Agglomeration benefits firms because it minimizes consumers' search costs and information asymmetry. However, the effects of agglomeration may change due to the considerable amount of information available in online platforms. Thus, drawing upon the theoretical lens of information transparency and agglomeration theory, we investigate how online reviews change the effect of agglomeration on firm performance. A total of 11,528 observations of 467 hotels show that agglomeration density positively affects firm revenue in the hotel sector. However, such an effect decreases with the increase in online review quantity (including volume and length). This change is manifested in two forms, namely, minimizing information asymmetry and increasing competition cost due to information transparency. Moreover, the positive effect of agglomeration density decreases due to the quantity of high-quality (few spelling errors and easy to understand) online reviews, but not with low-quality. We further discover that the substitution effect of online review quantity on agglomeration density is stronger for independent hotels than for branded ones, whereas the effect is similar among hotels with various qualities. Our findings provide implications for the management of online channels in changing the local agglomeration effectiveness.

集聚使企业受益，因为它最大限度地减少了消费者的搜索成本和信息不对称。但是，由于在线平台上提供了大量信息，集聚的影响可能会发生变化。因此，利用信息透明度和集聚理论的理论视角，我们研究了在线评论如何改变集聚对公司绩效的影响。对 467 家酒店的 11,528 项观察结果表明，集聚密度对酒店行业的公司收入产生积极影响。但是，这种影响随着在线评论数量（包括数量和长度）的增加而减弱。这种变化表现在两种形式，即最大限度地减少信息不对称和由于信息透明而增加竞争成本。而且，由于高质量（拼写错误少且易于理解）在线评论的数量，聚集密度的积极影响会降低，但质量低的在线评论不会。我们进一步发现在线评论数量对聚集密度的替代效应对于独立酒店比品牌酒店更强，而不同品质酒店之间的替代效应相似。我们的研究结果为在线渠道管理改变本地集聚有效性提供了启示。而不同品质的酒店效果是相似的。我们的研究结果为在线渠道管理改变本地集聚有效性提供了启示。而不同品质的酒店效果是相似的。我们的研究结果为在线渠道管理改变本地集聚有效性提供了启示。