Finding Meaning in Contradiction on Employee Review Sites — Effects of Discrepant Online Reviews on Job Application Intentions

Sharing experiences with peers through online reviews has amplified the impacts of individual articulations on the reputations of firms across many industries. With employee review sites, current and former employees share their positive and negative experiences with their company, which has become an increasingly important aspect for reputation management and for job seekers' decision-making on where to apply. In the present study, the effects of discrepant reviews (i.e., reviews with a high variance in company evaluations) are examined in the context of employer review sites. In particular, we investigate how review discrepancy, persuasion knowledge activation, and constructive company responses affect job seekers' trust in the company and the resulting application intentions. In our preliminary study, we analyzed a sample of 25,827 published company reviews on the German employee rating site Kununu.de. The results revealed that high levels of discrepant reviews for the same company exist, thus underlining the need for additional studies. In our main study, a 2 (review discrepancy) × 2 (persuasion knowledge activation) × 2 (company response) between-subject-design experiment was conducted with 311 respondents. We find that high levels of discrepancies lead to increased intentions to avoid submitting applications to the focal company and reduced intentions to pursue employment. This study complements the research concerning online reputation by highlighting the relevance of discrepant reviews for job seekers' application intentions.

[1]  Robert E. Ployhart,et al.  Social media: A contextual framework to guide research and practice. , 2015, The Journal of applied psychology.

[2]  A. Rangaswamy,et al.  The Impact of New Media on Customer Relationships , 2010 .

[3]  Nathalia Purnawirawan,et al.  The Impact of Managerial Responses to Online Reviews on Consumers' Perceived Trust and Attitude , 2015 .

[4]  S. C. Boerman,et al.  “This Post is Sponsored” Effects of Sponsorship Disclosure on Persuasion Knowledge and Electronic Word of Mouth in the Context of Facebook , 2017 .

[5]  Seokwoo Song,et al.  An empirical investigation of electronic word-of-mouth: Informational motive and corporate response strategy , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[6]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[7]  L. Menting,et al.  The Role of Approach and Avoidance Motives for Unemployed Job Search Behavior. , 2012 .

[8]  J. Rotter.  Social learning and clinical psychology , 2017 .

[9]  Bruce R. Orvis,et al.  A closer examination of causal inference: The roles of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information. , 1975 .

[10]  Amy L. Ostrom,et al.  Complaining to the Masses: The Role of Protest Framing in Customer-Created Complaint Web Sites , 2006 .

[11]  Dai Yao,et al.  Spillover Effects in Seeded Word-of-Mouth Marketing Campaigns , 2016, Mark. Sci..

[12]  Cait Lamberton,et al.  A Thematic Exploration of Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing: Research Evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an Agenda for Future Inquiry , 2016 .

[13]  Peter Wright,et al.  Persuasion Knowledge , 2022 .

[14]  Hubertus Johannes Maria Ruel,et al.  Employer Branding and its Effect on Organizational Attractiveness via the World Wide Web: Results of quantitative and qualitative studies combined , 2012 .

[15]  Alice H. Eagly,et al.  Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context. , 1989 .

[16]  Huaping Chen,et al.  Credibility of Electronic Word-of-Mouth: Informational and Normative Determinants of On-line Consumer Recommendations , 2009, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[17]  Silke Bambauer-Sachse,et al.  Do consumers still believe what is said in online product reviews? A persuasion knowledge approach , 2013 .

[18]  Deepak K. Datta,et al.  Corporate Reputation: Do Board Characteristics Matter? , 2009 .

[19]  Nathalia Purnawirawan,et al.  Balance and Sequence in Online Reviews: How Perceived Usefulness Affects Attitudes and Intentions , 2012 .

[20]  Hui Liao,et al.  Do it right this time: the role of employee service recovery performance in customer-perceived justice and customer loyalty after service failures. , 2007, The Journal of applied psychology.

