What happens when word of mouth goes mobile?

Individuals are likely to exhibit different behaviors between mobile and non-mobile devices, for a number of reasons. For example, mobile devices enable ubiquitous access, through their portability, yet they also constrain users because of the smaller form factor. Very little work to date has attempted to examine the impact of these differences holistically. Indeed, the work that does exist has generally focused on approaches to location-based advertising. One particularly important aspect of mobile usage behavior pertains to user content generation. Bearing this in mind, we aim here to improve our understanding of device-dependent user behavior by examining differences in content generated on mobile and non-mobile devices, in the context of electronic word of mouth. We demonstrate a variety of important differences in reviews that are submitted via mobile devices; they exhibit lower and more varied star ratings, contain more concrete and emotional text, and are generally perceived as more helpful. We discuss the implications for both service providers and the management of online review platforms.