744016

research-article2017
JHTXXX10.1177/1096348017744016Journal of Hospitality & Tourism ResearchXie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS

The Effects of Reviewer Expertise

On Future Reputation, Popularity,
and Financial Performance of
Hotels: Insights From Data-
Analytics

Karen L. Xie
University of Denver
Kevin Kam Fung So
University of South Carolina

Although the impacts of reviews provided by reviewers with expertise are well
documented, the literature lacks empirical research on how such reviews are
longitudinally linked to performance indicators and whether management responses
to such reviews lead to differential impacts on these indicators. This study investigates
the effects of reviewer expertise on hotels’ online reputation, online popularity, and
financial performance. Using a large data set of management responses and online
reviews from 730 hotels over 26 quarters, matched with quarterly financial performance
data, the authors found that the effects of average ratings and the number of reviews
on hotels’ subsequent financial performance are attenuated when reviewer expertise
increases. The study also demonstrates that business benefits are enhanced if hotels
target reviewers of higher expertise when providing management responses to online
reviews. Results suggest that when managing electronic word-of-mouth, practitioners
should take strategic approaches that leverage the influence of reviewer expertise.

Keywords: management response; online reviews; reviewer expertise; hotel

performance; data analytics

Online reviews have a strong impact on how consumers evaluate tourism and
hospitality services (Browning, So, & Sparks, 2013). However, unlike tradi-
tional word-of-mouth communication, where source credibility and trustworthi-
ness are fundamental to consumers’ acceptance of a message (McGinnies &
Ward, 1980), in electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) consumers cannot readily
assess the credibility of a communication source (Litvin, Goldsmith, & Pan,

Authors’ Note: The authors contributed equally to this research.

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 201X, Vol. XX, No. X, Month 2017, 1­–23
DOI: 10.1177/1096348017744016
© The Author(s) 2017

1
2   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

2008). Reviews are often written by anonymous sources (Dellarocas, 2003),

making the evaluation of the source’s credibility particularly difficult (D.-H.
Park & Lee, 2009).
At the prepurchase evaluation stage, potential consumers lack firsthand expe-
rience with the service providers and tend to rely on others’ evaluations as a
basis for making purchase decisions (Flanagin & Metzger, 2013). In addition,
potential consumers seldom have access to all relevant information for making
a decision regarding a product, and instead must use whatever cues are available
to evaluate the information’s credibility (Sparks, So, & Bradley, 2016). Owing
to the anonymous nature of the online environment, consumers use the review-
ers’ prior activities to assess the credibility and quality of information (King,
Racherla, & Bush, 2014). Therefore, lacking prior consumption experiences,
consumers evaluate a hotel’s trustworthiness on the basis of intangible informa-
tional cues or signals (Urban, Sultan, & Qualls, 2000). In addition to using
online reviews (Browning et al., 2013; K. L. Xie, So, & Wang, 2017), potential
consumers employ two other informational cues: (a) expertise of the reviewer
(Filieri, 2015) and (b) responses to reviews posted by management (K. L. Xie,
So, & Wang, 2017; Sparks et al., 2016).
The powerful impacts of opinions from reviewers with expertise are well
documented (e.g., Vermeulen & Seegers, 2009; Zhang, Zhang, & Yang, 2016;
Zhao, Wang, Guo, & Law, 2015). Prior research has established that, in general,
experienced people with higher level of expertise are more persuasive than ama-
teur people (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981). Furthermore, recommenda-
tions of reviewers with expertise influence consumers strongly because
consumers may perceive these reviewers as better informed and more reliable
(Senecal & Nantel, 2004), thus influencing the impact of the review (Vermeulen
& Seegers, 2009). In an online environment, readers are unable to verify a
reviewer’s social background and level of product knowledge, leading consum-
ers to equate reviewer expertise with a designation conferred by many third-
party review platforms such as TripAdvisor and Yelp (Z. Liu & Park, 2015).
While previous research has contributed significantly to the current under-
standing of the impact of reviewer expertise, a review of the literature has identi-
fied two critical knowledge gaps. First, past studies have largely focused on the
influences on customer perceptions such as consideration of the hotel (Vermeulen
& Seegers, 2009), usefulness of the review (S. Park & Nicolau, 2015), attitudes
toward adoption of user-generated contents for travel planning (Ayeh, Au, &
Law, 2013), and booking intentions toward hotels (Zhao et al., 2015). A question
of significant practical relevance remains unanswered: How do online reviews
provided by reviewers with expertise influence aggregate online marketing per-
formance indicators such as reputation and popularity of hotel firms? Second,
prior research does not extend the potential effects of reviews provided by
reviewers with expertise to future hotel financial performance—a significant
oversight, because hotel firms can adopt management practices to encourage
reviews from reviewers with a higher level of expertise. Therefore, to assess
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 3

how reviewer expertise contributes to hotels’ subsequent online reputation

(aggregate ratings of online reviews) and popularity (volume of online reviews)
as well as financial performance, we propose the following research questions:

Research Question 1: Does an increase in reviewer expertise influence online repu-

tation and popularity of hotels perceived by consumers?
Research Question 2: Does an increase in reviewer expertise influence financial per-
formance of hotels?

