A ‘Democratization’ of Markets? Online Consumer Reviews in the Restaurant Industry

Kevin Mellet, Thomas Beauvisage (beauvith@gmail.com), Jean Samuel Beuscart (jsbeuscart@gmail.com) and Marie Trespeuch
Additional contact information
Thomas Beauvisage: Orange Labs
Jean Samuel Beuscart: Orange Labs
Marie Trespeuch: Orange Labs

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This article examines the promise of market democratization conveyed by consumer rating and review websites in the restaurant industry. Based on interviews with website administrators and data from the main French platforms, we show that review websites contribute to the democratization of restaurant criticism, which first started in the 1970s, both by including a greater variety of restaurants in the reviews, and by broadening participation, opening restaurant reviewing to all. However, this twofold democratic ambition conflicts with the need to produce fair and helpful recommendations, leading review websites to seek compromises between these two dimensions.

Keywords: restaurant industry; online consumer reviews; market democratization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-02947884v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Valuation Studies, 2014, 2 (1), pp.5 - 41. ⟨10.3384/vs.2001-5992.14215⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-02947884v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02947884

DOI: 10.3384/vs.2001-5992.14215

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD (hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr).