Exploring the distribution regularities of user attention and sentiment toward product aspects in online reviews

Abstract

Purpose

To better understand the online reviews and help potential consumers, businessmen and product manufacturers effectively obtain users’ evaluation on product aspects, this paper aims to explore the distribution regularities of users’ attention and sentiment on product aspects from the temporal perspective of online reviews.

Design/methodology/approach

Temporal characteristics of online reviews (purchase time, review time and time intervals between purchase time and review time), similar attributes clustering and attribute-level sentiment computing technologies are used based on more than 340k smartphone reviews of three products from JD.COM (a famous online shopping platform in China) to explore the distribution regularities of users’ attention and sentiment on product aspects in this paper.

Findings

The empirical results show that a power-law distribution can fit users’ attention on product aspects, and the reviews posted in short time intervals contain more product aspects. Besides, the results show that the values of users’ sentiment on product aspects are significantly higher/lower in short time intervals which contribute to judging the advantages and weaknesses of a product.

Research limitations/implications

This paper cannot acquire online reviews for more products with temporal characteristics to verify the findings because of the restriction on reviews crawling by the shopping platforms.

Originality/value

This work reveals the distribution regularities of users’ attention and sentiment on product aspects, which is of great significance in assisting decision-making, optimizing review presentation and improving the shopping experience.

Citation

Qin, C., Zhang, C. and Bu, Y. (2021), "Exploring the distribution regularities of user attention and sentiment toward product aspects in online reviews", The Electronic Library, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp. 615-638. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-11-2020-0324