A Qualitative Assessment of Yelp.Com Users’ Motivations to Submit and Read Restaurant Reviews

Anish A. Parikh; Carl Behnke; Doug Nelson; Mihaela Vorvoreanu; Barbara Almanza

doi:10.1080/15428052.2014.952474

A Qualitative Assessment of Yelp.Com Users’ Motivations to Submit and Read Restaurant Reviews

Anish A. Parikh, Carl Behnke, Doug Nelson, Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Barbara Almanza

Hospitality and Tourism

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article presents a thematic analysis of Yelp.com users’ motivations to read and articulate user-generated reviews. This study’s purpose was to identify factors of usage, trust, influence, and contribution of restaurant reviews on Yelp.com. This study found that information search reduction and community membership were the greatest factors encouraging Yelp.com use. Respondents reported trusting Yelp.com due to the community aspects of the website and felt they were able to sort out biased reviews easily. Lastly, the primary reasons for contributing reviews to Yelp.com were altruistic in nature, for example, helping other users make good purchase decisions and rewarding good businesses.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-18
Number of pages	18
Journal	Journal of Culinary Science and Technology
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/15428052.2014.952474
State	Published - 30 Jan 2015

Keywords

E-WOM
Yelp.com
community
motivation
social media
user-generated restaurant reviews

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10.1080/15428052.2014.952474

Cite this

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title = "A Qualitative Assessment of Yelp.Com Users{\textquoteright} Motivations to Submit and Read Restaurant Reviews",

abstract = "This article presents a thematic analysis of Yelp.com users{\textquoteright} motivations to read and articulate user-generated reviews. This study{\textquoteright}s purpose was to identify factors of usage, trust, influence, and contribution of restaurant reviews on Yelp.com. This study found that information search reduction and community membership were the greatest factors encouraging Yelp.com use. Respondents reported trusting Yelp.com due to the community aspects of the website and felt they were able to sort out biased reviews easily. Lastly, the primary reasons for contributing reviews to Yelp.com were altruistic in nature, for example, helping other users make good purchase decisions and rewarding good businesses.",

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A Qualitative Assessment of Yelp.Com Users’ Motivations to Submit and Read Restaurant Reviews

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Keywords

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