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Stimulating Online Reviews by Combining Financial Incentives and Social Norms

Author

Listed:
  • Gordon Burtch

    (Information and Decision Sciences Department, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455)

  • Yili Hong

    (Department of Information Systems, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287)

  • Ravi Bapna

    (Information and Decision Sciences Department, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455)

  • Vladas Griskevicius

    (Marketing Department, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455)

Abstract

In hopes of motivating consumers to provide larger volumes of useful reviews, many retailers offer financial incentives. Here, we explore an alternative approach, social norms. We inform individuals about the volume of reviews authored by peers. We test the effectiveness of using financial incentives, social norms, and a combination of both strategies in motivating consumers. In two randomized experiments, one in the field conducted in partnership with a large online clothing retailer based in China and a second on Amazon Mechanical Turk, we compare the effectiveness of each strategy in stimulating online reviews in larger numbers and of greater length. We find that financial incentives are more effective at inducing larger volumes of reviews, but the reviews that result are not particularly lengthy, whereas social norms have a greater effect on the length of reviews. Importantly, we show that the combination of financial incentives and social norms yields the greatest overall benefit by motivating reviews in greater numbers and of greater length. We further assess treatment-induced self-selection and sentiment bias by triangulating the experimental results with findings from an observational study.

Suggested Citation

  • Gordon Burtch & Yili Hong & Ravi Bapna & Vladas Griskevicius, 2018. "Stimulating Online Reviews by Combining Financial Incentives and Social Norms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(5), pages 2065-2082, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:64:y:2018:i:5:p:2065-2082
    DOI: mnsc.2016.2715
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    References listed on IDEAS

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