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Understanding online product ratings: A customer satisfaction model

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  • Engler, Tobias H.
  • Winter, Patrick
  • Schulz, Michael

Abstract

Online product ratings have become a major information source for customers, retailers, and manufacturers. Both practitioners and researchers predominantly interpret them as a reflection of product quality. We argue that they in fact represent the customer's satisfaction with the product. Accordingly, we present a customer satisfaction model of online product ratings which incorporates the customer's pre-purchase expectations and actual product performance as determinants of ratings. We validate our model by applying it to two datasets collected at the German website of Amazon.com. The results indicate that both factors have a significant influence on online product ratings, supporting the proposed interpretation of ratings.

Suggested Citation

  • Engler, Tobias H. & Winter, Patrick & Schulz, Michael, 2015. "Understanding online product ratings: A customer satisfaction model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 113-120.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:27:y:2015:i:c:p:113-120
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.07.010
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    15. Geetha, M. & Singha, Pratap & Sinha, Sumedha, 2017. "Relationship between customer sentiment and online customer ratings for hotels - An empirical analysis," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 43-54.
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    19. Weisstein, Fei L. & Song, Lei & Andersen, Peter & Zhu, Ying, 2017. "Examining impacts of negative reviews and purchase goals on consumer purchase decision," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 201-207.
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    22. Brosnan, Kylie & Grün, Bettina & Dolnicar, Sara, 2018. "Identifying superfluous survey items," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 39-45.
    23. Lamrhari, Soumaya & Ghazi, Hamid El & Oubrich, Mourad & Faker, Abdellatif El, 2022. "A social CRM analytic framework for improving customer retention, acquisition, and conversion," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
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