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User-generated content (UGC) represents a significant area of study due to its profound impact on consumer behavior and business strategies in the digital age. I work on research that contribute to some of the important trust and safety-based policy discussions around content moderation strategies, fraud, addiction, and misbehavior on the Internet that can negatively impact users' lives both online and offline.
In this stream of work, I also study how UGC can positively impact businesses and society, when they rely on the wisdom of the crowd. My work shows businesses can leverage the wisdom of the crowd to improve their processes in terms of quality control, inventory estimation etc. My work also shows how platforms can learn from how people review products and use the information in designing inclusive products, which can increase the visibility of under-represented minority owners, or create a safe environment for plus-sized users.
UGC: Business Implications and Inclusive platform design
UGC: Business Implications and Inclusive platform design
UGC in the form of online reviews have become a primary source of information for consumers. Consumers frequently consult reviews before making purchasing decisions, effectively leveraging the collective experiences and opinions of other users. Understanding how consumers utilize and are influenced by these reviews is crucial for businesses and this can in turn have societal impacts, both in the production and consumption of online reviews. Online reviews provide valuable feedback for businesses. They offer direct insight into customer satisfaction, product performance, and service quality. Analyzing UGC allows businesses to identify areas for improvement, address customer concerns, and refine their offerings to better meet market demands. Further, it provides platforms opportunities to create inclusive platforms. I also study UGC in the form of crowd-sourcing ideas and how businesses can leverage the wisdom of the crowd in inventory decisions.
I use state-of-the-art natural language processing methods on large, unstructured data from UGC and combine econometric methods and lab-experiments to study important to uncover consumer behavior patterns, identify emerging trends,and provide actionable insights for businesses and digital platforms.
Here are a few of my papers on this aspect of UGC
Published/Publication Process
Published/Publication Process
I Hear You: Does Quality Improve with Customer Voice? (link) : Uttara M Ananthakrishnan, Davide Proserpio, and Siddhartha Sharma - Marketing Science (April 2023)
A Tangled web: Evaluating the Impact of Displaying Fraudulent reviews (link), Uttara M. Ananthakrishnan, Beibei Li, Michael D. Smith - Information Systems Research (June 2020)
Political Consumerism via Product Attributes: An Empirical Analysis of Black-Owned Business Reviews on Yelp.com (link), Uttara M Ananthakrishnan, Xingchen (Cedric) Xu, Maria Mitkina, and Yong Tan - Minor Revision, Management Science
Be the Buyer -- Leveraging the Wisdom of the Crowd in E-Commerce Operations (link): Leela Nageswaran, Rain Kan, Uttara M Ananthakrishnan- Third Round Review, Management Science
One Size Fits All? Informational Accessibility and Inclusivity in Online Reviews (link), Yu Kan, Ye Liu, Uttara M Ananthakrishnan, and Yong Tan - Major Revision, Management Science
Work in Progress
Work in Progress
Now You See Me: How Streaming Platforms Enable Diversity in Movies - Naveen Basavaraj (CMU), Uttara M Ananthakrishnan (CMU), Beibei Li (CMU) Michael D. Smith (CMU) - Preparing to submit to Management Science
Weathering the the Review Storm: Impact of Politicization of UGC on Businesses: Uttara M. Ananthakrishnan, Ananya Sen, Naveen Basavaraj
Trust and Safety
Trust and Safety
In this stream of work, I analyze UGC from the lens of trust and safety issues that appear in digital platforms and what platforms can do to mitigate these issues. This part of my work is heavily inspired by my time at Google where I have seen, first hand, the sheer amount of engineering effort that goes in to keeping digital platforms safe and yet, how difficult it is for platforms to enforce policies.
I study trust and safety issues such as hate speech, infrastructural deplatforming, and made for advertisements.
Here are a few of my papers on this aspect of UGC
Published/Publication Process
Published/Publication Process
Deplatforming and the Control of Misinformation (link): Saharsh Agarwal (ISB), Uttara M Ananthakrishnan (CMU), Catherine Tucker (MIT) - Revising for Second Round Review, Information Systems Research (2020),
The Drivers and Virality of Hate Speech Online (link): Uttara M Ananthakrishnan (CMU), Catherine Tucker (MIT) - Preparing to submit to JMR
Work in Progress
Work in Progress
Digital Junk and Made For Ads: Uttara M Ananthakrishnan (CMU), Naveen Basavaraj (CMU), Ananya Sen (CMU) and Vineeth Loganathan (Thumbtack)
Weathering the the Review Storm: Impact of Politicization of UGC on Businesses: Naveen Basavaraj (CMU), Uttara M. Ananthakrishnan (CMU), Ananya Sen (CMU)
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