The Race for Online Reputation: Implications for Platforms, Firms, and Consumers

Online reputation has become a key marketing-mix variable in the digital economy. Our study helps managers decide on the effort they should use to manage online reputation. We consider an online reputation race in which it is important not just to manage the absolute reputation, but also the relative rating. That is, to stay ahead, a firm should try to have ratings that are better than those of its competitors. Our findings are particularly significant for platform owners (such as Expedia or Yelp) to strategically grow their base of participating firms: growing the middle of the market (firms with average ratings) is the best option considering the goals of the platform and the other stakeholders, namely incumbents and consumers. For firms, we find that they should increase their effort when the mean market rating increases. Another key insight for firms is that, sometimes, adversity can come disguised as an opportunity. When an adverse event strikes the industry (such as a reduction in sales margin or an increase in the cost of effort), a firm’s profit can increase if it can manage this event better than its competitors.