Effects of managerial response on consumer eWOM and hotel performance

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to measures the effects of managerial response on consumer electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and hotel performance. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 56,284 consumer reviews and 10,793 managerial responses for 1,045 hotels was retrieved from TripAdvisor, along with 30,232 performance records matched to these hotels on a quarterly basis. Findings This study finds that managerial response leads to an average increase of 0.235 stars in the TripAdvisor ratings of the sampled hotels, as well as a 17.3 per cent increase in the volume of subsequent consumer eWOM. Moreover, managerial response moderates the influence of ratings and volume of consumer eWOM on hotel performance. Practical implications This study offers a practical model that enables hotel managers to orchestrate social media marketing approaches and efforts toward an optimal social media strategy. Originality/value This study differs from extant literature that has extensively focused on consumer reviews by providing a new perspective of management intervention in the social media context. By examining the interplay of managerial response and consumer eWOM at the individual hotel level, this study provides empirical evidence of managerial response affecting hotel performance through the increased ratings and volume of consumer eWOM. This study also offers insights into the practical importance of crafting intervention opportunities to cultivate the continued engagement of consumers on social media and increased hotel performance.

Managerial Responses to Online Reviews: A Text Analytics Approach

“…More specifically, when a customer's review rating has increased, the management response to the current review of the customer is shorter and more positive. This finding is reflective of the fact that the response style to an online review depends on the nature of the review (Xie et al ., ). The length and sentiment of the response are pertinent to the content and tone of the review.…”

An analysis of online reviews of upscale Iberian restaurants

“…Xie, Zhang, Zhang, Singh and Lee (2016) find that hotel management responses leads to an increase in TripAdvisor ratings since it is highly effective in manipulating review behavior of subsequent clients. For this reason, we test whether restaurants that systematically respond to clients' reviews present different results.…”

Identifying the Types and Impact of Service Provider’s Responses to Online Negative Reviews in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from B&Bs in China

“…However, this response has been examined to significantly influence hotel rankings, sales, and consumers' intentions to write reviews in the hotel service literature [27]. Moreover, managerial responses not only increase future satisfaction of the complaining consumers [28] but also moderate the influence of hotel ratings and volume of eWOM on the later consumers' purchase decision [29]. The quantity (cumulative percentage of managerial response) and quality (response strategies) aspects of managerial response have a significant relationship with hotels' competitive performance [30].…”