Restaurant reviews are not equally valued by consumers

Consumers give less value to online restaurant reviews written on mobile devices than to those written on other platforms, according to a study of 275,000 restaurant reviews conducted by researchers from the University of Connecticut, Boston College, and Peking University.

"While consumers initially value real-time mobile content similarly to nonmobile content, over time they seem to observe distinct differences in platform-specific content and, as the mobile platform matures, they come to view mobile reviews as less helpful," said study co-author Nicholas Lurie.

The authors analyzed the writings of 117,827 reviewers who described their experiences at 13,976 restaurants, along with a dual-platform sample of 21,026 reviews that were written by 673 reviewers who wrote at least four mobile and four nonmobile reviews. Mobile reviews were associated with 10 to 40% fewer likes than reviews generated on laptop or desktop computers.

An analysis of how word-of-mouth value changed after the introduction of the mobile application shows that, although mobile word of mouth initially had equal or greater consumption value, over time it became significantly lower than computer-generated word of mouth.

One reason may be that the real-time nature of mobile device reviews does not allow reviewers enough time to reflect. The real-time creation process associated with mobile platforms affected the consumption through associations with the mobile label and information quality.

"Encouraging word-of-mouth through mobile reviews has pros and cons," said study co-author Sam Ransbotham. "Because mobile reviews may not benefit from reflection, mobile platforms may actually be encouraging feedback from less-engaged customers."

Abstract