Who Gets Heard? Analyzing online restaurant reviews to understand the representation of vulnerable consumers

Abstract

The marketing literature has called for a better understanding of vulnerable consumer behavior as the purchasing power of these segments grows. However, current literature has not systematically examined the online review writing behavior of vulnerable consumer groups, creating a gap in our understanding of how frequently these consumers contribute their voices to influential online brand conversations. This work examines the representativeness of a restaurant's customer base using a custom dataset of online restaurant reviews combined with geospatial data on vulnerable consumers. We find that consumers in households with the elderly and/or disabled, racial/ethnic minorities, or suboptimal living conditions are more likely to write restaurant reviews, while consumers in households with low socioeconomic status are less likely to write reviews. However, only those consumers in suboptimal living conditions put more effort into their reviews. We suggest that these effects are driven by vulnerable consumers' perceived empowerment or lack thereof.