Another important informational cue in evaluating a hotel is the manage-

ment response to the online review. Tourism and hospitality scholars have
explicitly urged hospitality firms to respond to reviews (Wei, Miao, &
Huang, 2013), and research shows that restaurant managers who respond
successfully to online reviews can turn an unsatisfied customer into a loyal
one (Pantelidis, 2010). Recent empirical research indicates that providing a
response enhanced potential customers’ inferences of trust and concern
(Sparks et al., 2016). An emerging line of research explores how to respond
to reviews to generate positive consumer evaluations of a hotel (C. H. Lee &
Cranage, 2014; Sparks et al., 2016). However, most studies have examined
the effects of management responses on consumer outcomes such as trust
(Sparks et al., 2016), and on hotel performance in general (K. L. Xie, So, &
Wang, 2017; K. L. Xie, Zhang, & Zhang, 2014), without considering the dif-
ferential magnitude of impacts of reviews by people with different levels of
expertise. Given the significant impacts of reviewer expertise suggested in
the literature (Z. Liu & Park, 2015; H. Xie, Miao, Kuo, & Lee, 2011; Zhao
et al., 2015), we argue that management responses to reviewers with exper-
tise also have a stronger effect on hotel financial performance. On this basis,
we propose the third research question:

Research Question 3: Does the effect of management responses to online consumer

reviews on the financial performance of hotels increase as the reviewer expertise
increases?

To address these research questions, we use large-scale but granular data con-
taining management responses and online consumer reviews on TripAdvisor for
hotels in major markets of Texas over 26 quarters, matched with quarterly hotel
performance records, for econometric analyses. Drawing on the theory of per-
suasion as a conceptual framework, our findings demonstrate that the effects of
average ratings and the number of reviews on subsequent financial performance
of hotels are attenuated when the level of reviewer expertise increases.
Furthermore, our study advances current understanding of management
responses by empirically showing that targeting reviewers with expertise can
magnify the impact of management intervention in online reviews and thus be
an effective strategy for increasing hotel performance.
4   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

Literature Review

Theoretical Foundation

The conceptual foundation of this research is the well-established theory of

persuasion, which holds that beliefs and attitudes can be influenced by percep-
tions about the message source, including trustworthiness, credibility, and the
recipient’s beliefs about the source’s intention to persuade (Petty & Cacioppo,
1981). Conventional wisdom regarding persuasion holds that information from
high-credibility sources produces more attitude change than information from
low-credibility sources (Eagly, Wood, & Chaiken, 1978). Attribution theory
suggests that when source credibility is low, consumers tend to discount the
arguments in a message (Eagly & Chaiken, 1975), whereas when source credi-
bility is high, consumers are more inclined to accept the message arguments
(Mizerski, Golden, & Kernan, 1979). The elaboration likelihood model of per-
suasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) also posits that source credibility can inform
consumers of how much weight to give the information within a source (Petty &
Cacioppo, 1981). Recent research empirically shows that source credibility
influences the confidence people have in the thoughts they generate in response
to a persuasive message (Brinol, Petty, & Tormala, 2004). Therefore, the theory
of persuasion serves as an important foundation for the current investigation.

Hypothesis Development

Positive comments from reviewers with a higher level expertise are thought
to be important to engendering hotel reputation. To indicate a reviewer’s level of
expertise, many third-party review websites have created a metric to provide
such information. For example, TripAdvisor uses a system that shows the differ-
ent levels of expertise of reviewers and recognizes reviewers who (a) have lon-
ger membership on TripAdvisor, (b) earn a higher status badge, and (c) receive
more helpful votes. Similarly, Yelp’s users can acquire the “elite” badge if they
frequently provide high-quality reviews and actively engage with the commu-
nity (Filieri, 2015). Consistent with these practices, prior research suggests that
increased online review experience (Vermeulen & Seegers, 2009) and badges
earned by the reviewers (Schuckert, Liu, & Law, 2016) signal expertise of
reviewers. Furthermore, according to the source credibility theory (Ohanian,
1990), when the information sender shows signs of expertise the information
may be perceived as more credible. The literature supports that number of help-
ful votes in part indicates the reviewer expertise thus enhancing the credibility
of the review message and the reviewer (Dhanasobhon, Chen, & Smith, 2007).
Therefore, on the basis of the literature and the context of TripAdvisor, this
study focuses on length of membership, status badge, and the number of helpful
votes received as indicators of reviewer expertise.
Empirical research lends support for the effect of positive online review rat-
ings on hotel reputation. Scholars argue that, within the tourism industry, online
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 5

reputation is derived from reviews (Serra Cantallops & Salvi, 2014) because
positive comments can enhance the market reputation of the company. However,
the magnitude of the effect may change if the reviews are written by reviewers
with expertise. The moderating role of reviewer expertise is evident in the litera-
ture. For example, research shows that reviewer expertise strongly influences
consumers. A recent study indicates a positive relationship between reviewer
expertise and people’s hotel online bookings (Zhao et al., 2015). Furthermore,
online information provided by reviewers with higher level of expertise is con-
sidered to be more useful and to have more influence on attitudes toward the
product and purchase intentions than information provided by amateur review-
ers (Lascu, Bearden, & Rose, 1995). Most recently, Zhang et al. (2016) found
that as the number of reviews written by reviewers with website-recognized
expertise increases, future traveler ratings for the hotel increase. On this basis,
we hypothesize the following:

Hypothesis 1 (Null): The positive association between the average rating of online
reviews and subsequent hotel reputation will not be stronger as the reviewer exper-
tise increases.
Hypothesis 1 (Alternative): The positive association between the average rating of
online reviews and subsequent hotel reputation will be stronger as the reviewer
expertise increases.

