Welcome to the results site for the research study on ratings and reviews for the business user!
Here you can find the results from the research study. If you are interested in the topic, please contact me by either e-mail or the comment function in the right column.

Presentation of results
Please download a PDF version of the results here.

Abstract of the research study
The purpose of this research is to explore how business users are using online ratings and reviews in an organisational buying context, and what they perceive are the benefits and barriers of the medium/information source. This is an Exploratory research study with focus on the business user, differentiating it to other research which has been consumer focused.

To reach the research objectives and get a broad understanding of the subject, discussions with subject matter experts have been done (within Marketing and Sales, as well as with Web Strategists and Web Practitioners). Existing literature was reviewed on subjects as buying behaviour, organisational purchasing, internet and its impact on business, risk and trust in communication and relationships, Word-of-Mouth, and online ratings and reviews. This was then followed by an online self-administered questionnaire to collect primary data. The data was collected March thru May 2008 during which time the questionnaire was available for participants online at www.ibm.com/us, /dk, and /se; published in various online discussion forum; included in marketing blogs; and available to US business users when searching for reviews on google.com (through a SEM campaign).

Most importantly, the findings from the study indicates that 93% of the respondents overall consider ratings and reviews for business users as Valuable or Very valuable. Other findings includes that compared to other online information sources, ratings and reviews are highly rated as both reliable and trustworthy; is seen as the most mature user-generated medium; and is predominantly used in new-buy situations. Experience to ratings and reviews are greater by those respondents who in their job roles participate in researching and evaluating new products or services, and the medium is reported by a majority of the respondents to have influenced purchase decisions at some point. The perceived benefits are the following; in looking for hands-on experience and transference; in increasing trust, clarity and transparency in the manufacturer; in minimizing uncertainty; and providing information otherwise not available in the marketing text. Some of the barriers reported are that respondents find it hard to know the experience and competence of the reviewer, as well as distrusting if the reviews are authentic.

Future research topics include the issues of distrust in the Speaker and the Speakers competence, and how ratings and reviews are used in the organisation as an influencing force. Some limitations with the research are that the study was performed on mainly IBM customers in USA, Denmark, and Sweden (IT industry). It does not include any depth on the type of organisational purchase the respondents base their experience on, or the Speaker side of ratings and reviews (those writing the reviews, the questionnaire only included 2 questions regarding the Speaker).

There are implications with the expected increase in the development and usage of ratings and reviews in the B2B environment. Companies need to proactively embrace the medium, which will require Practitioners, Marketers, and Managers to better understand how ratings and reviews are used by business users, so successful implementation and adoption can be ensured. If not, there is a risk decisions are made upon the success in the consumer space, in which buying behaviours clearly are different from B2B buying. The value of this paper is therefore in its focus on ratings and reviews for the business user, since most of the available literature and data is consumer focused.