Can Regulation Restore Authenticity? Evidence from Policies Against Online Review Suppression

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0436

References

  • Angrist JD, Pischke JS (2008) Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aral S (2014) The problem with online ratings. MIT Sloan Manag. Rev. 55(2):47–52.Google Scholar
  • Athey S, Bayati M, Doudchenko N, Imbens G, Khosravi K (2021) Matrix completion methods for causal panel data models. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 116(536):1716–1730.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Calvert C (2018) Gag clauses and the right to gripe: The Consumer Fairness Act of 2016 & state efforts to protect online reviews from contractual censorship. Widener Law Rev. 24(1):203–234.Google Scholar
  • Chevalier JA, Mayzlin D (2006) The effect of word of mouth on sales: Online book reviews. Nat. Bureau Econom. Res. 43(3):345–354.Google Scholar
  • Cohen J (2013) Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed. (Routledge, New York).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil C, Kossinets G, Kleinberg J, Lee L (2009) How opinions are received by online communities: A case study on Amazon.Com helpfulness votes. WWW – Proc. 18th Internat. World Wide Web Conf. (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 141–150.Google Scholar
  • Dellarocas C (2003) The digitization of word of mouth: Promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms. Management Sci. 49(10):1407–1424.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Duffy A (2017) Trusting me, trusting you: Evaluating three forms of trust on an information-rich consumer review website. J. Consumer Behav. 16(3):212–220.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fang L (2022) The effects of online review platforms on restaurant revenue, consumer learning, and welfare. Management Sci. 68(11):8116–8143.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Feng J, Li X, Zhang XM (2019) Online product reviews-triggered dynamic pricing: Theory and evidence. Inform. Systems Res. 30(4):1107–1123.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Greenstein S, Gu G, Zhu F (2021) Ideology and composition among an online crowd: Evidence from Wikipedians. Manage. Sci. 67(5):3067–3086.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Goldman E (2017) Understanding the consumer review fairness act of 2016. Mich. Telecomm. Tech. Law Rev. 24(1):1–15.Google Scholar
  • He S, Hollenbeck B, Proserpio D (2022) The market for fake reviews. Marketing Sci. 41(5):896–921.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Ho YC, Wu J, Tan Y (2017) Disconfirmation effect on online rating behavior: A structural model. Inform. Systems Res. 28(3):626–642.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Hong Y, Huang N, Burtch G, Li C (2016) Culture, conformity, and emotional suppression in online reviews. J. Assoc. Inform. Systems 17(11):737–758.Google Scholar
  • Huang N, Sun T, Chen P, Golden JM (2019) Word-of-mouth system implementation and customer conversion: A randomized field experiment. Inform. Systems Res. 30(3):805–818.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Lee TY, Bradlow ET (2011) Automated marketing research using online customer reviews. J. Marketing Res. 48(5):881–894.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Liu Y, Feng J (2021) does money talk? The impact of monetary incentives on user-generated content contributions. Inform. Systems Res. 32(2):394–409.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Liu Y, Feng J, Liao X (2017) When online reviews meet sales volume information: Is more or accurate information always better? Inform. Systems Res. 28(4):723–743.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Liu L, Wang Y, Xu Y (2024) A practical guide to counterfactual estimators for causal inference with time-series cross-sectional data. Amer. J. Political Sci. 68(1):160–176.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lu X, Ba S, Huang L, Feng Y (2013) Promotional marketing or word-of-mouth? Evidence from online restaurant reviews. Inform. Systems Res. 24(3):596–612.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Luca M (2016) Reviews, reputation, and revenue: The case of Yelp.Com, Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper No. 12-016, Boston.Google Scholar
  • Luca M, Zervas G (2016) Fake it till you make it: Reputation, competition, and Yelp review fraud. Management Sci. 62(12):3412–3427.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Mayzlin D, Dover Y, Chevalier J (2014) Promotional reviews: An empirical investigation of online review manipulation. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(8):2421–2455.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Moutos CP, Verma K, Phelps JY (2020) Negative patient reviews and online defamation: A guide for the obstetrician-gynecologist. Obstet. Gynecol. 136(6):1221–1226.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Nakayama M, Wan Y (2019) The cultural impact on social commerce: A sentiment analysis on Yelp ethnic restaurant reviews. Inform. Management 56(2):271–279.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ponte LM (2016) Protecting brand image or gaming the system? Consumer ‘gag’ contracts in an age of crowdsourced ratings and reviews. Willlim Mary Bus. Law Rev. 7(1):59–149.Google Scholar
  • Pu J, Chen Y, Qiu L, Cheng HK (2020) Does identity disclosure help or hurt user content generation? Social presence, inhibition, and displacement effects. Inform. Systems Res. 31(2):297–322.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Reimers I, Waldfogel J (2021) Digitization and pre-purchase information: The causal and welfare impacts of reviews and crowd ratings. Amer. Econom. Rev. 111(6):944–1971.Google Scholar
  • Sen S, Lerman D (2007) Why are you telling me this? An examination into negative consumer reviews on the Web. J. Interactive Marketing 21(4):76–94.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Stevens JL, Spaid BI, Breazeale M, Esmark Jones CL (2018) Timeliness, transparency, and trust: A framework for managing online customer complaints. Bus. Horiz. 61(3):375–384.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Sun T, Wei YM, Golden J (2025) Geographical pattern of online word of mouth: How offline environment influences online sharing. Inform. Systems Res., ePub ahead of print August 19, https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2019.9532.Google Scholar
  • Wang L, Gunasti K, Shankar R, Pancras J, Gopal R (2020) Impact of gamification on perceptions of word-of-mouth contributors and actions of word-of-mouth consumers. MIS Quart. 44(4):1987–2011.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Wu C, Che H, Chan TY, Lu X (2015) The economic value of online reviews. Marketing Sci. 34(5):739–754.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Yin D, Bond SD, Zhang H (2014) Anxious or angry? Effects of discrete emotions on the perceived helpfulness of online reviews. MIS Quart. 38(2):539–560.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.