Another important aspect of online reviews is review volume. Research

shows that the volume of online consumer reviews are positively associated
with the online popularity of restaurants (Zhang, Ye, Law, & Li, 2010). While
online reviews are generated by fellow consumers with different levels of exper-
tise, prior research has assumed equal effects for all review contributors.
Although empirical research directly supporting differential effects is lacking,
prior studies offer some understanding. For example, reviews by reviewers with
low expertise had on average no significant effect on hotel consideration,
whereas reviews by reviewers with high expertise, as manipulated through years
of reviewing experience, had an overall positive effect (Vermeulen & Seegers,
2009). On this basis, we propose the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 2 (Null): The positive association between number of online reviews and
subsequent hotel popularity will be will not be stronger as the reviewer expertise
increases.
Hypothesis 2 (Alternative): The positive association between number of online
reviews and subsequent hotel popularity will be stronger as the reviewer expertise
increases.

The positive association between online reviews (both average ratings and
the number of reviews) and subsequent financial performance of hotels is well
supported in the literature. For example, research shows that the volume of
6   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

online product reviews is positively related to financial outcomes such as movie

sales (Duan, Gu, & Whinston, 2008) and box office revenues (Y. Liu, 2006).
Similarly, positive reviews lead to an increase in relative sales level (Chevalier
& Mayzlin, 2006) and significantly increase hotel bookings (Ye, Law, & Gu,
2009). Further to such direct effect, the literature suggests that reviewer exper-
tise exert stronger influences on consumer attitudes toward the brand or product
described. For instance, empirical studies reported that recommendations from
reviewers with higher levels of expertise have greater influence on consumers
(Senecal & Nantel, 2004). Research also provides empirical support for a posi-
tive relationship between reviewer expertise and people’s online hotel bookings
(Zhao et al., 2015). On this basis, we propose the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 3 (Null): The positive association between online reviews (both average
ratings and the number of reviews) and subsequent financial performance of hotels
will not be stronger as the reviewer expertise increases.
Hypothesis 3 (Alternative): The positive association between online reviews (both
average ratings and the number of reviews) and subsequent financial performance
of hotels will be stronger as the reviewer expertise increases.

The positive relationship between management response and subsequent

financial performance of hotels can be established in prior literature. Empirical
research on online complaint behaviors indicates that company responses may
help restore the company’s positive image as well as generate positive evalua-
tion of the company (Y. L. Lee & Song, 2010). Providing a response also
increases their inferences of trust and concern about the firm (Sparks et al.,
2016). Hospitality researchers suggest that management response to negative
comments is one of the most salient predictors of hotel performance (Kim, Lim,
& Brymer, 2015). However, the literature tends to assume that responses to
reviewers with varying levels of expertise have the same impact on potential
customers. This assumption may not be consistent with the reviewer expertise
literature King et al. (2014) and recent studies that support the significant role of
reviewer expertise in determining the message impact (Zhang et al., 2016; Zhao
et al., 2015). Building on prior research, we argue that reviewer expertise mod-
erates the effect of management responses on consumer evaluations and subse-
quently on hotel financial performance.
The conceptual rationale for this argument is based on the WOM marketing lit-
erature. For example, in examining the evolution of WOM marketing in online
communities, marketing scholars describe that the Network Coproduction Model is
most recent and captures the importance of communication via the Internet
(Kozinets, De Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010). The model holds that it is in the
marketers’ interests to identify and attempt to influence the influential, respected,
credible, WOM-spreading consumers. In addition, marketers have become inter-
ested in directly managing WOM activity through targeted one-to-one seeding and
communication programs (Kozinets et al., 2010). This notion is also consistent with
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 7

Table 1
Description of Sampled Hotels Across Five Major Texas Hotel Markets

Number of Average Average Average Average Number

City Hotels Classa Age Size of Amenities

Austin 117 2.25 17.00 146.15 6.83

Dallas 100 2.61 20.32 200.50 7.98
Fort Worth 61 2.35 15.43 130.38 6.87
Houston 237 2.24 13.79 136.77 6.69
San Antonio 215 2.25 14.64 127.53 6.85

a.Hotel class is designated by TripAdvisor using “Crowns,” with the value of 5 for a
luxury hotel, 4 for an above average hotel with some outstanding features and a broad
range of services, 3 for a full-service hotel, 2 for a midmarket economy hotel, and 1 for a
budget traveler hotel.

the customer engagement literature (So, King, & Sparks; 2014; So, King, Sparks,
& Wang; 2016). Extending this notion to the online review settings, responding to
reviewers with expertise is thought to have different effects on performance out-
comes of managing online reviews. Thus, we propose the following:

Hypothesis 4 (Null): The positive association between the volume of management

response and subsequent financial performance of hotels will not be stronger as
the reviewer expertise increases.
Hypothesis 4 (Alternative): The positive association between the volume of man-
agement response and subsequent financial performance of hotels will be stronger
as the reviewer expertise increases.

