[Air-L] Online Reviewing as Unpaid Labor

[Karim Jetha]

Hi John,

You might find this empirical study (and the brief lit review at the
beginning of it) useful in your work:

Shen, W., Hu, Y. J., & Ulmer, J. R. (2015). Competing for attention: An
empirical study of online reviewers’ strategic behavior. *MIS
Quarterly, 39*(3),
683–696.

"Our  results  indicate  that  reviewers’  review  decisions  are affected
by the existence of a reputation system that amplifies the effect of
reputation and consumer attention.  Our comparison  across  two  different
 review  systems confirms  that reviewers’  behaviors  become  more
 strategic  in  providing reviews  when  there  exists  a  reviewer
 ranking  system  that makes  each  reviewer’s  reputation  very
 quantifiable  and visible.  We find that reviewers on Amazon, where a
reviewer ranking system exists, become sensitive to the competition among
existing reviews and tend to avoid crowded review segments.  In direct
contrast, on the BN website, which does not include such a reviewer ranking
system, reviewers do not respond to the competition effect.  In addition,
reviewers on Amazon  post  more  differentiated  ratings  compared  with
reviewers on the BN website, presumably because Amazon’s reviewer ranking
system makes each reviewer’s reputation very quantifiable and visible and
intensifies the competition for attention.  Our findings yield interesting
managerial implications  for  companies  interested  in  encouraging
 online reviewers’ contributions and in managing review activities on their
websites.  We discuss these details in the “Discussion and Conclusion”
section and provide guidance for managers so that they can improve the
design of their review systems in order to fulfill different business needs
and goals."

-Karim

On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gallagher, John <johng at illinois.edu>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I’m currently looking for resource about online reviewing as unpaid
> labor/value creation (in particular Amazon reviews, but online reviewing
> generally would work). Would anyone happen to know of articles that focus
> specifically on this topic?
>
> Sincerely,
> John
>
> John R. Gallagher, PhD
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> English Department
> University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
> johng at illinois.edu<mailto:johng at illinois.edu>
>
>
>
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