[21]  F. Heider.  The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[22]  Ko de Ruyter,et al.  In stories we trust: How narrative apologies provide cover for competitive vulnerability after integrity-violating blog posts , 2010 .

[23]  Bart Nooteboom,et al.  Actions that Build Interpersonal Trust: A Relational Signalling Perspective , 2010 .

[24]  Patrick De Pelsmacker,et al.  A Meta-analytic Investigation of the Role of Valence in Online Reviews , 2015 .

[25]  Yijing Wang,et al.  Employee social-mediated crisis communication as opportunity or threat? , 2018 .

[26]  P. Leeflang,et al.  Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing , 2012 .

[27]  Marcia W. DiStaso,et al.  How Millennials are Engaging and Building Relationships with Organizations on Facebook , 2013 .

[28]  Eduard Hovy,et al.  What are Sentiment, Affect, and Emotion? Applying the Methodology of Michael Zock to Sentiment Analysis , 2015 .

[29]  Beverley Sparks,et al.  Application of Fairness Theory to Service Failures and Service Recovery , 2003 .

[30]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error , 1981 .

[31]  A. Acquisti,et al.  Reputation as a sufficient condition for data quality on Amazon Mechanical Turk , 2013, Behavior Research Methods.

[32]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Evidence of the Effect of Trust Building Technology in Electronic Markets: Price Premiums and Buyer Behavior , 2002, MIS Q..

[33]  H. Kelley,et al.  Attribution theory and research. , 1980, Annual review of psychology.

[34]  K. Weber,et al.  Perceived prevalence and personal impact of negative online reviews , 2016 .

[35]  D. Holdford,et al.  Testing Commitment-Trust Theory in Relationships Between Pharmacy Schools and Students , 2004 .

[36]  Tobias Schaefers,et al.  Leaving the Home Turf: How Brands Can Use Webcare on Consumer-generated Platforms to Increase Positive Consumer Engagement , 2015 .

[37]  Charles J. Kacmar,et al.  Factors of Information Credibility for an Internet Advice Site , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[38]  B. Weiner.  An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. , 1985, Psychological review.

[39]  David E. Kaun,et al.  Marketing Signaling: Informational Transfer in Hiring and Related Screening Processes. , 1974 .

[40]  Scot Burton,et al.  Consumer Generalization of Nutrient Content Claims in Advertising , 1998 .

[41]  William Boulding,et al.  A consumer-side experimental examination of signaling theory: Do , 1993 .

[42]  Santiago Melián-González,et al.  Extending the scope of hotel client reactions to employee injustice: Hotel employer reviews on the Internet , 2017 .

[43]  Georgios Zervas,et al.  Fake It Till You Make It: Reputation, Competition, and Yelp Review Fraud , 2015, Manag. Sci..

[44]  Cheol Park,et al.  Antecedents of Online Reviews’ Usage and Purchase Influence: An Empirical Comparison of U.S. and Korean Consumers , 2009 .

[45]  B. Weiner.  Achievement Motivation and Attribution Theory , 1974 .

[46]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[47]  William L. Benoit,et al.  Accounts, excuses, and apologies : a theory of image restoration strategies , 1994 .

[48]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM): An emerging tool in business research , 2014 .

[49]  G. Walsh,et al.  Employees’ Company Reputation-related Social Media Competence: Scale Development and Validation , 2016 .

[50]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , 1993 .

[51]  R. Dubey,et al.  Employee Reviews on Company Independent Sites and its Impact on Organizational Attractiveness: Role of Information Realism, Person – Environment Fit and Source Credibility Framework , 2014 .

[52]  Yotam Shmargad,et al.  When Online Visibility Deters Social Interaction: The Case of Digital Gifts , 2016 .

[53]  Yong Liu.  Word of Mouth for Movies: Its Dynamics and Impact on Box Office Revenue , 2006 .

[54]  Jan Kietzmann,et al.  A great place to work!?: Understanding crowdsourced employer branding , 2017 .

