Facing the Multifaceted Impact of Fake Reviews: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Kim Fröhnel (), Gabriel Benedikt Thomas Adams () and Rüdiger Zarnekow ()
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Kim Fröhnel: Technical University of Berlin, Information and Communication Management
Gabriel Benedikt Thomas Adams: Technical University of Berlin, Information and Communication Management
Rüdiger Zarnekow: Technical University of Berlin, Information and Communication Management

A chapter in Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Decision-Making, 2026, pp 427-445 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Online reviews became an essential source of knowledge during consumers’ online decision-making process. In recent years, the crucial role of online reviews has incentivized fraudsters to game the review system by writing self-promotional fake reviews or bad-mouthing competitors. While detecting fake reviews has become an important task for scholars and practitioners, research on the impact of fake reviews is still limited and distributed across disciplines. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize empirical and theoretical research findings on the impact of fake reviews. Our findings show that fake reviews are not only a competitive and economic but also a social problem. Moreover, fake reviews undermine the importance of online reviews as quality signals in online decision-making processes. In this paper, we identified research gaps and derived recommendations for future research and practice.

Keywords: Online reviews; Fake reviews; Impact; Systematic literature review; Digital platform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:lnichp:978-3-032-08480-4_27

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-08480-4_27

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