Can online reviews reveal a product's true quality?: empirical findings and analytical modeling of Online word-of-mouth communication
Can online reviews reveal a product's true quality?: empirical findings and analytical modeling of Online word-of-mouth communication
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DOI：
10.1145/1134707.1134743
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发表时间：
2006-06
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Nan Hu;P. Pavlou;J. Zhang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Nan Hu;P. Pavlou;J. Zhang
作为口碑的数字化版本，在线评论已成为消费者的主要信息来源，对广泛的管理活动具有非常重要的影响。虽然一些研究人员将研究重点放在在线产品评论对销售的影响上，但一个重要的假设仍未得到检验，即在线产品评论能否揭示产品的真实质量？为了检验这一关键假设的有效性，本文首先使用亚马逊的数据对在线评论的基本分布进行了实证检验。结果表明，53% 的产品具有双峰和非正态分布。对于这些产品，平均分数不一定能揭示产品的真实质量，并且可能会提供误导性的建议。然后本文推导了一个分析模型来解释平均值何时可以作为产品真实质量的有效表示，并讨论其对营销实践的影响。
As a digital version of word-of-mouth, online review has become a major information source for consumers and has very important implications for a wide range of management activities. While some researchers focus their studies on the impact of online product review on sales, an important assumption remains unexamined, that is, can online product review reveal the true quality of the product? To test the validity of this key assumption, this paper first empirically tests the underlying distribution of online reviews with data from Amazon. The results show that 53% of the products have a bimodal and non-normal distribution. For these products, the average score does not necessarily reveal the product's true quality and may provide misleading recommendations. Then this paper derives an analytical model to explain when the mean can serve as a valid representation of a product's true quality, and discusses its implication on marketing practices.