How Review Sentiment and Readability Affect Online Peer Evaluation Votes? – An Examination Combining Reviewer’s Social Identity and Social network

Author Information

Hengyun Li, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, University of South CarolinaFollow
Ziqiong Zhang, School of Management, Harbin Institute of TechnologyFollow
Ramkumar Janakiraman, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina
Fang Meng, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, University of South CarolinaFollow

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Hengyun Li is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management at the University of South Carolina. His major research interests include economics, marketing, and big data analysis in hospitality and tourism management.

Ziqiong Zhang, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Management at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China. She is interested in influence of user-generated content on traveler behavior and business sales.

Ramkumar Janakiraman, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. His research interests include digital/social media, multichannel marketing, innovation, big data in Marketing, retailing, health/health care marketing, and marketing and public policy.

Fang Meng, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management at the University of South Carolina. Her research interests include destination marketing, tourist behaviour/experience, and international tourism.

Abstract (150 Words)

To encourage users’ engagement and crowdsource quality control, many online communities provide users with peer evaluation votes. By using a total number of 17,178 online hotel reviews from Yelp, this study explored the factors influencing hotel review peer evaluations. The empirical results show that (1) multiple motivations exist for peer evaluations of online reviews; (2) except for reviews’ post date, length, and hotel popularity, readability of hotel review has positive influences on evaluation votes; (3) review sentiment has stronger influences on evaluation votes than other factors; (4) the effects of hotel review sentiment and readability on peer evaluation votes are positively moderated by reviewer’s social identity and social network.