A Comparative Study of Online Consumer Reviews Among Mainstream and Niche Products

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to understand the variations in the online consumer reviews among product categories across geographies and cultures. We consider the cases of mainstream products and their lesser-known niche counterparts providing similar utilities across emerging and developed markets. We find reviews vary in terms of characteristics and sentiments across the two categories and markets. The reviews for the niches contain in-depth discussions on some topics. We apply mixed method approach of quantitative analysis, topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and network analysis to arrive at the conclusion. The quantitative analyses confirm the variations, while the qualitative approach enables us to create a typology/ontology for the reviews. Based on the observations, we could successfully map various motives and cultural dimensions related to online reviews to our hierarchical typology. Managers may find our study interesting to boost their online review strategy according to the product category in a specific geography.