Online Wine Ratings Determinants : The Case of Red Wines From Apulia

Wine is an experiential good, meaning its true quality is unknown to the buyer until after the purchase. This, and the fact that buyers tend to be risk-averse, places a substantial burden on consumers, which need to perform a choice based on imperfect information and a series of cues, often aptly prepared by actors on the supply side. This situation can be framed as a classical information asymmetry case. First-time buyers face an information asymmetry compared to wine producers and sellers, which have a much better knowledge of each step in the production process. To reduce such asymmetry, consumers adopt various coping strategies, including, among others, collecting information before the purchase through word-of-mouth (peers' judgements), consultation with experts' guides, and the use of online information portals. In summary, buyers often gather several cues before making their final decision to reduce the risk of a wrong purchase, and wine ratings are one of those. Against this background, our research question is aimed to uncover the determinants of consumers’ online wine ratings