The well-documented rating inflation of incentivized reviews (IRs) can mislead consumers into choosing a product that they would otherwise not buy. To protect consumers from this undesirable influence, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recommends that reviewers conspicuously disclose any...

Product placement campaigns are increasingly hosted in online games such as social network games and mobile games, where game players interact with each other while playing the game. In this paper, we examine the implications of game players’ social interactions for the product placement...

This paper uncovers the striking power of a product’s first consumer review. Our analytical model suggests that two key metrics of online consumer reviews, valence and volume, are not independent, but instead evolve interdependently. This interdependence forms a mechanism to transfer a...