ABSTRACT

In online environments (i.e., product review sites in our case), consumers are increasingly interacting and socializing with many “strangers” (i.e., online crowds) as well as sharing personal and product information. Drawing from social norms theory, we examine how the multiple aspects of online crowds affect their self-disclosure behaviors as they provide online reviews and investigate the extent to which prior experience moderates this relationship. Our analysis of data from a leading apparel rental site in the United States uncovers that individuals are inclined to conform to the self-disclosure behaviors of a crowd and divulge more personal information as self-disclosure variance within the group increases. Conversely, individuals are more likely to conceal personal information as a review page becomes crowded. The findings reveal that a reviewer’s prior experience of writing a review on the website weakens conformity behavior and reduces the effects of crowdedness. The prior experience also positively interacts with self-disclosure variance in a crowd. Based on these results, we present theoretical implications to literature on social norms and privacy, prior experience, and online reviews. This study also has managerial implications for firms interested in content generation by online reviewers and in review systems where user-generated content is essential.

摘要

在在线环境中（即我们案例中的产品评论网站），消费者越来越多地与许多“陌生人”（即在线人群）互动和社交，并分享个人和产品信息。从社会规范理论出发，我们研究了在线人群的多个方面如何影响他们在提供在线评论时的自我披露行为，并调查之前的经验在多大程度上调节了这种关系。我们对美国领先服装租赁网站的数据分析发现，随着群体内自我披露差异的增加，个人倾向于顺应人群的自我披露行为并泄露更多个人信息。相反，当评论页面变得拥挤时，个人更有可能隐藏个人信息。研究结果表明，评论者之前在网站上撰写评论的经验会削弱从众行为并减少拥挤的影响。先前的经验也与人群中的自我披露差异产生积极的相互作用。基于这些结果，我们对关于社会规范和隐私、先前经验和在线评论的文献提出了理论启示。这项研究还对那些对在线评论者生成内容感兴趣的公司以及对用户生成内容至关重要的评论系统产生了管理影响。我们提出了关于社会规范和隐私、先前经验和在线评论的文献的理论意义。这项研究还对那些对在线评论者生成内容感兴趣的公司以及对用户生成内容至关重要的评论系统产生了管理影响。我们提出了关于社会规范和隐私、先前经验和在线评论的文献的理论意义。这项研究还对那些对在线评论者生成内容感兴趣的公司以及对用户生成内容至关重要的评论系统产生了管理影响。