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Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Conformity

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Full-Text Articles in Business

Online Review Solicitations Reduce Extremity Bias In Online Review Distributions And Increase Their Representativeness, Hülya Karaman Jul 2021

Online Review Solicitations Reduce Extremity Bias In Online Review Distributions And Increase Their Representativeness, Hülya Karaman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Representative online customer reviews are critical to the effective functioning of the Internet economy. In this study, I investigate the representativeness of online review distributions to examine how extremity bias and conformity impact it, and explore whether online review solicitations alter representativeness. Past research on extreme distribution of online ratings commonly relied solely on observed public online ratings. One strength of the current paper is that I observe the private satisfaction ratings of customers regardless of whether they choose to write an online review or not. I show that both extremity bias and conformity exist in unsolicited online word-of-mouth (WOM) …


Impact Of Culture On The Pursuit Of Beauty: Evidence From Five Countries, Shilpa Madan, Shankha Basu, Ng Lim, Elison Ai Ching Lim Dec 2018

Impact Of Culture On The Pursuit Of Beauty: Evidence From Five Countries, Shilpa Madan, Shankha Basu, Ng Lim, Elison Ai Ching Lim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Human beings have always coveted beautiful objects, but the desire to look good is reaching new heights worldwide. Although the pursuit of beauty appears universal, industry evidence suggests that it is particularly strong in Asia. This research examines the effect of culture on the pursuit of beauty. Three studies provide converging evidence that interdependent self-construal increases the likelihood of using appearance-enhancing products. Study 1 operationalizes culture through nationality and self-construal and shows that Easterners (more interdependent) are more likely to use appearance-enhancing products than Westerners (less interdependent). This use is driven by interdependents’ tendency to conform to societal norms, which …