Understanding online fake review production strategies

Snehasish Banerjee*, Alton Y.K. Chua

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Extending the literature that has, thus far, mostly focused on the detection of fake online reviews, this paper explores a more fundamental yet hitherto-unanswered question: How do people go about creating fake reviews in the first place? To delve deeper, it further investigates the role of individuals’ cognitive style—the way one gathers, processes, structures, and applies information. While cognitive style was measured using a quantitative scale, a qualitative approach was adopted to explore fake review production strategies. Fifty participants imagined that they had been hired by a marketing agency to write fake reviews, completed the writing task, shared their experiences, and then filled out a cognitive style questionnaire. Writing fake reviews involved four stages: gathering information, assimilating information, drafting the fake review, and finalizing the fake review production. Through a cognitive lens, the paper uncovers three fake review production strategies and explains why someone would adopt a certain strategy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number113534
JournalJournal of Business Research
Volume156
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Marketing

Keywords

  • e-WOM
  • Fake online review
  • Fake review production strategy
  • Online review writer
  • Review fraud
  • Review writing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Understanding online fake review production strategies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this