Does Gender Matter for eWOM Evaluation? A Cross-Cultural Analysis

We used online customer reviews of smartphones from eight countries to explore the gender effects on the evaluation of electronic word of mouths (eWOMs). We found that male eWOMs valence had a more significant impact on the market shares of smartphones than female and anonymous eWOM valence, but the impact of female eWOM valence increased with the level of gender equality. To minimize gender stereotypes in eWOM evaluation, we recommend online review platforms remove the option of anonymity and replace it with gender-neutral user IDs.