Sentiment analysis of consumer reviews – a comparison of organic and regular food products usage

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to compare online review characteristics, review length and review sentiment score between “organic” and “regular” food products. In addition, variations in the consumer sentiment scores across the review lengths are studied.Design/methodology/approachThis study fits into the descriptive research design. From Amazon’s website, the consumer product reviews are scrapped. Using the text analytical package “sentiment” in R-Studio, we computed the sentiment scores and counted the number of words in each review. The mean sentiment scores and mean review length are compared for regular and organic products using one-way ANOVA. Sentiment score variation across review length and product class is studied through factorial ANOVA. Sample reviews of ghee and honey are used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe review length shows a significant difference between the regular and organic products. The mean number of words in the regular products reviews is significantly lower than the mean number of words in the organic product reviews. The regular products’ mean sentiment score is significantly lower than the mean sentiment score of organic products. The mean sentiment scores are not consistent between ghee and honey. Sentiment scores are better for organic honey and regular ghee products. For regular ghee products, longer reviews result in lower sentiment scores. For regular and organic versions of honey, longer reviews are associated with better sentiment scores.Research limitations/implicationsThis study did not include the helpfulness of a review and the demographic data of the reviewers.Practical implicationsSentiment scores’ variations across the regular and organic and product categories such as ghee and honey give a comprehensive feedback to the firms. It also indirectly communicates a brand’s evaluation by the consumers and the performance feedback for an upward extension like the organic category.Social implicationsStudies on organic category give feedback for environment-friendly products and consumer attitude shift towards safer products.Originality/valueVery limited studies have reported the upward line extensions. The authors study the upward line extension organic and associated sentiment scores variation. The role of review length and its systematic influence on the sentiment scores, variations in the review due to the product nature (organic/regular) are unique contributions of this study.