Methodology

Data and Measures

We developed a software procedure to collect large-scale but granular data of

730 hotels reviewed on TripAdvisor in five major Texas hotel markets between
2005 Quarter 1 and 2011 Quarter 2. Table 1 presents the distribution of sampled
hotels by markets. For each hotel, we used automated Python scripts to access
and parse HTML and XML pages of TripAdvisor for the following publicly
available information: (a) average ratings and number of consumer reviews; (b)
number of management responses to consumer reviews; (c) reviewer expertise
indicators, including membership with TripAdvisor, reviewer badge, and num-
ber of helpful votes received from other consumers; and (d) hotel characteristics
such as class, age, size, and number of amenities. We then obtained quarterly
revenue records of these hotels provided by the Texas Comptroller Office in
their capacity as auditors of state tax collection. The two sources of data were
merged at the hotels’ quarterly level. Our unit of analysis in the longitudinal
panel data is Hotel–Quarter. Table 2 presents the definitions and summary
8
Table 2
Variable Definition and Summary Statistics

Variable Description Mean SD Median Skewnessa Minimum Maximum

Hotel Revenue Hotel revenues in dollars in a given quarter 1,350,000 1,760,000 695,495 3.10 15,205 17,300,000
Performance
Reviewer Membership Average years of reviewers’ TripAdvisor 1.13 1.23 1 1.37 0 8
Expertise membership in a given quarter
Badge Average level of reviewer expertise in a 2.15 1.11 2 0.77 1 5
given quarter, with the value of 1 for
“Reviewer,” 2 for “Senior Reviewer,”
3 for “Contributor,” 4 for “Senior
Contributor,” and 5 for “Top Contributor”
NumVotes Number of helpful votes reviewers 22.09 38.68 9 4.76 0 645
received from other users in a given
quarter
Consumer AveRatings Average ratings of reviews for hotel quality 3.48 1.19 3.86 −0.67 1 5
Reviews in a given quarter, with the value of 5
for “Excellent,” 4 for “Very Good,” 3
for “Average,” 2 for “Poor,” and 1 for
“Terrible.” It is a measure of online
reputation of hotels.
NumReviews Number of reviews in a given quarter. It is 3.67 6.62 2 10.92 1 189
a measure of online popularity of hotels.
Management NumResponses Number of manager responses in a given 0.49 2.13 0 9.49 0 52
Responses quarter

(continued)
 Table 2. (continued)

Variable Description Mean SD Median Skewnessa Minimum Maximum

Hotel Class Hotel class segmentation designated 2.72 1.05 3 −0.99 1 5

Characteristics by TripAdvisor using “Crowns,” with
the value of 5 for a luxury hotel, 4 for
an above average hotel with some
outstanding features and a broad range
of services, 3 for a full-service hotel, 2
for a midmarket economy hotel, and 1
for a budget traveler hotel
Age Number of years since the hotel is open in 17.43 12.65 13 0.73 0 63
a given quarter
Size Number of guest rooms in a given quarter 189.41 184.91 132 3.98 5.00 1,840
NumAmenities Number of internal amenities such as 7.90 2.54 8 −1.04 0.00 13.00
indoor swimming pool, free high-speed
Internet, fitness center, wheelchair
access, and pets allowed

a. We checked the normality of the variables through skewness. A logarithm transformation is needed when the data are excessively skewed positively or
negatively (Greene, 2012). Therefore, we take log transformations of some highly skewed variables (i.e., logNumReviews, logNumVotes, logSize, logRevenue, and
logNumResponses) to normalize the data in our regression analysis for effective estimation.

9
10   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

Table 3
Pearson Correlation of Variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 1.  AveRatings 1  
 2.  NumReviews 0.14 1  
 3.  NumResponses 0.03 0.62 1  
 4.  Badge 0.15 0.03 −0.01 1  
 5.  NumVotes 0.10 0.01 0.01 0.19 1  
 6.  Membership 0.10 0.13 0.10 0.12 0.31 1  
 7.  Class 0.26 0.40 0.32 0.16 0.22 0.11 1  
 8.  Age −0.17 0.13 0.20 −0.05 0.03 −0.05 0.09 1  
 9.  Size 0.05 0.41 0.35 0.14 0.23 0.08 0.54 0.33 1  
10.  NumAmenities 0.27 0.25 0.15 0.13 0.14 0.12 0.62 −0.01 0.38 1

Figure 1
Distribution of Management Responses by Years of Reviewer Membership

statistics of the variables. Table 3 shows that the correlation among variables are
below 0.8 (Katz, 2006), indicating that the estimation is unlikely to be biased by
collinearity of variables.
Figures 1 to 3 show management responses by reviewer expertise indicators,
including length of membership, reviewer badge, and number of helpful votes
received. Surprisingly, managers tend to respond overwhelmingly to reviewers
with less expertise. Specifically, 86.74% of management responses were to
reviewers with 0 to 2 years of membership; about 80.68% of management
responses were to reviewers who were not yet “contributors”; and only 19.32%
of responses went to reviewers with badges of “contributor” and above. Most
management responses (94.61%) were to reviewers who received fewer than 30
votes from other peer consumers for the helpfulness of their reviews. The results
imply that most hotel managers might not yet have targeted reviewers with
higher levels of expertise.
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 11

