Measuring online reviewer efficiency and ranking: A DEA based approach

Online reviewers are site users who share their opinion & experience over the internet and influence the perception & purchasing intentions of potential customers. Therefore, considerable attention is needed to identify credible and trustworthy online reviewers. For marketing through electronic-word-of-mouth (eWOM), it is important to find those online reviewers who have the potential to spread the product image efficiently and can positively influence the buying intention of potential customers. In this paper, we develop an innovative model based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) to identify good quality reviewers that have a commendable impact on readers or potential customers, by considering the determinants related to credibility, trustworthiness, expertise, travel experience, and identity disclosure of online reviewers as inputs/outputs in the DEA-based models. We have also ranked the reviewers using the balance index (BI) based technique. The results of this paper will aid the e-marketers to understand the variables related to reviewers which help them in finding the highly influential reviewers available on their website. The managerial and theoretical implications are also discussed for the practitioners, business managers, and researchers in the e-service sector.