Role of Social Identity in Shaping Online Review Behavior: Evidence from Natural Experiment

Abstract

Our study examines how social identification (i.e., identity-based group attachment) can affect the valence and helpfulness of online reviews in the context of credence services. Rooting our hypotheses in social identity theory we compare online review behavior across three groups of intrinsically motivated reviewers. To do so, we consider a natural experiment setting across two leading review platforms (Google and Facebook). Constructing a unique panel data set of online reviews for a matched set of service providers across two platforms, we estimate a difference-in-difference (DID) model to assess the impact of identity-based group attachment induced by non-monetary status incentives. Implementing socially-oriented incentives is a double-edged sword. Our findings indicate that while strong identity-based attachment is pivotal for member participation and retention in knowledge generation communities, when it comes to product reviews in particular, a more general identity-based approach driven by affect generalization may result in more objective and helpful reviews.