Work

Manipulation Through Biased Product Reviews*

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: We study a signal‐jamming model of product review manipulation in which rational consumers consult product reviews and price to better estimate a product's quality, and a firm, whose quality is either high or low, chooses its price and how much bias to insert into product reviews. We show that both firm types always exert positive effort to manipulate product reviews, and, depending on the equilibrium price level, one or both of them can increase its sales. When the high‐type firm exerts more effort than the low‐type, review manipulation benefits consumers by raising [lowering] their demand for the high‐quality [low‐quality] product.

Source: Journal of Industrial Economics

DOI: 10.1111/joie.12240

Authors: Kemal Kıvanç Aköz, Cemal Eren Arbatli, Levent Celik

Institutions: National Research University Higher School of Economics, Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute, City, University of London, Charles University, Czech Academy of Sciences, Economics Institute, City St George's, University of London

Language: English

Topic: Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing

Subfield: Marketing

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W3121869059

FWCI: 1.805

Cites: 36

Cited by: 17

Related to: 10