The robo bias in conversational reviews: How the solicitation medium anthropomorphism affects product rating valence and review helpfulness

IF 9.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Pub Date : 2024-06-06 DOI:10.1007/s11747-024-01027-8

Dimitrios Tsekouras, Dominik Gutt, Irina Heimbach

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Abstract

Companies are increasingly introducing conversational reviews—reviews solicited via chatbots—to gain customer feedback. However, little is known about how chatbot-mediated solicitation influences rating valence and review helpfulness compared to conventional online forms. Therefore, we conceptualized these review solicitation media on the continuum of anthropomorphism and investigated how various levels of anthropomorphism affect rating valence and review helpfulness, showing that more anthropomorphic media lead to more positive and less helpful reviews. We found that moderate levels of anthropomorphism lead to increased interaction enjoyment, and high levels increase social presence, thus inflating the rating valence and decreasing review helpfulness. Further, the effect of anthropomorphism remains robust across review solicitors’ salience (sellers vs. platforms) and expressed emotionality in conversations. Our study is among the first to investigate chatbots as a new form of technology to solicit online reviews, providing insights to inform various stakeholders of the advantages, drawbacks, and potential ethical concerns of anthropomorphic technology in customer feedback solicitation.

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对话式评论中的机器人偏见：征集媒介拟人化如何影响产品评分价值和评论有用性

公司越来越多地采用对话式评论--通过聊天机器人征求评论--来获得客户反馈。然而，与传统在线形式相比，人们对以聊天机器人为媒介的评论征集如何影响评分价值和评论有用性知之甚少。因此，我们将这些评论征集媒体概念化为拟人化的连续体，并研究了不同程度的拟人化如何影响评分价值和评论帮助性，结果表明，拟人化程度越高的媒体导致的正面评论越多，而帮助性越低的评论越少。我们发现，中等程度的拟人化会增加互动乐趣，而高程度的拟人化会增加社交存在感，从而提高评分价值并降低评论有用性。此外，拟人化的效果在不同的评论征集人的显著性（卖家与平台）和对话中的情感表达中都保持稳定。我们的研究是首次将聊天机器人作为一种新的技术形式来征集在线评论的研究之一，为各利益相关者提供了有关拟人化技术在客户反馈征集中的优点、缺点和潜在道德问题的见解。

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来源期刊

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science BUSINESS-

CiteScore

30.00

自引率

7.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： JAMS, also known as The Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between scholarly research and practical application in the realm of marketing. Its primary objective is to study and enhance marketing practices by publishing research-driven articles. When manuscripts are submitted to JAMS for publication, they are evaluated based on their potential to contribute to the advancement of marketing science and practice.