Online reviews: understanding cultural and psychological influences, and their informational value

Stamolampros, Panagiotis (2019) Online reviews: understanding cultural and psychological influences, and their informational value. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis explores online reviews, a particular form of electronic Word-of-Mouth
(eWOM), from different perspectives by presenting three empirical studies. These
studies attempt to fill the knowledge gap and address several limitations in the extant
research.
In the first study, the focus is on the effct of national culture on consumer evaluations
(review valence) expressed through online reviews using an extensive dataset
that consists of online reviews from customers for most of the countries. Moreover,
since cultural differences between individuals and service providers can cause service
conflicts due to culturally bound customer expectations and perceptions, the effect
of cultural distance on the overall satisfaction score and the satisfaction with specific
operational aspects is explored. The study involves a regression analysis on the
numerical rating, as well as, a textual analysis to identify the topics that customers
discuss more and how they change across the continuum of national culture dimensions.
The results reveal that several dimensions influence both the way reviewers
evaluate their experiences and the discussed topics. A further analysis showcases
the information loss induced if culture is not taken into consideration highlighting
significant managerial and theoretical implications.
Subsequently, this study tries to address limitations of existing approaches in this
research area. Within a service-based context, the extant literature systematically
explores the effect of customer culture, neglecting the impact of the service provider's
culture or their joint effect. Even when the culture of the service provider is taken into
consideration, this is done through the lens of difference score measures, a method with
inherent problems. Employing a response surface methodology, the focus of this
study turns on examining the concomitant effect of customer and provider culture
on service evaluations, as well as, non-linear relationships. The findings provide
further insights into the true effect of national culture on service evaluations and the
points where customer satisfaction is maximised and minimised. These findings have
significant implications for online reviews explaining well-documented discrepancies
in the extant literature and disagreement among scholars.
The second study sheds light on the existence of psychological factors that affect
online ratings. Specifially, the aim of this study is to explore the concurrent effect
of three psychological distances, namely the temporal, spatial, and social distance,
on the review rating reviewers provide and on the way they describe their experiences.
This is done with a battery of methodologies taking into account not only
the numerical score but also the review narratives. The findings of the study suggest
that psychological factors, and particularly how reviewers construct and recall their
memories, explain a significant part of the variation on the way reviewers rate and
describe their experience. In addition to services, a separate analysis considers the
case of durable goods in order to test whether the temporal distance has also an effect
on products' evaluations or the effect is eliminated due to embedded product characteristics.
The findings of this study show the existence of a U-shaped relationship
between failure rates and the time elapsed from the introduction of the product in
the market to the point of purchase by a consumer. Importantly, the observed distribution
of online reviews can be explained by the bathtub curve pattern, providing
evidence that reviews can reflect quality characteristics embodied in the product.
The final study of this thesis considers the informational value or the value attributed
to information extracted from online reviews. In particular, this study investigates
the gains from coupling numerical and textual information derived from a
novel and rather unexplored form of eWOM, that of employee online reviews. The study
presents how this information can be used and the insights for academic research
and managerial practice. Specifically, using this information source, core themes in
tourism and hospitality HR literature are discussed. This is done by investigating
latent determinants of employee satisfaction and employee turnover that are revealed
from the numerical and textual part of employee online reviews. Further evidence
also supports the association between employee satisfaction and firm profitability
establishing the beneficial impact of satisfied employees on firms.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
Depositing User:	Zoe White
Date Deposited:	09 Jul 2025 13:37
Last Modified:	09 Jul 2025 13:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99872
DOI:

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