Paper Number
1810
Paper Type
Complete
Description
The familiar 5-star ratings system is an important information source for consumers deciding where to eat or what products to buy. Ideally, a retail platform owner should safeguard ratings against various biases, yet platform owners sometimes let average ratings become inflated. We study a situation in which a platform faces competition from another platform that offers the same items and, consequently, consumers may see different ratings for items across the platforms. Using a series of experiments in an online food ordering setting, we show that consumers are more likely to buy the item from a platform where it is rated higher. Therefore, a platform that offers lower but perhaps more accurate ratings risks hurting itself by not letting its ratings become inflated. We explain this by a vertical spillover effect by which diverging average ratings across platforms influence platform choice and discuss implications to platform owners, regulators, and consumers.
Recommended Citation
Vorotyntseva, Yulia; Aaltonen, Aleksi; Kumar, Subodha; and Pavlou, Paul, "Can Platform Competition Drive Ratings Inflation? The Impact of Vertical Spillover Effects" (2022). ICIS 2022 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2022/online_reviews/online_reviews/5
Can Platform Competition Drive Ratings Inflation? The Impact of Vertical Spillover Effects
The familiar 5-star ratings system is an important information source for consumers deciding where to eat or what products to buy. Ideally, a retail platform owner should safeguard ratings against various biases, yet platform owners sometimes let average ratings become inflated. We study a situation in which a platform faces competition from another platform that offers the same items and, consequently, consumers may see different ratings for items across the platforms. Using a series of experiments in an online food ordering setting, we show that consumers are more likely to buy the item from a platform where it is rated higher. Therefore, a platform that offers lower but perhaps more accurate ratings risks hurting itself by not letting its ratings become inflated. We explain this by a vertical spillover effect by which diverging average ratings across platforms influence platform choice and discuss implications to platform owners, regulators, and consumers.
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Comments
20-OnlineReviews