IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v53y2016icp74-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Responding to negative online reviews: The effects of hotel responses on customer inferences of trust and concern

Author

Listed:
  • Sparks, Beverley A.
  • So, Kevin Kam Fung
  • Bradley, Graham L.

Abstract

Our research examines the perceptions and evaluations of prospective customers toward an online negative review and any accompanying hotel response. The study explores two main issues: whether the presence (versus absence) of an organizational response to negative customer reviews affects the inferences potential consumers draw about the target business, and which aspects of responses affect their impressions. We test the effects of four variables associated with a response: source of response, voice of responder, speed of response, and action frame on two outcomes variables (i.e., customer concern and trust inferences). The provision of an online response (versus no response) enhanced inferences that potential consumers draw regarding the business's trustworthiness and the extent to which it cares about its customers. Using a human voice and a timely response yielded favorable customer inferences. Inferences did not vary with response source or action frame. Implications are drawn for effective management of negative online reviews.

Suggested Citation

  • Sparks, Beverley A. & So, Kevin Kam Fung & Bradley, Graham L., 2016. "Responding to negative online reviews: The effects of hotel responses on customer inferences of trust and concern," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 74-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:74-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.09.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517715300121
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.09.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Noort, Guda & Willemsen, Lotte M., 2012. "Online Damage Control: The Effects of Proactive Versus Reactive Webcare Interventions in Consumer-generated and Brand-generated Platforms," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 131-140.
    2. Dijkmans, Corné & Kerkhof, Peter & Beukeboom, Camiel J., 2015. "A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 58-67.
    3. Sparks, Beverley A. & Browning, Victoria, 2011. "The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1310-1323.
    4. Weinberg, Bruce D. & Pehlivan, Ekin, 2011. "Social spending: Managing the social media mix," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 275-282, May.
    5. King, Robert Allen & Racherla, Pradeep & Bush, Victoria D., 2014. "What We Know and Don't Know About Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 167-183.
    6. Susan Jung Grant & Alice M. Tybout, 2008. "The Effect of Temporal Frame on Information Considered in New Product Evaluation: The Role of Uncertainty," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(6), pages 897-913, February.
    7. Macintosh, Gerrard, 2009. "Examining the antecedents of trust and rapport in services: Discovering new interrelationships," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 298-305.
    8. Sparks, Beverley A. & Perkins, Helen E. & Buckley, Ralf, 2013. "Online travel reviews as persuasive communication: The effects of content type, source, and certification logos on consumer behavior," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-9.
    9. Xiang, Zheng & Gretzel, Ulrike, 2010. "Role of social media in online travel information search," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 179-188.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amal Ponathil & Aasish Bhanu & Kalyan Piratla & Vivek Sharma & Kapil Chalil Madathil, 2024. "Investigation of the factors influencing the online consumer’s choice of a service provider for home improvement," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 2519-2546, December.
    2. Sheng, Jie & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Wang, Xiaojun, 2017. "A multidisciplinary perspective of big data in management research," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 97-112.
    3. David Lopez-Lopez & Miquel Angel Plaza-Navas & Jose Torres-Pruñonosa & Luis F. Martinez, 2025. "Navigating the landscape of e-commerce: thematic clusters, intellectual turning points, and burst patterns in online reputation management," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-38, February.
    4. Bronner, Fred & de Hoog, Robert, 2016. "Travel websites: Changing visits, evaluations and posts," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 94-112.
    5. Baka, Vasiliki, 2016. "The becoming of user-generated reviews: Looking at the past to understand the future of managing reputation in the travel sector," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 148-162.
    6. Sunyoung Hlee & Hanna Lee & Chulmo Koo, 2018. "Hospitality and Tourism Online Review Research: A Systematic Analysis and Heuristic-Systematic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-27, April.
    7. Babajide Abubakr Muritala & Maria-Victoria Sánchez-Rebull & Ana-Beatriz Hernández-Lara, 2020. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Online Reviews Research in Tourism and Hospitality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, November.
    8. Ana B. Casado-Díaz & Leonor M. Pérez-Naranjo & Ricardo Sellers-Rubio, 2017. "Aggregate consumer ratings and booking intention: the role of brand image," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(3), pages 543-562, September.
    9. Chen, Feier & Liu, Stephanie Q. & Mattila, Anna S., 2020. "Bragging and humblebragging in online reviews," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    10. Simona Franzoni & Michelle Bonera, 2019. "How DMO Can Measure the Experiences of a Large Territory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14, January.
    11. Beukeboom, Camiel J. & Kerkhof, Peter & de Vries, Metten, 2015. "Does a Virtual Like Cause Actual Liking? How Following a Brand's Facebook Updates Enhances Brand Evaluations and Purchase Intention," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 26-36.
    12. Tao Liu & Ying Zhang & Huan Zhang & Xiping Yang, 2021. "A Methodological Workflow for Deriving the Association of Tourist Destinations Based on Online Travel Reviews: A Case Study of Yunnan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    13. Rajesh Sharma, 2024. "Consumer perceived corporate social responsibility and electronic word of mouth in social media: mediating role of consumer–company identification and moderating role of user-generated content," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(2), pages 523-535, June.
    14. Sharma, Mahak & Antony, Rose & Sehrawat, Rajat & Cruz, Angel Contreras & Daim, Tugrul U., 2022. "Exploring post-adoption behaviors of e-service users: Evidence from the hospitality sector /online travel services," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    15. S. Cicognani & P. Figini & M. Magnani, 2016. "Social Influence Bias in Online Ratings: A Field Experiment," Working Papers wp1060, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    16. Book, Laura A. & Tanford, Sarah & Chang, Wen, 2018. "Customer reviews are not always informative: The impact of effortful versus heuristic processing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 272-280.
    17. Sergio M. Fernández-Miguélez & Miguel Díaz-Puche & Juan A. Campos-Soria & Federico Galán-Valdivieso, 2020. "The Impact of Social Media on Restaurant Corporations’ Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, February.
    18. Filieri, Raffaele & Lin, Zhibin & Pino, Giovanni & Alguezaui, Salma & Inversini, Alessandro, 2021. "The role of visual cues in eWOM on consumers’ behavioral intention and decisions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 663-675.
    19. Sparks, Beverley A. & Perkins, Helen E. & Buckley, Ralf, 2013. "Online travel reviews as persuasive communication: The effects of content type, source, and certification logos on consumer behavior," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-9.
    20. Zhang, Hao & Liang, Xiaoning & Qi, Chenyue, 2021. "Investigating the impact of interpersonal closeness and social status on electronic word-of-mouth effectiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 453-461.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:74-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.