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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Orlikowski, Wanda J.; Scott, Susan V.
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2013.0877
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 868-891
• 关键词: Valuation; Social media; PRACTICE LENS; MATERIALITY; apparatus; PERFORMATIVITY

摘要

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.