Examining the Relationship Between Reviews and Sales: The Role ofReviewer Identity Disclosure in Electronic Markets

Consumer-generated product reviews have proliferated online, driven bythe notion that consumers’ decision to purchase or not purchase aproduct is based on the positive or negative information about thatproduct they obtain from fellow consumers. Using research on informationprocessing as a foundation, we suggest that in the context of an onlinecommunity, reviewer disclosure of identity-descriptive information isused by consumers to supplement or replace product information whenmaking purchase decisions and evaluating the helpfulness of onlinereviews. Using a unique data set based on both chronologically compiledratings as well as reviewer characteristics for a given set of productsand geographical location-based purchasing behavior from Amazon, weprovide evidence that community norms are an antecedent to reviewerdisclosure of identity-descriptive information. Online community membersrate reviews containing identity-descriptive information morepositively, and the prevalence of reviewer disclosure of identityinformation is associated with increases in subsequent online productsales. In addition, we show that shared geographical location increasesthe relationship between disclosure and product sales, thus highlightingthe important role of geography in electronic commerce. Taken together,our results suggest that identity-relevant information about reviewersshapes community members’ judgment of products and reviews.Implications for research on the relationship between onlineword-of-mouth (WOM) and sales, peer recognition and reputation systems,and conformity to online community norms are discussed