Abstract
Theories of social exchange and social identity are extensively introduced to explain the motivation to share online. However, the first step to be social or identified in an online community is to have a profile name because online status and reputation should be assigned to an owner. The effect of profile name on online sharing is rarely explored in the literature, which is crucial in understanding the initial impulse of online sharing. We select a unique platform that enables users to use a profile name or remain anonymous and collect 2,109,555 reviews. Two main findings are drawn from our big data analysis. (1) Users who provide profile names are more involved in online sharing: they write longer text and upload more photos in comparison with anonymous users. (2) Users with profile names gain more recognition from peers. This study concludes by presenting the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.
1. Introduction
Hotel booking sites provide beneficial platforms for users to obtain information from peers and post reviews after their experiences (Chan et al., 2017). However, sharing one’s experience online is voluntary and requires effort to write text and upload photos (Liu et al., 2018). What motivates users to share online remains a major research question. Prior studies have drawn on social exchange and social identity theories to explain the motivation to contribute online (Forman et al., 2008; Luo et al., 2017). These motivations include information exchange (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010), self-enhancement (Yoo and Gretzel, 2008), and sense of belonging (Cantallops and Salvi, 2014).
4. Conclusion and implications
We use a dataset of 2,109,555 hotel reviews collected from Ctrip.com in drawing two main findings from our big data analysis. First, users with profile names are more involved in online sharing. That is, they write longer text and upload more photos when posting reviews. Second, users with profile names gain more recognition from peers. These results are robust and consistent across different levels of hotels.
