Do Online Friends Bring Out the Best in Us? The Effect of Friend Contributions on Online Review Provision

Zhihong Ke (), Liu De () and Daniel J. Brass ()
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Zhihong Ke: College of Business, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634
Liu De: Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Daniel J. Brass: Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506

Information Systems Research, 2020, vol. 31, issue 4, 1322-1336

Abstract: User-generated online reviews are crucial for consumer decision making but suffer from underprovision, quality degradation, and imbalances across products. This research investigates whether friend contributions cues , in the form of highlighted reviews written by online friends, can motivate users to write more and higher-quality reviews. Noting the public-good nature of online reviews, we draw on theories of pure altruism and competitive altruism to understand the effects of friend-contribution cues on review provision. We test our hypotheses using data from Yelp and find positive effects of friend-contribution cues. Users are three times more likely to provide a review after a recent friend review than after a recent stranger review, and this effect cannot be solely explained by homophily. Furthermore, reviews written after a friend’s review tend to be of higher quality, longer, and more novel. In addition, friend reviews tend to have a stronger effect on less-experienced users and less-reviewed products/services, suggesting friend-contribution cues can help mitigate the scarcity of contributions on long-tail products and from infrequent contributors. Our findings hold important implications for research and practice in the private provision of online reviews.

Keywords: online reviews; online friends; public goods; competitive altruism; contribution quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:31:y:2020:i:4:p:1322-1336

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