[55]  Jan H. Kietzmann,et al.  How employees engage with B2B brands on social media: Word choice and verbal tone , 2017, Industrial Marketing Management.

[56]  Andreas Munzel.  Assisting consumers in detecting fake reviews: The role of identity information disclosure and consensus , 2016 .

[57]  James R. Van Scotter,et al.  RECRUITMENT COMMUNICATION MEDIA: IMPACT ON PREHIRE OUTCOMES , 2004 .

[58]  Anna S. Mattila,et al.  The power of explanations in mitigating the ill‐effects of service failures , 2006 .

[59]  C. Russell,et al.  From apathy to ambivalence: How is persuasion knowledge reflected in consumers' comments about in-game advertising? , 2012 .

[60]  G. Walsh,et al.  Perceived External Reputation as a Driver of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Replication and Extension , 2015 .

[61]  Wei He,et al.  Is This Opinion Leader's Review Useful? Peripheral Cues for Online Review Helpfulness , 2014 .

[62]  Phoebe C. Ellsworth,et al.  Questions and comparisons: Methods of research in social psychology , 2003 .

[63]  J. Chiou,et al.  How Much can you Trust Online Information? Cues for Perceived Trustworthiness of Consumer-generated Online Information , 2011 .

[64]  Angelika Dimoka,et al.  The Nature and Role of Feedback Text Comments in Online Marketplaces: Implications for Trust Building, Price Premiums, and Seller Differentiation , 2006, Inf. Syst. Res..

[65]  S. Ullrich,et al.  Negative online consumer reviews: effects of different responses , 2015 .

[66]  Danilo C. Dantas,et al.  Watch Your Tone: How a Brand's Tone of Voice on Social Media Influences Consumer Responses , 2018 .

[67]  T. Gruca,et al.  Industrial Pricing: Theory and Managerial Practice , 1999 .

[68]  A. Olafsen,et al.  Employer branding: employer attractiveness and the use of social media , 2013 .

[69]  Dina Mayzlin,et al.  Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation , 2012 .

[70]  Andreas Munzel,et al.  Delight the experts, but never dissatisfy your customers! A multi-category study on the effects of online review source on intention to buy a new product , 2016 .

[71]  Victoria D. Bush,et al.  What We Know and Don't Know about Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature , 2014 .

[72]  Fernando R. Jiménez,et al.  Too Popular to Ignore: The Influence of Online Reviews on Purchase Intentions of Search and Experience Products , 2013 .

[73]  Mark Harcourt,et al.  Online social networks: an emergent recruiter tool for attracting and screening , 2013 .

[74]  Ray L. Benedicktus.  The effects of 3rd party consensus information on service expectations and online trust , 2011 .

[75]  Richard P. Bagozzi,et al.  Specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models , 2012 .

[76]  R. Goldsmith,et al.  Measuring Motivations for Online Opinion Seeking , 2006 .

[77]  Debora Jeske,et al.  Changing Role of Social Media at Work: Implications for Recruitment and Selection , 2017 .

[78]  P. Bobko,et al.  Social Media in Employee-Selection-Related Decisions , 2016 .

[79]  Ceridwyn King,et al.  Building and measuring employee‐based brand equity , 2010 .

[80]  Patrick De Pelsmacker,et al.  “We(b)care”: How review set balance moderates the appropriate response strategy to negative online reviews , 2015 .

[81]  P. Berthon,et al.  Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy , 2012 .

[82]  James H. Steiger,et al.  Understanding the limitations of global fit assessment in structural equation modeling , 2007 .

[83]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[84]  R. Bies,et al.  Social Accounts in Conflict Situations: Using Explanations to Manage Conflict , 1993 .

[85]  Charles J. Fombrun,et al.  Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image , 1996 .

[86]  Ben Jann,et al.  Reputation Formation and the Evolution of Cooperation in Anonymous Online Markets , 2014 .

[87]  Filip Lievens,et al.  Measuring Attraction to Organizations , 2003 .