Figure 2
Distribution of Management Responses by Reviewer Badge

Figure 3
Distribution of Management Responses by Number of Helpful Votes Received by
Reviewers

Model Specification

The goal of our empirical estimation is twofold. First, we examine the mod-
eration effects of reviewer expertise on subsequent online reputation (i.e., aggre-
gate average ratings of reviews) and popularity of hotels (i.e., aggregate number
of reviews). Second, we investigate the impact of reviewer expertise on hotel
financial performance through its moderation effect with online reviews and
management responses. We use a blend of linear regression models to estimate
such effects while controlling for hotel characteristics.
12   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

For each hotel i, its online reputation and popularity affected by reviewer
expertise in Quarter t are modeled as
AveRatingsit = α1 + β1a AveRatingsit −1 + β1b Expertiseit −1
+ β1c AveRatingsit −1 × Expertiseit −1 (1)
+ γ 1 HTCit + δ1 HCi + ε it

logNumReviewsit = α 2 + β 2 a logNumReviewsit −1 + β 2b Expertiseit −1

+ β 2c logNumReviewsit −1 (2)
× Expertiseit −1 + γ 2 HTCit + δ 2 HCi + µit
where Expertise represents the candidate measures for reviewer expertise,
including Membershipit-1, Badgeit-1, and logNumVotesit-1. Using multiple candi-
date measures of reviewer expertise allows us to identify the relative effects of
these reviewer expertise measures in each model and serves as a robustness
check. HTCit is a vector of time-variant hotel characteristics controls such as
Ageit and logSizeit, whereas HCi is a vector of time-invariant hotel characteristics
controls including Classi and NumAmenitiesi. εit and μit are random error terms.
The focuses of our estimation are the coefficients β1c and β2c, which capture the
effects of reviewer expertise on subsequent online reputation and popularity of
hotels through moderating average ratings and volume of reviews by prior
reviewers in Equations (1) and (2), respectively.
Similarly, for each hotel i, its financial performance (i.e., quarterly revenue)
is influenced by online reviews and management responses and moderated by
reviewer expertise in Quarter t:
logRevenueit = α 3 + β3a AveRatingsit −1 + β3b logNumReviewsit −1
+ β3c logNumResponsesit −1 + β3d Expertiseit −1
+ β3e AveRatingsit −1 × Expertiseit −1
(3)
+ β3 f logNumReviewsit −1 × Expertiseit −1
+ β3 j logNumResponsesit −1 × Expertiseit −1
+ γ 3 HTCit + δ 3 HCi + eit
where we use annotations similar to Equations (1) and (2). eit is the error
term. The focuses of our estimation are the coefficients β3e, β3f, and β3j, which
capture the effects of reviewer expertise on hotel performance through modera-
tion with online reviewers (average ratings and number of reviews) and manage-
ment responses, respectively.

Results And Discussion

We model the subsequent hotel reputation, hotel popularity, and hotel perfor-
mance as a function of online reviews and management responses, as well as
several reviewer expertise indicators (i.e., length of membership, reviewer
badge, number of helpful votes received), yet control for relevant hotel charac-
teristics such as hotel age, size, and class. We employ a blend of econometrics
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 13

models with fixed effects to estimate the hypothesized effects. The fixed effects
estimation controls for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity of individual
entities (hotels in our case) without estimating them (Greene, 2012). To reduce
heteroscedasticity concerns, we leverage robust standard errors clustered at the
hotel level (Wooldridge, 2010). We execute the analyses using STATA Version
14, a statistical software widely used for econometrics analysis (Muenchen,
2012). Table 4 presents the estimation results for Equations (1) and (2). Table 5
shows the estimation results for Equation (3). For each equation we test three
models, each using a candidate measure of reviewer expertise, including
Membership, Badge, and logNumVotes.

Moderation Effects of Reviewer Expertise on Online Reputation and

Popularity of Hotels

The results of Models 1 to 3, presented in Table 4, show that reviewer exper-

tise indicators in all three models positively moderate the effect of average rat-
ings on subsequent hotel reputation. Specifically, Model 1 shows that as length
of membership increases, the positive effects of average ratings on hotel reputa-
tion increase (0.010***), a finding consistent with the theory of persuasion
(Petty & Cacioppo, 1981, 1986; Petty, Wheeler, & Tormala, 2003), which sug-
gests that credibility of the source provides a basis for the consumer to deter-
mine how much weight to give the information within a source (Hovland &
Weiss, 1951; Petty & Cacioppo, 1981). We find similar results for reviewer
badge, another measure of reviewer expertise, in Model 2. As the reviewer status
increases (e.g., from “reviewer” to “senior reviewer”), the effect of average rat-
ings on subsequent hotel reputation is strengthened (0.006**). However, we find
an insignificant moderation effect of the number of helpful votes (0.004) in
Model 3, indicating that reviewers who receive more helpful votes do not neces-
sarily influence subsequent consumers’ perception of the hotel reputation.
Models 4 to 6 in Table 4 show the estimated moderation effects of reviewer
expertise on influencing hotel popularity. As Model 4 shows, the effect of the
number of reviews on hotel popularity is positively moderated by the length of
membership of previous reviewers (0.020**). That is, as the length of a review-
er’s membership increases, the volume of his/her reviews will likely trigger
more reviews from subsequent consumers, magnifying hotel popularity. Model
5 uses a different expertise measure, reviewer badge, and reveals that the posi-
tive effect of the volume of reviews on subsequent hotel popularity increases as
the reviewer’s badge upgrades to a higher level (0.071***). Positive moderation
is also found in Model 6, which uses the number of helpful votes as the measure
of reviewer expertise. The results show that as reviewers receive more helpful
votes, the effect of their volume of reviews on subsequent hotel popularity
increases correspondingly (0.032***). Overall, our results in three models are
consistent, lending support to the significance of source credibility in influenc-
ing the perceptions of subsequent consumers (Fang, Ye, Kucukusta, & Law,
2016; Senecal & Nantel, 2004; Zhao et al., 2015).
14
Table 4
Moderation Effects of Reviewer Expertise on Online Reputation and Popularity of Hotels

