Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/286953 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science [ISSN:] 1552-7824 [Volume:] 49 [Issue:] 4 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 703-722
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Online reviews have profound impacts on firm success in terms of sales volume and how much customers are willing to pay, yet firms remain highly dependent on customers' voluntary contributions. A popular way to increase the number of online reviews is to use product testing programs, which offer participants free products in exchange for writing reviews. Firms that employ this practice generally hope to increase review quality and secure higher product rating scores. However, a qualitative study, experimental study, and multilevel analysis of a field study dataset of more than 200,000 online reviews by product testers combine to reveal that product testing programs do not necessarily generate higher quality reviews, nor better product ratings. Only in certain circumstances (e.g., higher priced products) does offering a product testing program generate these benefits for the firm. Therefore, companies should consider carefully if and when they want to offer product testing programs.
Subjects: 
Product testing
Online product reviews
Equity theory
Reactance
Multilevel analysis
Experimental study
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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