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Are numeric ratings true representations of reviews? A study of inconsistency between reviews and ratings

Author

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  • Bidyut Hazarika
  • Kuanchin Chen
  • Muhammad Razi

Abstract

Consistency between review messages and ratings has been an implicit assumption of many product review studies. However, such an assumption has never been critically examined. Our study investigates the consistency between app reviews and their corresponding ratings to uncover insights on the nature of inconsistency and how that inconsistency relates to fee structure (paid or free) and product category. To examine this inconsistency, we collected data from the iTunes store. We used sentiment mining to measure the discrepancy between the review sentiment and the ratings of the app. Our findings show that the assumption of consistency between product ratings and product reviews do not always hold. Findings support the existence of inconsistency, but not for all product categories. As the groups of apps differ in their consistency patterns, future researchers are recommended not to lump all apps together. Doing so, could obscure the distinctive difference among these apps, thereby offering less insight from the collected data.

Suggested Citation

  • Bidyut Hazarika & Kuanchin Chen & Muhammad Razi, 2021. "Are numeric ratings true representations of reviews? A study of inconsistency between reviews and ratings," International Journal of Business Information Systems, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 38(1), pages 85-106.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijbisy:v:38:y:2021:i:1:p:85-106
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ján Mojžiš & Peter Krammer & Marcel Kvassay & Lenka Skovajsová & Ladislav Hluchý, 2022. "Towards Reliable Baselines for Document-Level Sentiment Analysis in the Czech and Slovak Languages," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Henrik Sällberg & Shujun Wang & Emil Numminen, 2023. "The combinatory role of online ratings and reviews in mobile app downloads: an empirical investigation of gaming and productivity apps from their initial app store launch," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(3), pages 426-442, September.
    3. Wenzhi Cao & Xingen Yang & Yi Yang, 2023. "A Large-Scale Reviews-Driven Multi-Criteria Product Ranking Approach Based on User Credibility and Division Mechanism," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-19, July.

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