scholarly journals Selectivity, Market Timing and the Morningstar Star-Rating System

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonios Antypas ◽  
Guglielmo Maria Caporale ◽  
Nikolaos Kourogenis ◽  
Nikitas Pittis
Keyword(s):  
Market Timing ◽  
Rating System ◽  
Star Rating

Rating, review and reputation: how to unlock the hidden value of luxury consumers from digital commerce?

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 1553-1561
Author(s):  
Daniel Shin ◽  
Denis Darpy
Keyword(s):  
Rating System ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Rating Score ◽  
Luxury Goods ◽  
User Reviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
Star Rating ◽  
Digital Commerce ◽  
Product Ratings

Purpose Product ratings and reviews are popular tools to support buying decisions of consumers. Many e-commerce platforms now offer product ratings and reviews as ratings and reviews are valuable for online retailers. However, luxury goods industry is somewhat slow to adapt to the digital terrain. The purpose of this paper is to answer “how luxury consumers see user-generated product ratings and reviews for their online shopping experience and what important factors or values are perceived by the luxury consumers when they shop online?” Design/methodology/approach To understand how luxury consumers use product ratings and reviews before buying online, a survey with a situational set up of variations of rating, review and price options in association with a number of hypothetical luxury goods was conducted among 421 global luxury consumers out of over 6,000 people. The study was carried out from September to October 2018 for six weeks in the form of online and mobile survey. User population is high net-worth individuals or luxury consumers derived from the author’s various professional and social networks and communities. Their geographical coverage would be global, but concentrated around the major cities. Findings The survey shows that ratings and reviews can be important source of information for luxury consumers. Online ratings and reviews are rated as helpful by 76.01% of the participants. People who chose the highly rated one (4.8/5) over the poorly rated (3.7/5) was 86.94%, while all else such as product category, star rating and price range are about the same. Feedback from the open question survey indicates that the perceived helpfulness of rating and review systems could vary. Comparing user reviews is time-consuming because of unstructured nature of contextual reviews and the relative nature of human perception on the rating scale. Research limitations/implications There are two aspects of ratings and reviews playing an important role for luxury consumers’ buying decision. First, it is about helpfulness of collective rating score. Luxury consumers see a user-generated rating score and use the score when they make a choice even if the rating is not an absolute, but relative figure, not exactly like the star rating system in the hotel industry. Second, there is discrepancy between the status of the brand in association with its price position and perceived value as the industry does not cope with classifying their brands in any official star rating system. Practical implications Consumers need compact and concise information about the products they need. When there are only a few potential products left in their short wish-list, full user reviews can be helpful to get more details and general opinions about the products on the short list before making a final decision. In that regard, a primary indicator that will guide through the decision-making process of the luxury consumers would be the trustworthiness of user rating of each product in an aggregated score along with a potential use of sub-ratings, which has to be visible from the product landing page. Originality/value Even if there is a wide use and ubiquitous nature of product ratings and reviews in other consumer products, the author is curious about how luxury consumers use ratings and reviews for their buying decision because there are not that many researches done previously in spite of the importance of this issue. Luxury goods industry has hit €320bn in 2017 according to Bain and Co., and 25% of the trading volume will be replaced by the digital commerce by 2025.

How hotel responses to online reviews differ by hotel rating: an exploratory study

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
HyeRyeon Lee ◽  
Shane C. Blum
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Online Reviews ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Rating System ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Star Rating ◽  
Hotel Managers ◽  
Online Reputation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how hotels respond to online reviews on a third-party Web site (such as TripAdvisor) based on the hotel’s star rating. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was used to compare responses to online hotel reviews at five different levels of hotel based on a star-rating system ranging from one star to five stars. Findings – Most hotel managers’ response rates were low, and they paid the most attention to positive comments. Managers at four- and five-star hotels more often responded to negative online reviews. Guest service manager was the most common job title of managers who responded to guests’ reviews. Research limitations/implications – This paper is limited to an analysis of ten hotels, two for each of the five-star ratings. More hotel cases with long-term data collection involving the use of the star-rating system may provide more insights on this discussion. Practical implications – The exploratory study sought to identify strategies for managing online reviews in the lodging industry. Hotel managers should respond to negative online reviews with appreciation, apology and an explanation of what went wrong. Moreover, hotels may need a designated person to observe and respond to guest comments on their Web sites and third-party Web sites. A designated person is also needed to monitor online comments and communicate with guests to better manage the hotel’s online reputation. Originality/value – As an exploratory research project, this paper expands the understanding of hotel managers’ responses to their guests’ online reviews in an attempt to identify best practices for the industry.

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