Does ethnic affinity affect consumers’ posting behavior? Evidence from face recognition and difference-in-differences design

ABSTRACT Research findings have shown that consumers’ cultural backgrounds affect their evaluations on products or services. We argue that the ethnic affinity between consumers and service providers can affect their evaluations and online engagement after consumption. Using the information of 359,885 consumer reviews and their profile images collected from restaurants in New York City listed on Yelp, we employ face recognition and a difference-in-differences (DID) design. The results suggest that the ethnic affinity between consumers and restaurants induces consumers to post positive reviews with high ratings and sentiments; their engagement in posting reviews is also enhanced with longer texts and more photos. These findings offer direct implications for restaurant managers and online booking platform operators from the perspective of hospitality marketing and management. 现有研究表明消费者的文化背景会影响其对产品和服务的评价, 本研究认为消费者和服务提供商之间的种族亲和力会对消费者的在线评价和在线参与行为产生影响。本研究基于纽约市Yelp平台餐厅的359885条消费者评论, 采用了图像识别模型识别消费者头像信息, 并进一步构建了双重差分模型进行实证分析。研究结果表明, 消费者与餐厅之间的种族亲和力会促使消费者发布含有更高评分、更多字数和图片的评论。