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Unfolding the characteristics of incentivized online reviews

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  • Costa, Ana
  • Guerreiro, João
  • Moro, Sérgio
  • Henriques, Roberto

Abstract

The rapid growth of social media in the last decades led e-commerce into a new era of value co-creation between the seller and the consumer. Since there is no contact with the product, people have to rely on the description of the seller, knowing that sometimes it may be biased and not entirely true. Therefore, review systems emerged to provide more trustworthy sources of information, since customer opinions may be less biased. However, the need to control the consumers’ opinion increased once sellers realized the importance of reviews and their direct impact on sales. One of the methods often used was to offer customers a specific product in exchange for an honest review. Yet, these incentivized reviews bias results and skew the overall rating of the products.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa, Ana & Guerreiro, João & Moro, Sérgio & Henriques, Roberto, 2019. "Unfolding the characteristics of incentivized online reviews," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 272-281.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:47:y:2019:i:c:p:272-281
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.12.006
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    5. Yusaku Nishimura & Xuyi Dong & Bianxia Sun, 2021. "Trump's tweets: Sentiment, stock market volatility, and jumps," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 497-512, September.
    6. Chan, Haksin & Yang, Morgan X. & Zeng, Kevin J., 2022. "Bolstering ratings and reviews systems on multi-sided platforms: A co-creation perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 208-217.
    7. Moro, Sérgio & Lopes, Rui J. & Esmerado, Joaquim & Botelho, Miguel, 2020. "Service quality in airport hotel chains through the lens of online reviewers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    8. Chuah, Stephanie Hui-Wen & Yu, Joanne, 2021. "The future of service: The power of emotion in human-robot interaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    9. Costa Filho, Murilo & Nogueira Rafael, Diego & Salmonson Guimarães Barros, Lucia & Mesquita, Eduardo, 2023. "Mind the fake reviews! Protecting consumers from deception through persuasion knowledge acquisition," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Salminen, Joni & Kandpal, Chandrashekhar & Kamel, Ahmed Mohamed & Jung, Soon-gyo & Jansen, Bernard J., 2022. "Creating and detecting fake reviews of online products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Birim, Şule Öztürk & Kazancoglu, Ipek & Kumar Mangla, Sachin & Kahraman, Aysun & Kumar, Satish & Kazancoglu, Yigit, 2022. "Detecting fake reviews through topic modelling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 884-900.

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