What Reviews in Local Online Labour Markets Reveal about the Performance of Multi-Service Providers

This paper deals with online customer reviews of local multi-service providers. While many studies investigate product reviews and online labour markets with service providers delivering intangible products “over the wire”, we focus on websites where providers offer multiple distinct services that can be booked, paid and reviewed online but are performed locally offline. This type of service providers has so far been neglected in the literature. This paper analyses reviews and applies sentiment analysis. It aims to gain new insights into local multi-service providers’ performance. There is a broad literature range presented with regard to the topics addressed. The results show, among other things, that providers with good ratings continue to perform well over time. We find that many positive reviews seem to encourage sales. On average, quantitative star ratings and qualitative ratings in the form of review texts match. Further results are also achieved in this study.