Management Information Systems Commons^™

Unveiling Paradoxes: The Unforeseen Impact Of Content Moderation Policies In E-Commerce, Brandon Holle, Hang Nguyen, Suman Basuroy

Faculty Scholarship Symposium

In the dynamic digital marketplace, content moderation policies, specifically those addressing 'review bomb' removal, are designed to improve customer experience, nurture consumer trust, and enhance firm performance. However, our comprehensive research, comprising three studies utilizing real-world field data analyzed through regression discontinuity-in-time design and experimental investigations, reveals a surprisingly striking paradox. In contrast to their intended benefits, these policies yield an unexpected adverse impact on user behavior, the e-commerce platform, and listed product performance, resulting in a significant 27.25% drop in total users for products on the e-commerce platform. Drawing from expectancy disconfirmation theory, we uncover the mechanism underpinning this …