Do online consumer reviews help to evaluate the performance of automobile manufacturers?
Journal of Enterprise Information Management
ISSN: 1741-0398
Article publication date: 25 March 2020
Issue publication date: 3 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This research proposes a text analytics–based framework that examines the utility of online customer reviews in evaluating automobile manufacturers and discovering their consumer-perceived weaknesses.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed framework integrates aspect-level sentiment analysis with the house of quality (HoQ), TOPSIS, Pareto chart and fishbone diagram. While sentiment analysis mines and quantifies review-embedded consumer opinions on various automobile attributes, the integrated HoQ-TOPSIS analyzes the quantified opinions and evaluates the manufacturers. The Pareto charts assist in discovering consumer-perceived weaknesses of the underperforming manufacturers. Finally, the fishbone diagram visually represents the results in the form with which the manufacturing community is acquainted.
Findings
The proposed framework is tested on a review data set collected from CarWale, a well-known car portal in India. Selecting five manufacturers from the mid-size car segment, the authors identified the worst-performing one and discovered its weak attributes.
Practical implications
The proposed framework can help the manufacturers in evaluating competitor; identifying consumers' contemporary interests; discovering own and their competitors' weak attributes; assessing the suppliers and sending early warnings; detecting the hazardous defects. It can assist the component suppliers in devising process improvement strategies; improving their customer network; comparing them with competitors. It can support the customers in identifying the best available alternative.
Originality/value
The proposed framework is first of its kind to integrate the sentiment analysis with (1) HoQ-TOPSIS to assess the manufacturers; (2) Pareto chart to discover their weaknesses; (3) fishbone diagram to visually represent the results.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), New Delhi, which has fully sponsored our research. Scheme No: F. NO. 5-5/2014-TS, VII. We are also thankful to the editors and the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript.
Citation
Singh, A., Jenamani, M. and Thakkar, J. (2020), "Do online consumer reviews help to evaluate the performance of automobile manufacturers?", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 1153-1198. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-09-2019-0292
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited