“Worse Than What I Read?” The External Effect of Review Ratings on the Online Review Generation Process: An Empirical Analysis of Multiple Product Categories Using Amazon.com Review Data

Do Online Reviews Encourage Customers to Write Online Reviews? A Longitudinal Study

This study examines the nature of online reviews to explain changes in satisfaction, trust, and consumer intent to write a review during restaurant revisit stages. Using a data set of two-time lags, the findings show that the impact of online reviews on customer satisfaction, trust, and consumer intent to write a review decreases or dilutes over time. More specifically, the effect of online reviews in T + 1 diminishes as consumers experience a particular restaurant compared to when they initially encountered the review. Our findings also show that the impacts of online reviews on satisfaction and trust gradually decrease over time. However, the relationship between online reviews and trust is only significant in T + 1. Additionally, the effect of trust on customer intent to write a review initially increases (T) and then, gradually drops over time (T + 1). Finally, this study proposes guidelines for improving theoretical and practical insights across consumption experience stages.

The Effect of Marketing Activities on Web Search Volume: An Empirical Analysis of Chinese Film Industry Data

Prior research on consumers’ web searches primarily examined the effect of web searches on product sales or the characteristics of the web searchers. Differing from prior research, we investigate the effect of marketing activities on web search volume. We selected 314 movies released in China whose box office revenues were greater than RMB 10,000. Then, we collected data points on web search volume and marketing activities from the Baidu, Sina Weibo, and Douban platforms from the 3 weeks prior to the release of each movie. Marketing activity data points were derived from three sources: news media, social network marketing, and film stars. Our data analysis of 6594 observations revealed two major findings. First, news media, social network marketing, and the effect of film stars increased the web search volumes of the films. In particular, social network marketing had the strongest impact on the web search volume. Second, the previous-day web search volume increased the present-day web search volume without marketing activities, suggesting a spillover effect. We discuss the academic contributions and managerial implications of our findings in the context of online marketing and new product launches.