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Offline Context Affects Online Reviews: The Effect of Post-Consumption Weather
[Mobile Ad Effectiveness: Hyper-Contextual Targeting with Crowdedness]

Author

Listed:
  • Leif Brandes
  • Yaniv Dover

Abstract

This empirical study investigates whether unpleasant weather—a prominent aspect of a consumer’s offline environment—influences online review provision and content. It uses a unique dataset that combines 12 years of data on hotel bookings and reviews, with weather condition information at a consumer’s home and hotel address. The results show that bad weather increases review provision and reduces rating scores for past consumption experiences. Moreover, 6.5% more reviews are written on rainy days and that these reviews are 0.1 points lower, accounting for 59% of the difference in average rating scores between four- and five-star hotels in our data. These results are consistent with a scenario in which bad weather (i) induces negative consumer mood, lowering rating scores, and (ii) makes consumers less time-constrained, which increases review provision. Additional analyses with various automated sentiment measures for almost 300,000 review texts support this scenario: reviews on rainy days show a significant reduction in reviewer positivity and happiness, yet are longer and more detailed. This study demonstrates that offline context influences online reviews, and discusses how platforms and businesses should include contextual information in their review management approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Leif Brandes & Yaniv Dover, 2022. "Offline Context Affects Online Reviews: The Effect of Post-Consumption Weather [Mobile Ad Effectiveness: Hyper-Contextual Targeting with Crowdedness]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(4), pages 595-615.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:49:y:2022:i:4:p:595-615.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucac003
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Du, Jiangang & Zhu, Liya & Ma, Yuanning & Zhang, Yu, 2024. "Beyond weekdays: The impact of the weekend effect on eWOM of hedonic product," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Chen, Chunfeng & Lü, Kevin & Zhang, Depeng, 2024. "The impact of self-construal on consumers’ intention to write reviews: A trait activation perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. David Boto-Garc a & Veronica Leoni, 2023. "Noisy signals: do ratings volatility depend on the length of the consumption span?," Working Papers wp1183, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    4. Li, Chenxi & Chen, Jing (Elaine) & Peng, Siyu & Huang, Jinsong & Sha, Xiqing, 2024. "Examining the effects of weather on online shopping cart abandonment: Evidence from an online retailing platform," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Francesco Angelini & Paolo Figini & Veronica Leoni, 2024. "High tide, low price? Flooding alerts and hotel prices in Venice," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(4), pages 876-899, June.

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