Abstract: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that highquality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an allround way，and with the theme of promoting highquality development，we will promote the effective improvement of the quality of the economy and the reasonable growth of the quantity，and accelerate the construction of a quality power The determination of product quality involves market incentives When there is an asymmetry of information about product quality between consumers and merchants，merchants may cut corners and reduce product quality However，the relationship between competition and reputation is not consistent with economic theory and empirical research On the one hand，competition can provide consumers with more choices，which can help curb moral hazard behaviors such as cutting corners On the other hand，intense competition reduces merchants profit margins and reputation premiums，which in turn reduces incentives to maintain reputation Based on the above framework，we theoretically investigate the relationship between competition and reputation incentives，ie，how competition affects the size of the key discount factors needed to maintain reputation Theoretical research finds that when the observability of firms is strong and the ability of competitors is weak，and the gap between the two is large enough，competition is more likely to have a positive impact on reputation，that is，firms are more motivated to maintain reputation than in the monopoly situation，and are more likely to invest in highlevel efforts Conversely，competition is more likely to have a negative impact on reputation
Next，we use Ctrips June 2024 domestic hotel crosssectional data sample to validate the theoretical predictions In the hotel accommodation industry，a hotels star rating can be used as an observable ability to represent the quality of the hotel to a certain extent；online ratings represent how well consumers recognize a hotels reputation We refer twostar and below hotels as lowstar hotels，and threestar and above hotels as highstar hotels，with a radius of 1 km as the competition area Consistent with the theoretical prediction，the quantitative regressions show that highstar hotels have more incentives to maintain reputation than lowstar hotels when faced with competition from specific star hotels
The main innovation of this paper is to study the relationship between competition and reputation from a new perspective of competitor ability heterogeneity，and to draw some new conclusions，which can be used to explain the formation of online reputation mechanism and the role of competition in it

Key words: product quality, competition, heterogeneity, reputation

摘要： 本文研究了竞争对体验品线上声誉的影响。体验品是指消费者在购买时无法确认质量、只有在使用之后才能体验到的产品或服务。在平台中介的市场上，为激励商家提供高质量体验品，存在一系列线上声誉机制，包括商家评级（星级/钻级）和消费者评论等。基于此背景，本文构建博弈论模型，分析了产品质量由可观察的商家异质性（星级）和不可观察的商家努力水平共同决定条件下，线上声誉机制的作用机理。理论分析发现当商家自身可观察的星级越高，竞争对声誉越可能产生正面影响，反之则竞争对声誉更可能有负面影响。也就是说，商家面临竞争情况下比垄断情况下更有维持声誉的激励、更可能付出高努力水平。基于携程网酒店评论的大规模微观数据计量分析结果和模型预测一致。

关键词: 产品质量, 竞争, 异质性, 声誉