Ask for Reviews at the Right Time: Evidence from Two Field Experiments
通过两个随机现场实验，研究了评论提醒的时机如何影响消费者发布产品评论的可能性和质量，发现即时提醒会降低评论率，而延迟提醒则显著提高评论率。
This study examines how the timing of review reminders affects the likelihood and quality of product review postings. The authors postulate that review reminders have two distinct effects, depending on the delivery timing. On the one hand, reminders of review posting given immediately or shortly after a product experience may threaten a consumer's freedom and prompt an adverse reaction. On the other hand, as time after the product experience passes, it may be advantageous to revive memories of review posting using delayed review reminders. To evaluate the effect of review reminders, the authors conduct two randomized field experiments. The findings show that immediate reminders reduce the chance of review postings relative to a randomized immediate control group who did not receive a reminder, consistent with the notion that the reactance induced by the violation of freedom due to instant review reminders outweighs the benefit of memory recall. Conversely, delayed reminders significantly increase the likelihood of review posting compared with a randomized delayed control, suggesting that the memory recall benefit surpasses reactance. However, the timing of review reminders has little effect on review content. The study contributes to the literature on the temporal effects of marketing activities and provides practical advice for online marketplaces to collect more product reviews.