What Happens in Vegas Stays on TripAdvisor? Automatic Assessment of Narrativity and Consumer Responses in Big Data

Consumer online reviews are the most influential form of word of mouth after recommendations from family and friends. What types of reviews receive more positive feedback from consumers reading them? Although prior work provides a valid description of positive feedback on reviews of material purchases, it does not encompass positive feedback on reviews of experiential purchases. We assert that these experience reviews have a narrative structure. To test this assertion, we mined 190,461 reviews of 989 experiences on TripAdvisor, adapted contemporary quantitative techniques, and conducted an automated text analysis. We find that narrative structure elements of (1) identifiable characters, (2) an imaginable plot, and (3) genres, which involve changing emotional story shapes, are associated with more positive feedback. Thus, the narrative structure of experience reviews generates their positive feedback.