The impact of COVID-19 on online product reviews

IF 5.2 2区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Product and Brand Management Pub Date : 2021-11-23 DOI:10.1108/jpbm-12-2020-3281

O. Kutlubay, Mesut Çiçek, Serdar Yayla

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引用次数: 6

Abstract

Purpose The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to drastic changes in the lives of customers. Social isolation, financial difficulties, fear of being infected and many other factors have caused the psychological well-being of customers to deteriorate. By taking up the role of online reviews in the regulation of consumers’ moods, this study aims to examine the changes that have occurred in online product ratings, as well as the negative tone and word counts of product reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the online reviews of 321 products in the pre-COVID, immediate COVID and extended COVID periods. This paper compares the changes that have taken place in product evaluations via various analysis of variance analyses. The authors also test the effect of COVID-related deaths on product evaluations via regression analyses. Findings The results indicate that online product ratings decreased sharply just after the outbreak of COVID-19. The study also found that the tone of reviews was found to be more negative and the length of reviews appeared to be longer in comparison to the pre-COVID-19 period. The results also revealed that the product type (experience vs search) moderated the effect of the pandemic in online reviews and the impact of COVID-19 on online product reviews diminished in the later stages of the ongoing pandemic. Practical implications Managers should be aware of the detrimental impact of pandemics on online product reviews and be more responsive to customer problems during the early stages of pandemics. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the effects of a pandemic on online product ratings and review content. As such, this study offers a timely contribution to the marketing literature.

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新冠肺炎对在线产品评论的影响

目的持续的新冠肺炎疫情导致客户生活发生了翻天覆地的变化。社交孤立、经济困难、害怕被感染等许多因素导致客户的心理健康状况恶化。通过探讨在线评论在调节消费者情绪方面的作用，本研究旨在研究新冠肺炎大流行期间在线产品评级的变化，以及产品评论的负面语气和字数。设计/方法论/方法本研究考察了321种新冠肺炎前、新冠肺炎即时和新冠肺炎延长期产品的在线评论。本文通过各种方差分析比较了产品评价中发生的变化。作者还通过回归分析测试了新冠肺炎相关死亡对产品评估的影响。调查结果显示，新冠肺炎爆发后，在线产品评分急剧下降。研究还发现，与新冠肺炎疫情前相比，评论的语气更加负面，评论的长度似乎更长。结果还显示，产品类型（体验与搜索）缓和了疫情对在线评论的影响，新冠肺炎对在线产品评论的影响在疫情后期减弱。实际含义经理应该意识到流行病对在线产品评论的有害影响，并在流行病的早期阶段对客户问题做出更积极的反应。原创性/价值据作者所知，这是第一项分析疫情对在线产品评级和评论内容影响的研究。因此，本研究为营销文献提供了及时的贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Product and Brand Management Multiple-

CiteScore

10.90

自引率

19.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： Branding has evolved and organizations are facing a lot of new challenges when managing their brand reputations, an activity that has become strategic and interdisciplinary. The Journal of Product and Brand Management (JPBM) advances the theoretical and managerial knowledge of products and brands. Manuscripts may either report results based on rigorously analysed qualitative/quantitative data or be purely conceptual. All manuscripts must offer significant research findings and insights and offer meaningful implications for the real world. This journal is proudly international and inter-disciplinary. We publish manuscripts which compare international markets and encourage submissions approaching branding and product management from any discipline. We focus on all aspects of branding and product management from development to dilution. This includes areas as broad as person, place or political brands.