Customer Motivation and Response Bias in Online Reviews

Saram Han, Chris K. Anderson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

The voluntary nature of online customer review platforms self-selects customers with strong opinions, resulting in an underreporting bias. However, little research has been conducted on the relationship between postpurchase satisfaction and the propensity to share one’s opinion. The goal of this study is to empirically examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and reporting motivation in online review platforms. The results of this study demonstrate that customer intention to post an online hotel review varies depending on the level of customer satisfaction. Online reviewers are more motivated to post extreme and negative ratings. However, this underreporting bias is mitigated when ratings are generated by reviewers who are familiar with the online review posting process. The relationship between individual familiarity with the review platform and the underreporting bias can be explained using the benefit-cost theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)142-153
Number of pages12
JournalCornell Hospitality Quarterly
Volume61
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2020

Keywords

  • benefit-cost theory
  • online review
  • underreporting

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