Influence of Organizational Form and Customer Type on Online Customer Satisfaction Ratings

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the impact of the organizational form (company‐owned versus franchised) and the type of customer (nonbusiness versus business) on online consumer‐generated satisfaction ratings in the hotel industry. Our empirical study deals with 6, 348 ripdvisor reviews regarding stays at one of 134 hotels of a plural form chain located in a estern uropean country. Our main finding reveals that the type of customer moderates the relationship between organizational form and customer satisfaction; business travelers having higher satisfaction with franchised hotels than company‐owned hotels in terms of satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these findings for the management of plural form chains.