A Case of Mobile App Reviews as a Crowdsource

Abstract

Abstract-Crowdsourcing is a famous technique to get innovative ideas and soliciting contribution from a large online community particularly in e-business. This technique is contributing towards changing the current business techniques and practices. It is also equally famous in analysis and design of m-business services. Mobile app stores are providing an opportunity for its users' to participate and contribute in the growth of mobile app market. App reviews given by users usually contain active, heterogeneous and real life user experience of mobile app which can be useful to improve the quality of app. Best to our knowledge, the strength of mobile app reviews as a crowdsource is not fully recognized and understood by the community yet. In this paper, we have analysed a crowdsourcing reference model to find out which features of crowdsource are present and are related to our case of mobile app reviews as a crowdsource. We have analyzed and discussed each construct of the reference model from the perspective of mobile app reviews. Moreover, app reviews as a crowdsourcing technique is discussed by utilizing the four pillars of the reference model: the crowd, the crowdsourcer, the crowdsourcing, and the crowdsourcing platform. We have also identified and partially validated certain constructs of the model and highlighted the significance of app reviews as a crowdsource based on existing literature. In this study, only one crowdsourcing reference model is used which can be a limitation of our study. The study can be further investigated and compared with other crowdsourcing reference models to get better insights of app reviews as a crowdsource. We believe that the understanding of app reviews as a crowdsourcing technique can lead to the further development of the mobile app market and can open further research opportunities.

A Survey of App Store Analysis for Software Engineering

“…The system focuses on the steps to reproduce a bug, using dynamic analysis to walk through Android system events. Khalid et al [119] argued that app store reviews can be used for "crowdsourcing" [150]. They argued that users are inadvertently performing crowdsourcing when they review apps, solving the following problems: requests for potential features, suggestions for developer action, recommendations for other users, and issue reporting.…”

Analysing app reviews for software engineering: a systematic literature review

“…Software engineers strive continuously to satisfy user needs and keep their app product competitive in the market (AlSubaihin et al 2019). To this end, they can exploit approaches facilitating problem and modification analysis (Fu et al 2013;Khalid 2013;Cen et al 2014;Gomez et al 2015;Panichella et al 2015;Palomba et al 2015;Khalid et al 2015;Khalid et al 2015b;Vu et al 2016;Di Sorbo et al 2016;Iacob et al 2016;Wei et al 2017;Licorish et al 2017;Johann et al 2017;Bakiu and Guzman 2017;Deocadez et al 2017b;Palomba et al 2017;Malik et al 2018;Gao et al 2018b;Muñoz et al 2018;Palomba et al 2018;Pelloni et al 2018;Tong et al 2018;Dalpiaz and Parente 2019;Phetrungnapha and Senivongse 2019;Shah et al 2019c;AlSubaihin et al 2019;Li et al 2020;Hadi and Fard 2020;Zhou et al 2020). The approaches detect user requests in app store feedback and classify them as problem reports and modifications requests (Zhou et al 2020).…”

Open Innovation in Digital Healthcare: Users’ Discrimination between Certified and Non-Certified mHealth Applications

“…Thus, app reviews given by users usually contain active, heterogeneous and real life user experience of mobile app which can be useful to improve the quality of app [32,45]. The participation of the users, through the online reviews, allows obtaining very valuable information from the user regarding the application: what is wrong, what could be improved, what is missing, what is left over, etc.…”