The Pitfalls of Review Solicitation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on TripAdvisor

Gao, Baojun1; Wang, Jing2; Ding, Xiaojie3; Guo, Yue4

2024-05-01

10.1287/mnsc.2023.01006

MANAGEMENT SCIENCE   影响因子和分区

0025-1909

1526-5501

This study examines the effect of firms' participation in platform -endorsed review solicitation programs on consumers' online review generation. We leverage a natural experiment on TripAdvisor, which launched a review solicitation program that allows hotels to collect reviews directly from guests after their stays with the aid of certified connectivity partners. Applying a two -stage difference -in -differences approach to a panel data set of online reviews for a matched set of hotels across TripAdvisor and Expedia, we find that hotels' participation in the review solicitation program results in a 34.3% increase in review volume, a 0.151 increase in review rating, but a 16.9% decrease in review length. Review solicitation, however, generates a notable negative spillover effect on the volume of organic reviews. Specifically, the volume of organic reviews is reduced by 15.5% after hotels start soliciting reviews. We provide evidence that the motivational crowding -out effect plays an important role in driving this negative spillover. Further analyses reveal that the effects of review solicitation are heterogeneous with respect to hotels of different types and consumers with different demographic and behavioral characteristics. Finally, using a novel structural topic model, we detect a significant shift in review content from specific and concrete topics to general and abstract topics. Our findings suggest that review platforms and firms should be cautious about the unintended negative consequences of review solicitation on consumers' review generation.

review solicitation program online reviews two-stage difference-in-differences spillover effect structural topic model

SCI ; SSCI

英语

其他

National Natural Science Foundation of China["72371192","72132008","71872061","72061127002"] ; Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China[22YJA630021]

Business & Economics ; Operations Research & Management Science

Management ; Operations Research & Management Science

WOS:001226978600001

INFORMS

ECONOMICS BUSINESS

Web of Science

1.Wuhan Univ, Econ & Management Sch, Dept Management Sci & Engn, Wuhan 430072, Peoples R China
2.Hong Kong Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Business & Management, Dept Informat Syst Business Stat & Operat Manageme, Hong Kong, Peoples R China
3.Wuhan Text Univ, Sch Management, Wuhan 430000, Peoples R China
4.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Coll Business, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China

Gao, Baojun,Wang, Jing,Ding, Xiaojie,et al. The Pitfalls of Review Solicitation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on TripAdvisor[J]. MANAGEMENT SCIENCE,2024.

Gao, Baojun,Wang, Jing,Ding, Xiaojie,&Guo, Yue.(2024).The Pitfalls of Review Solicitation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on TripAdvisor.MANAGEMENT SCIENCE.

Gao, Baojun,et al."The Pitfalls of Review Solicitation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on TripAdvisor".MANAGEMENT SCIENCE (2024).