Effects of Managerial Response to Negative Reviews on Future Review Valence and Complaints
Authors: Ravichandran, T.; Deng, Chaoqun
Journal: Information Systems Research (2023)
<jats:p> Online reviews are very instrumental in driving customer behaviors. This coupled with the fact that negative reviews seem to have a stronger effect on customer behaviors raises the stakes for managers to effectively respond to such reviews in order to protect their brand. However, given the exponential growth in the volume of reviews, a strategic approach that enables managers to focus their efforts in responding to negative reviews is needed. </jats:p><jats:p> This paper develops a framework to classify negative reviews and managerial responses and examines how the fit between the nature of review and the nature of managerial response impacts the customers’ complaining behavior in the future. We focus on the mix of rational and emotional cues in exploring the appropriateness of managerial responses to negative reviews. Using text analysis (e.g., natural language processing and deep learning) and using large sale review and response data from TripAdvisor, we extract and code the variables in our model. </jats:p><jats:p> The findings provide specific and actionable guidelines for responding to negative reviews in online forums. First, managers should respond to negative re…