Creation and Consumption of Mobile Word of Mouth: How Are Mobile Reviews Different?

Sam Ransbotham (), Nicholas H. Lurie () and Hongju Liu ()
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Sam Ransbotham: Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Nicholas H. Lurie: School of Business, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269
Hongju Liu: Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Marketing Science, 2019, vol. 38, issue 5, 773-792

Abstract: Mobile users can create word of mouth (WOM) wherever they are and whenever they want to do so. This real-time creation process may be associated with differences in the content and consumption value of mobile versus nonmobile word of mouth. We analyze 275,362 reviews from 117,827 reviewers describing their experiences at 134,976 restaurants as well as a dual platform subsample of 21,026 reviews written by 673 reviewers who wrote at least four mobile and four nonmobile reviews. We also examine how the introduction of the mobile platform affected WOM consumption. We find that WOM content is more affective, more concrete, and less extreme when created on mobile devices. These differences in content (more affective, more concrete, and less extreme) vary in their relationships with the perceived consumption value of mobile content. Beyond the indirect relationship between platform and consumption value through content, reviews created on mobile devices are associated with lower consumption value. This direct relationship grows stronger over time. Although consumers initially value both real-time mobile content and nonmobile content, even after controlling for a large set of content and contextual variables, over time consumers value mobile reviews less than they do nonmobile reviews.

Keywords: mobile; reviews; word of mouth; econometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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