 Production of Online Word‐of‐Mouth: Peer Effects and the Moderation of User CharacteristicsYang Wang, Paulo Goes, Zaiyan Wei and Daniel Zeng Production and Operations Management, 2019, vol. 28, issue 7, 1621-1640 Abstract: We study peer effects on individuals’ contributions to a major form of word of mouth—online reviews. Provided by either consumers or third‐party professionals, online reviews influence consumer purchasing decisions and hence sales. Individuals have conflicting incentives of free riding and contributing to social capital when writing reviews. We leverage a “natural experiment,” which led to an exogenous expansion in the user population of a major online review platform, to better understand the trade‐off. Our empirical findings are mainly twofold. First, we find that a larger population of audience and peer review writers, an immediate consequence of the exogenous shock, cause individuals to write more reviews with higher quality and assign higher but also more diverse ratings. In addition, we find heterogeneity in peer effects by user activeness, expertise, and popularity. Our findings have implications for companies in managing online feedbacks and for platforms that rely on user contributions. Date: 2019 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:popmgt:v:28:y:2019:i:7:p:1621-1640 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Production and Operations Management is currently edited by Kalyan Singhal More articles in Production and Operations Management from Production and Operations Management Society |
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