Journal Article

What Happens When Evaluation Goes Online? Exploring Apparatuses of Valuation in the Travel Sector

Orlikowski, Wanda J., Scott, Susan V.

2014

Overview

Our research focuses on the fast-changing landscape of contemporary social media where user-generated content is increasingly being used to evaluate a wide range of products and services. The move to online valuations is raising important questions about how valuations change when they are produced online by consumers and what outcomes they generate for the organizations being evaluated. To address these questions, we investigate two prominent hotel valuation schemes currently at work in the hospitality industry, and we identify significant differences in their valuation practices and outcomes. We develop a practice-based lens for examining the materiality of valuations, providing a way of understanding the differences we observed in terms of performativity. This lens explains both how valuations are actively produced in ongoing practice and how their production is significantly reconfiguring everyday practices of the organizations being evaluated. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for research on valuation and organizations.

• Publisher: INFORMS,Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subject: apparatus / Consumers / Customer feedback / Evaluation / Hospitality / Hospitality industries / Hospitality industry / Hotel industry / Hotelkeepers / Hotels / Hotels & motels / Inspection reports / Internet / Materiality / Organizations / Performativity / practice lens / Professional standards / Public relations / Social media / Social networks / Studies / Travel industry / Travelers / User generated content / Valuation / Valuation methods / Websites / Western Europe