Previous literature on WOM has consistent findings on the positive and significant effect of WOM volume on product sales, but literature on WOM valence has been mixed. In this study, we explain the reason for the mixed effect of WOM valence on product sales by considering heterogeneous...

Aim/purpose - This study explores how the content feature and source of eWOM affect people's intentions and further analyses the effectiveness of eWOM on people's intention to watch movies. Design/methodology/approach - The study considers two dimensions of movie reviews, including the source...

Anecdotal evidence suggests that counterfeiting/piracy can help create online word-of-mouth (WOM) and through this boost demand but how powerful is such WOM? To answer this question, we conduct a descriptive study with some attempts to establish near causality. We estimate the impact of piracy...

There are growing interests in understanding how word-of-mouth (WOM) on the Internet is generated and how it influences consumers' purchase decisions at retail outlets. A unique aspect of the WOM effect is the presence of a positive feedback mechanism between WOM and retail sales. We...

Our objective in this paper is to measure the impact of national online user reviews (valence, volume and variance) on Designated Market Area (DMA) level local geographic box-office performance of movies. We account for three complications with analyses that use national level aggregate...

Despite the widespread popularity of online opinion forums among consumers, the business value that such systems bring to organizations has, so far, remained an unanswered question. This paper addresses this question by studying the value of online movie ratings in forecasting motion picture...