Marketing Papers
Document Type
Technical Report
Date of this Version
9-2015
Publication Source
Management Science
Volume
61
Issue
9
Start Page
2241
Last Page
2258
DOI
10.1287/mnsc.2014.2082
Abstract
Online product ratings are widely available on the Internet and are known to influence prospective buyers. An emerging literature has started to look at how ratings are generated and, in particular, how they are influenced by prior ratings. We study the social influence of prior ratings and, in particular, investigate any differential impact of prior ratings by strangers ("crowd") versus friends. We find evidence of both herding and differentiation behavior in crowd ratings wherein users' ratings are influenced positively or negatively by prior ratings depending on movie popularity. In contrast, friends' ratings always induce herding. Further, the presence of social networking reduces the likelihood of herding on prior ratings by the crowd. Finally, we find that an increase in the number of friends who can potentially observe a user's rating ("audience size") has a positive impact on ratings. These findings raise questions about the reliability of ratings as unbiased indicators of quality and advocate the need for techniques to debias rating systems.
Copyright/Permission Statement
Originally published in Management Science © 2015 INFORMS
This is a pre-publication version. The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2082
Keywords
online word of mouth, ratings, social influences, informational cascades, latent variables, multilevel models, online social media
Recommended Citation
Lee, Y., Hosanagar, K., & Tan, Y. (2015). Do I Follow My Friends or the Crowd? Information Cascades in Online Movie Ratings. Management Science, 61 (9), 2241-2258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2082
Included in
Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Marketing Commons, Social Media Commons
Date Posted: 15 June 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.