AveRatings logNumReviews

  (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

AveRatingst-1 0.256*** (.000) 0.247*** (.000) 0.256*** (.000) logNumReviewst-1 0.375*** (.000) 0.501*** (.000) 0.280*** (.000)
Membershipt-1 0.053 (.118) Membershipt-1 0.033*** (.000)  
Badget-1 0.079** (.031) Badget-1 0.006 (.602)  
logNumVotest-1 0.010 (.740) logNumVotest-1 0.006 (.479)
AveRatingst-1 * 0.010*** (.001) logNumReviewst-1 * 0.020** (.017)  
Membershipt-1 *Membershipt-1
AveRatingst-1 * 0.006** (.042) logNumReviewst-1 * 0.071*** (.000)  
Badget-1 Badget-1
AveRatingst-1 * 0.004 (.138) logNumReviewst-1 * 0.032*** (.000)
logNumVotest-1 logNumVotest-1
Aget −0.010*** (.000) −0.010*** (.000) −0.010***(.000) Aget 0.003*** (.000) 0.003*** (.000) 0.004*** (.000)
logSizet −0.091*** (.000) −0.095*** (.000) −0.096*** (.000) logSizet 0.186*** (.000) 0.207*** (.000) 0.177***(.000)
Classt — — — Classt — — —
NumAmenitiest — — — — — —
Constant 2.245*** (.000) 2.265*** (.000) 2.320*** (.000) Constant −0.842*** (.000) −0.909*** (.000) −0.784*** (.000)
Observations 6,368 7,021 5,735 Observations 6,948 6,432 6,209
R2 0.189 0.189 0.174 R2 0.308 0.321 0.301

Note: p value in parentheses.

***p < .01. **p < .05. *p < .1.
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 15

Table 5
Moderation Effects of Reviewer Expertise on Hotel Performance

logRevenue

  (7) (8) (9)

AveRatingst-1 0.028** (.039) 0.013 (.415) 0.046*** (.002)

logNumReviewst-1 0.079*** (.006) 0.094** (.015) 0.029 (.379)
logNumResponsest-1 0.057** (.025) 0.049* (.056) 0.053* (.077)
Membershipt-1 0.031 (.478)  
Badget-1 0.012 (.761)  
logNumVotest-1 −0.005 (.885)
AveRatingt-1 * Membershipt-1 0.001** (.015)  
logNumReviewst-1 * 0.026* (.056)  
Membershipt-1
logNumResponsest-1 * 0.010* (.060)  
Membershipt-1
AveRatingt-1 * Badget-1 0.010** (.032)  
logNumReviewst-1 * Badget-1 0.011 (.509)  
logNumResponsest-1 * Badget-1 0.005* (.072)  
AveRatingt-1 * logNumVotest-1 0.003* (.072)
logNumReviews t-1 * 0.045*** (.001)
logNumVotest-1
logNumResponsest-1 * 0.011 (.518)
logNumVotest-1
Aget −0.010*** (.000) −0.010*** (.000) −0.008*** (.000)
logSizet 1.020*** (.000) 1.024*** (.000) 0.983*** (.000)
Classt 0.304*** (.000) 0.305*** (.000) 0.294*** (.000)
NumAmenitiest 0.018*** (.009) 0.016** (.021) 0.020*** (.006)
Constant 7.430*** (.000) 7.402*** (.000) 7.567*** (.000)
Observations 933 940 871
Adjusted R2 0.879 0.880 0.876

Note: p value in parentheses.

