Abstract
Online word of mouth is shifting from personal computer (PC)-based channels to mobile-based channels in this mobile marketing age, which leads to the question of whether mobile word of mouth is shorter and louder than the PC word of mouth? By investigating the 162 452 pieces of online word of mouth created by 19 496 users on a top-three online shopping website in China during a two-year period, this paper successfully discovered that mobile reviews are shorter than PC reviews and that mobile ratings are more extreme than the PC ratings. These findings lead to the managerial implications that on one hand, managers may direct reviewers to PC channels to generate longer and consequently higher-quality reviews. On the other hand, managers of higher/lower quality products may prefer mobile/PC channels such that there products’ merits can be underlined whereas their products’ shortcomings may be obscured.
Highlights
Online word of mouth has won great attention from marketing scholars over the years [1]–[8]
The major findings of this study indicate that mobile reviews are shorter than personal computer (PC) reviews, and that mobile ratings are more extreme than PC ratings
For managers who happen to have some defects in products unresolved for the moment, they may try directing the reviewers to the PC channel where criticism is less sharp than it would otherwise be in the mobile channel
Summary
Online word of mouth has won great attention from marketing scholars over the years [1]–[8]. Researchers have been extremely interested to understand what makes online word of mouth more helpful and more persuasive, such that the reviewers, the online community, the readers, and the product/service providers can all benefit from increased browsing and purchasing. The majority of the studied online word of mouth was generated on PC. Investigation of mobile word of mouth, i.e. online word of mouth generated on mobile devices [18], is much less prevalent. Considering the prediction that the worldwide mobile application market will reach $110 billion by the end of 2018 [19], it is of ever increasing significance to discover knowledge based on mobile word of mouth. Previous knowledge from PC word of mouth may not necessarily apply to mobile scenarios
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