Proceedings of 31st International Business Research Conference
27 - 29 July 2015, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
ISBN: 978-1-922069-80-1
The Effects of Audience Feedback on Online Word-of-Mouth
Behavior
Haksin Chan1
Unrestrained expressions are often considered the norm in high-anonymity settings such as
online forums, in which social risks are greatly reduced (Bargh et al., 2002). Interestingly,
however, emerging evidence suggests that impression management concerns persist even
in anonymous online consumer review forums (Lovett et al., 2013; Schlosser, 2005).
This research builds on these provocative findings (and the underlying impression
management logic) by exploring how a prominent feature of online review forums—namely,
audience feedback—might influence reviewers’ online word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior.
Given the pervasive influence of online WOM reviews (Ludwig et al., 2013), it is of great
theoretical and practical interest to investigate how these globally accessible forums may be
designed to encourage particular patterns of online WOM behavior.
A cursory survey of online forums suggests that they differ significantly in whether and how
they provide the audience with easy feedback options. Some forums (e.g., Hotels.com’s inhouse forum) do not offer any type of feedback icons or checkboxes. Some forums offer
only positive feedback options. For example, the audience of Yelp may rate a review as
“useful,” “funny,” or “cool,” the audience of Epinions may rate it as “helpful” or “very helpful,”
and the audience of Consumer Reports Online may “like” it on Facebook or other social
media. Yet others allow both positive and negative feedback so that the audience may
indicate whether a review is helpful with a “yes” or “no” answer (e.g., Judy’s Book) or a
“thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” response (e.g., Buzzillions).
Clearly then, audience feedback varies in evaluative strength, which ranges from none (no
feedback) to low (only positive feedback) to high (positive or negative feedback). We argue
that reviewers are sensitive to this feature of online forums and adapt their online WOM
behavior accordingly. The rationale is that evaluative strength—commonly viewed as
positively related to impression management concerns—has consistently been found to be a
major factor influencing communication strategies (Lerner and Tetlock, 1999).
More specifically, we expect online reviewers to be more critical and, at the same time, more
uncertain as audience feedback gains evaluative strength. The first prediction is predicated
on a negativity bias induced by an evaluative audience (see Schlosser, 2005), whereas the
second prediction draws on accountability-coping research promulgated by Tetlock and his
colleagues (e.g., Tetlock et al., 1989).
A pilot study involving 143 participants were conducted to examine the predicted effects of
audience feedback on online WOM behavior. Preliminary results on WOM favorability (in
terms of numerical ratings) and WOM certainty (in terms of verbatim content) have largely
confirmed the above predictions. Moreover, these preliminary results have also revealed
audience visibility as moderating the effects of audience feedback.
In summary, this research contributes to the theory of online WOM behavior by proposing
and demonstrating that online reviewers are sensitive to audience feedback, which varies in
evaluative strength. To practitioners, the encouraging findings offer new insights for
designing online review forums and for interpreting WOM data across forums.
1
Dr. Haksin Chan, Department of Marketing, Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong
Email: hschan@hsmc.edu.hk