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Do Online Friends Bring Out the Best in Us? The Effect of Friend Contributions on Online Review Provision

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  • Zhihong Ke

    (College of Business, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634)

  • De Liu

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

  • Daniel J. Brass

    (Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506)

Abstract

User-generated online reviews are crucial for consumer decision making but suffer from underprovision, quality degradation, and imbalances across products. This research investigates whether friend contributions cues , in the form of highlighted reviews written by online friends, can motivate users to write more and higher-quality reviews. Noting the public-good nature of online reviews, we draw on theories of pure altruism and competitive altruism to understand the effects of friend-contribution cues on review provision. We test our hypotheses using data from Yelp and find positive effects of friend-contribution cues. Users are three times more likely to provide a review after a recent friend review than after a recent stranger review, and this effect cannot be solely explained by homophily. Furthermore, reviews written after a friend’s review tend to be of higher quality, longer, and more novel. In addition, friend reviews tend to have a stronger effect on less-experienced users and less-reviewed products/services, suggesting friend-contribution cues can help mitigate the scarcity of contributions on long-tail products and from infrequent contributors. Our findings hold important implications for research and practice in the private provision of online reviews.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhihong Ke & De Liu & Daniel J. Brass, 2020. "Do Online Friends Bring Out the Best in Us? The Effect of Friend Contributions on Online Review Provision," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1322-1336, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:31:y:2020:i:4:p:1322-1336
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2020.0947
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