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Using the Anchoring Effect and the Cultural Dimensions Theory to Study Customers’ Online Rating Behaviors

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Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of prior average ratings of a product on subsequent online ratings, and we further analyze whether culture moderates this effect. The anchoring effect theory and cultural dimensions theory serve as the theoretical foundations for our investigation. To our best knowledge, we are the first to introduce the anchoring effect theory into the online review context. This study is also among the first to investigate how culture influences customers’ online evaluations. Empirical results suggest that the prior average rating positively influences subsequent customers’ posted ratings, and this positive influence is significantly moderated by culture. Besides theoretical contributions, our insights may also strategically benefit online sellers by increasing customer satisfaction and improving long-term sales.

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Notes

  1. Through Agoda.com, a customer who books a hotel will receive a survey from Agoda very soon after his/her hotel stay as an opportunity to rate the hotel property and write about his/her experience. Review and rating submission behaviors are totally voluntary and self-driven.

  2. Given the unavailability to collected data on prior average ratings during customers’ purchase, we assume that customers’ observed prior average ratings during their purchase are equal to the ones during ratings. Accordingly, we removed the hotels with fewer than 15 reviews from our dataset to avoid the significant fluctuate of values of average ratings during the period between a customer’s purchase and his/her rating.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Marketing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong

    Qian Wang

  2. Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

    Michael Chau

  3. Department of Management Information Systems, National Chengchi University, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chih-Hung Peng

  4. Department of Management and Marketing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong

    Eric W. T. Ngai

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  1. Qian Wang
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  2. Michael Chau
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  4. Eric W. T. Ngai
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Correspondence to Qian Wang.

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Wang, Q., Chau, M., Peng, CH. et al. Using the Anchoring Effect and the Cultural Dimensions Theory to Study Customers’ Online Rating Behaviors. Inf Syst Front 24, 1451–1463 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-021-10148-2

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