Attribute Sentiment Scoring with Online Text Reviews: Accounting for Language Structure and Missing Attributes

Abstract

The authors address two significant challenges in using online text reviews to obtain fine-grained, attribute-level sentiment ratings. First, in contrast to methods that rely on word frequency, they develop a deep learning convolutional–long short-term memory hybrid model to account for language structure. The convolutional layer accounts for spatial structure (adjacent word groups or phrases), and long short-term memory accounts for the sequential structure of language (sentiment distributed and modified across nonadjacent phrases). Second, they address the problem of missing attributes in text when constructing attribute sentiment scores, as reviewers write about only a subset of attributes and remain silent on others. They develop a model-based imputation strategy using a structural model of heterogeneous rating behavior. Using Yelp restaurant review data, they show superior attribute sentiment scoring accuracy with their model. They identify three reviewer segments with different motivations: status seeking, altruism/want voice, and need to vent/praise. Surprisingly, attribute mentions in reviews are driven by the need to inform and vent/praise rather than by attribute importance. The heterogeneous model-based imputation performs better than other common imputations and, importantly, leads to managerially significant corrections in restaurant attribute ratings. More broadly, the results suggest that social science research should pay more attention to reducing measurement error in variables constructed from text.