***p < .01. **p < .05. *p < .1.

Moderation Effects of Reviewer Expertise on Hotel Performance

Models 7 to 9 in Table 5 present the estimated effects of reviewer expertise

on financial performance of hotels through interaction with online reviews and
management responses. Again, we use three measures of reviewer expertise in
each model.
Model 7 shows a significant positive moderation effect of the length of
reviewer membership on the performance effect of average ratings (0.001**)
and number of reviews (0.026*). While the performance implications of average
ratings (Duverger, 2013; Ye, Law, Gu, & Chen, 2011) and number of reviews
(Ye et al., 2009) have been widely recognized in the literature, we find that
16   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

positive impacts are likely to increase when reviews are written by reviewers
with longer membership. Furthermore, we find that length of membership also
positively moderates the effect of management responses on hotel performance
(0.010*). This result extends recent studies about the positive effects of manage-
ment responses on hotel financial performance (Mattila & Mount, 2003; S.-Y.
Park & Allen, 2013; K. L. Xie, So, & Wang, 2017; K. L. Xie et al., 2014), sug-
gesting that offering management responses to reviewers with longer member-
ship will likely strengthen the impact of management response on financial
performance.
Model 8 shows a positive moderation effect of reviewer badge in enhancing
the associations between financial performance and average rating (0.010**)
and management responses (0.005*). On one hand, as the reviewer’s badge
upgrades, the effect of the reviewer’s average rating on hotel performance
increases because reviewers in higher status have more influence on the pur-
chase decision of subsequent consumers (Zhang et al., 2016). This result occurs
because online information given by reviewers with more expertise is perceived
to be more useful and has greater influence on attitudes toward the product and
purchase intentions (Lascu et al., 1995). On the other hand, responding to
reviewers with a higher status would amplify the effect of management responses
on hotel performance. A plausible reason for this finding is that customer care,
as communicated in management responses, has a stronger impact when manag-
ers respond to these experienced and seasoned reviewers with expertise.
Consistent with the network coproduction model (Kozinets et al., 2010), the
result supports that in the context of managing online reviews, a greater level of
benefits can be achieved by influencing the more influential, respected, and
credible WOM-spreading consumers.
Model 9 reveals significant moderation effects of the number of helpful votes
on average rating (0.003*) and number of reviews (0.045***), but not on man-
agement responses (0.011). Although the reviewers who receive more helpful
votes enhance the positive effects of consumer reviews on hotel financial perfor-
mance, responding to those reviewers may not be a useful strategy for managers
given the insignificant moderation effect of management responses. Clearly, the
moderation effects of reviewer expertise measures may vary, and managers can
influence hotel performance by engaging with reviewers with longer member-
ship and higher level status or badge. However, responding to reviewers who
receive more helpful votes may not necessarily result in increased performance.
Our recommendation is that managers be selective and strategic when respond-
ing to reviewers.

Conclusion And Implications

This study investigates how reviewer expertise may influence the online rep-
utation and popularity as well as the financial performance of hotels and how
managers can use social persuasion to leverage hotel performance by respond-
ing to reviewers with expertise. Our study adds new insights to the literature by
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 17

theorizing and empirically testing the moderating effect of reviewer expertise on

predictors of performance such as average ratings of online reviews (Chevalier
& Mayzlin, 2006), number of reviews (Y. Liu, 2006), and management response
(Sparks et al., 2016; K. L. Xie, So, & Wang, 2017; K. L. Xie et al., 2014).
Insights from this study yield both theoretical and practical implications.
Our results indicate that consumers value length of membership and reviewer
badge when using online reviews for decision making. As such, the results sug-
gest that source credibility may play an important role in evaluating the informa-
tion. Reviewer expertise disclosed online is significantly and positively
associated with both reputation and popularity of hotels as endorsed by subse-
quent consumers. When the expertise of reviewers increases (e.g., longer mem-
bership, higher badge status), their opinions not only influence online reputation
and popularity of hotels but also hotel performance. Our findings indicate that,
when faced with numerous reviews online, consumers more heavily weigh the
opinions from reviewers with a higher level of expertise. This result is consistent
with the conceptual thinking found in persuasion research, which holds that
beliefs and attitudes can be influenced by perceptions about the message source,
including trustworthiness and credibility (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981).
Reviewer expertise serves as a convenient and efficient heuristic device on
which to base consumers’ decisions, as when source credibility is high, consum-
ers are more inclined to accept the message arguments (Mizerski et al., 1979)
and can proactively respond to reviewers with expertise to leverage hotel perfor-
mance. Responding to these reviewers with longer membership and higher
badge status results in increased financial performance of hotels. While scholars
and practitioners have been primarily concerned about the value of management
responses to hotels (Sparks & Bradley, 2014; Sparks et al., 2016; K. L. Xie, So,
& Wang, 2017; K. L. Xie et al., 2014), this study explicitly addresses an impor-
tant but less researched question of to whom hotel managers should respond
when managing online reviews. Overall, this study addresses the business
importance of targeting reviewers with higher levels of expertise and responding
to their reviews, which not only lead to contagious review actions of subsequent
consumers but also potentially increase their purchases toward the hotels.

Theoretical Implications

Several significant theoretical implications of this study warrant discussion.

