Win by Hook or Crook? Self-Injecting Favorable Online Reviews to Fight Adjacent Rivals
研究区分了对抗与竞争，发现对抗会促使企业相互克制、减少自行注入有利评论的行为，而竞争则相反；平台可通过设计培养对抗感来抑制虚假评论。
Literature has long assumed that unethical behaviors are fueled by competition. This study challenges this prevailing notion by introducing a conceptual distinction between rivalry and competition. We show that rivalry-induced deterrence triggers the formation of mutual forbearance in self-injecting favorable reviews. Mutual forbearance collapses when one party unilaterally engages in self-injecting behaviors, prompting the other party to retaliate by increasing their self-injecting activities. The presence of an additional rival leads to a 3.2% decrease in self-injecting intensity. Furthermore, self-injecting intensity increases by 0.095% for every 1% rise in that of the rivals and increases by 0.041% for a 1% rise in that of the nonrival competitors. Given the apparent role of rivalry in reducing self-injecting behaviors, platforms should strategically consider how system designs and policies can cultivate firms’ feelings of rivalry and avoid non-rival competition. We recommend platforms consider including evaluations from peer hotels as an alternative index for recommending hotels to potential consumers. Introducing peer evaluations to the current online review systems could attenuate the bias of consumer ratings and facilitate the formation of rivalry, which hinders self-injecting behaviors.