【主讲】Suman Basuroy (University of Oklahoma)
【主题】Has Word-of-mouth Swamped Critical Reviews? Insights from the Motion Picture Industry
【时间】2011年3月16日 (周三) 15：30-17：00
【地点】上海财经大学经济学院楼801室
【语言】英文
【摘要】A number of recent studies show that the volume of word-of-mouth (WOM) about products and services has a significant positive impact on sales. This paper questions this notion. In the context of the motion picture industry, we replicate prior results and indeed find a significant positive impact of WOM volume on revenues. However, we find that the volume of WOM is an endogenous variable. Using IV estimation, with a proper set of instruments, we show that WOM volume is not a significant predictor of weekly box office revenues. However, professional critical reviews remain a significant predictor of box office revenues even in the presence of WOM. We present a few additional non-intuitive findings. Drawing on optimal arousal theory from psychology, we show that the interaction of WOM with dispersion of professional critical reviews exhibits an inverted-U relationship. Our results also contradict the conventional wisdom that platform release strategy creates WOM necessary for movie success.