First, previous research on reviews provided by reviewers with expertise have
mainly examined the impacts of such reviewers on customer-level variables
such as consideration of the hotel, usefulness of the review, attitudes, and book-
ing intentions. Extending the existing literature, this study provides empirical
evidence indicating how reviews written by fellow consumers who possess a
higher level of expertise, as recognized by TripAdvisor, also affect aggregate
online marketing performance indicators such as reputation and popularity of
hotel firms. The results clearly demonstrate the power of reviewers with higher
expertise in generating positive performance outcomes at the firm level.
18   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

Furthermore, our study supports the significant role of reviewer expertise in

enhancing future hotel financial performance, thus contributing to the extant
literature on the impacts of reviewer expertise in hospitality settings.
While prior research on the relationship between online reviews and sales
performance has generally assumed that the primary reason for such linkage is
that online reviews provide potential consumers with information about prod-
ucts/services and service providers (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006; Ye et al., 2009),
this study draws attention to an understudied aspect of reviewer expertise—the
business value of increased reputation, popularity, and financial performance of
hotels. We particularly highlight the complementary role of the message source
(i.e., reviewers with different levels of expertise) and the message itself (i.e.,
review ratings and number of reviews) as drivers of hotel financial performance.
We also suggest that reviewer disclosure of expertise such as membership and
status contributes to the monetary gains of the hotel being reviewed. This study
thus adds business-driven inquiry to the scholarly work on reviewer expertise.
Building on previous studies that support the significant impacts of reviews
provided by reviewers with expertise (Z. Liu & Park, 2015; H. Xie et al., 2011;
Zhao et al., 2015), this study offers empirical evidence to suggest that manage-
ment responses to reviews provided by reviewers with higher levels of expertise
also have a stronger effect on hotel financial performance. As such, our study
suggests that managers can actually leverage the influence of reviewers with
expertise by actively responding to their comments, thereby magnifying the
effects on hotel performance. Empirical evidence in this regard is important: It
extends the emerging research on the importance of management responses
(e.g., Sparks et al., 2016; K. L. Xie et al., 2014; K. L. Xie, So, & Wang, 2017)
with unique action plans to enhance the online reputation of hotels.

Practical Implications

Given the extent and salience of social information that reviewers disclose in
product reviews (Forman, Ghose, & Wiesenfeld, 2008), expertise of reviewers
becomes accessible to consumers who seek truly insightful information online to
support their decision making. However, the importance of reviewers’ expertise
to hotel businesses and understanding of what strategy managers should employ
to use such unique information remain practically less known. This study pro-
vides insights into the importance of reviews from reviewers with expertise in
influencing hotels’ online reputation, popularity, and performance and how hotel
managers can use such information to leverage their business performance.
Our results also show that consumers are responsive to the level of expertise
disclosed by reviewers, especially those with longer membership and higher badge
status. Our study thus suggests that managers may be able to increase hotels’ perfor-
mance by encouraging reviewers to reveal more expertise–descriptive information
about themselves. Adequate incentives (loyalty points, free drink coupons, etc.) can
be offered to encourage seasoned reviewers of the hotel to write reviews, no matter
 Xie, So / EFFECTS OF REVIEWER EXPERTISE ON PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS 19

positive or negative. In this way, managers can better identify reviewers with exper-
tise and may selectively focus on addressing their concerns to leverage the online
social influence of these reviewers.
Our study additionally highlights the interplay between management
responses and reviewer expertise. Our empirical evidence shows the business
value of management responses to online reviews by seasoned reviewers. The
new insight from this study is that hotel firms should respond to a selective col-
lection of reviews by reviewers with expertise. Our empirical results show that
such an approach could be an effective and efficient strategy for increasing busi-
ness performance. First, we recommend that managers responding to online
reviews also consider the expertise of reviewers who write the online reviews,
as responding to reviewers with greater expertise enhances the impact of man-
agement responses on financial performance. In addition, we advocate that when
allocating resources to manage online reviews, managers may want to give pri-
ority to reviews by reviewers with expertise. A careful screening of review pro-
file information would help managers target influential fellow reviewers among
consumers who write reviews for the business. Finally, hotels can feature well-
written examples of management responses to seasoned reviewers in their mar-
keting outlets and promote these example responses both internally and
externally. Internally, the example responses can help employees learn the skills
of customer engagement, and externally consumers who are exposed to the
example management responses can appreciate the customer care they reflect
and can follow their peer reviewers with expertise in a positive way.

Limitations and Future Research

The study has some limitations. First, our sample is restricted to five major
hotel markets in Texas over a limited period of time. To increase the representa-
tiveness of the sample and the generalizability of the estimation results, addi-
tional work in other markets is needed. Future research can replicate the
estimation of this study using alternative data sources and provide more empiri-
cal insights about reviewer expertise in the arena of social media research.
Second, although this study focuses on the moderation effects of the expertise of
reviewers, it is theoretically plausible to postulate that reviewer expertise may
mediate the effects of hotel reputation and popularity on hotel performance.
Future studies could explore the multidirectional effects of reviewer expertise.
We believe such research would bring useful insights and perspectives to the
field of online review research. Finally, we focus on the revenue of individual
hotels as one of the dependent variables in this study. Because of the data
unavailability, we did not incorporate other hotel performance variables such as
RevPAR in estimating the effects of the expertise of reviewers. Future studies
are encouraged to replicate our modelling approaches using RevPAR as the per-
formance outcome, thus providing additional meaningful insights and validation
into the effects estimated.
20   JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

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Submitted October 1, 2016

Accepted October 13, 2017
Refereed Anonymously

Karen L. Xie, PhD (e-mail: Karen.Xie@du.edu), is an assistant professor of Hospitality

Management at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.
Kevin Kam Fung So, PhD (e-mail: kevinso@hrsm.sc.edu), is an assistant professor in
the Center of Economic Excellence in Tourism and Economic Development, School of
Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, University of South Carolina, Columbia.