, we propose an analytical framework based on an improved k-nearest neighbor model and a latent Dirichlet allocation model for service managers to harvest online reviews to identify their key competitors and to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their businesses. With a sample comprising over 8 million customer reviews of 6,409 hotels in 50 Chinese cities from Ctrip.com , we validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in the analysis of a hotel’s service competitiveness and its key competitors. The findings indicate that the importance of particular attributes of a hotel varies in different segments according to hotel star ratings. This study extends the literature by bridging online reviews and competitor identification for service industries. It also contributes to practice by offering a systematic and effective way for managers to identify their key competitors, monitor market preferences, ensure service quality, and formulate effective marketing strategies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Ho

The beginning of the 21st century witnesses a trend for business and leisure travelers to make accommodation decisions by referring to online reviews of hotel accommodation services and the hotel management’s responses to such reviews. The responses, termed review response genre in this study, have since attracted considerable research attention. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it aims to identify the moves present in the review response genre; second, it aims to explore how the hotel management attempts to achieve service recovery with the moves of the genre. A total of three obligatory moves are identified: Acknowledging Problem, Expressing Feeling and Thanking Reviewer. The findings will have significant implications for the hospitality and wider service industry practitioners responsible for handling negative online reviews.


Author(s):  
Jorge Mejia ◽  
Shawn Mankad ◽  
Anandasivam Gopal

Problem description: Measuring quality in the service industry remains a challenge. Existing methodologies are often costly and unscalable. Furthermore, understanding how elements of service quality contribute to the performance of service providers continues to be a concern in the service industry. In this paper, we address these challenges in the restaurant sector, a vital component of the service industry. Academic/practical relevance: Our work provides a scalable methodology for measuring the quality of service providers using the vast amount of text in social media. The quality metrics proposed are associated with economic outcomes for restaurants and can help predict future restaurant performance. Methodology: We use text present in online reviews on Yelp.com to identify and extract service dimensions using nonnegative matrix factorization for a large set of restaurants located in a major city in the United States. We subsequently validate these service dimensions as proxies for service quality using external data sources and a series of laboratory experiments. Finally, we use econometrics to test the relationship between these dimensions and restaurant survival as additional validation. Results: We find that our proposed service quality dimensions are scalable, match industry standards, and are correctly identified by subjects in a controlled setting. Furthermore, we show that specific service dimensions are significantly correlated with the survival of merchants, even after controlling for competition and other factors. Managerial implications: This work has implications for the strategic use of text analytics in the context of service operations, where an increasingly large text corpus is available. We discuss the benefits of this work for service providers and platforms, such as Yelp and OpenTable.


Author(s):  
Anne-Wil van Lohuizen ◽  
Andres Trujillo-Barrera

AbstractOnline reviews influence consumer decision making, retrieving valuable information about consumers to the companies. We investigate how review valence, platform type, and review credibility affect purchase intention (visit to restaurants). We use an experimental 2 × 4 between-subjects factorial design with two platforms (company websites and independent websites) and four types of review valences (neutral, negative, positive and balanced), with data of 256 respondents. Results show that purchase intentions are influenced by review valence. The effect is moderated by perceived review credibility. Review platform has no moderating effect on the influence of review valence. Results provide practical information for marketers in the service industry.


2014 ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Tatiana Mazza ◽  
Stefano Azzali

This study analyzes the severity of Internal Control over Financial Reporting deficiencies (Deficiencies, Significant Deficiencies and Material Weaknesses) in a sample of Italian listed companies, in the period 2007- 2012. Using proprietary data the severity of the deficiencies is tested for account-specific, entity level and information technology controls and for industries (manufacturing and services vs finance industries). The results on ICD severity is compared with one of the most frequent ICD (Acc_Period End/Accounting Policies): for account-specific, ICD in revenues, purchase, fixed assets and intangible, loans and insurance are more severe while ICD in Inventory are less severe. Differences in ICD severity have been found in the characteristic account: ICD in loan and insurance for finance industry and ICD in revenue, purchase for manufacturing and service industry are more severe. Finally, we found that ICD in entity level and information technology controls are less severe than account specific ICD in all industries. However, the results on entity level and information technology deficiencies could also mean that the importance of these types of control are under-evaluated by the manufacturing and service companies.


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