The role of key online reviews in affecting online hotel booking: an empirical investigation
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 28 December 2021
Issue publication date: 1 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of online reviews on online hotel booking has been widely acknowledged. However, not all online reviews affect consumers equally. Compared with common online reviews, key online reviews (KORs) have a greater influence on consumers' decisions and online hotel booking. This study takes the first step to investigate the factors affecting the identification of KORs and the role of KORs in online hotel booking.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the research hypotheses, this study develops a crawler to obtain 551,600 online reviews of 650 hotels in ten representative large cities in China. This study first uses a binary logistic regression to identify KORs by combining review content quality and reviewer characteristics and then uses a log-regression model to investigate the role of KORs in online hotel booking.
Findings
This study mined the factors affecting the identification of KORs by analyzing review contents and reviewer characteristics. Our results revealed that KORs play a mediating role in the effects of review content and reviewer characteristics on online hotel booking.
Originality/value
This study focuses on KORs, which have received limited attention in research but are important to practitioners. Specifically, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of KORs. Our results enable hotel managers to manage online reviews effectively, particularly KORs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the constructive comments of the referees on an earlier version of this paper. This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (62001314, 72131005), MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanity and Social Science (20YJC630159), Fundamental Research Funds of the Central Universities (YJ202008 and SXYPY202106), From 0 to 1 Project of Sichuan University (2021CXC19), and International Visiting Program for Excellent Young Scholars of Sichuan University.
Citation
Zhang, D., Wu, P. and Wu, C. (2022), "The role of key online reviews in affecting online hotel booking: an empirical investigation", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 122 No. 2, pp. 499-520. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-06-2021-0355
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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