<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>While most consumers routinely read online reviews to inform their purchase decisions, the number of consumers who actively post reviews is astonishingly small. To find their way in the review jungle, readers process the information presented very selectively and pursue different objectives. They use different informational cues for their own decision-making, which often reflects rather stable patterns. Writers, too, are often less interested in presenting their experience as objectively as possible as contextual factors play an important role. Similar to the review readers, they act neither uniformly nor without biases. Whether they take up the pen at all depends, among other things, on whether they represent a majority or minority opinion and what image of themselves they want to convey. A profound understanding of the motives of readers and writers is important to improve one’s own rating system and requires special skills in the management of online ratings. Managers need to find ways to convert more lurkers into posters to get a more realistic picture of the experiences.</p>
</abstract>

While most consumers routinely read online reviews to inform their purchase decisions, the number of consumers who actively post reviews is astonishingly small. To find their way in the review jungle, readers process the information presented very selectively and pursue different objectives. They use different informational cues for their own decision-making, which often reflects rather stable patterns. Writers, too, are often less interested in presenting their experience as objectively as possible as contextual factors play an important role. Similar to the review readers, they act neither uniformly nor without biases. Whether they take up the pen at all depends, among other things, on whether they represent a majority or minority opinion and what image of themselves they want to convey. A profound understanding of the motives of readers and writers is important to improve one’s own rating system and requires special skills in the management of online ratings. Managers need to find ways to convert more lurkers into posters to get a more realistic picture of the experiences.

Tales from the Land of Consumer Reviews: Taking a Closer Look at Lurkers and Writers

Cass Business School, City, University of London

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

While most consumers routinely read online reviews to inform their purchase decisions, the number of consumers who actively post reviews is astonishingly...

Tales from the Land of Consumer Reviews: Taking a Closer Look at Lurkers and Writers

Published Online: Oct 23, 2020

Page range: 41 - 45

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2020-0016

Keywords
Online Reviews, Information Processing, Decision-making, Electronic Word-of-Mouth

© 2020 Alexander Mafael et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Tales from the Land of Consumer Reviews: Taking a Closer Look at Lurkers and Writers

Published Online: Oct 23, 2020

Page range: 41 - 45

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2020-0016

KeywordsOnline Reviews, Information Processing, Decision-making, Electronic Word-of-Mouth

© 2020 Alexander Mafael et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Online Reviews, Information Processing, Decision-making, Electronic Word-of-Mouth