Product-Centered Language Style in Chinese Women Online Reviews

Abstract

The relationship of language style and online review has drawn increasing academic attention recently as it can provide customers with a guide to make the purchase. Extant research attaches importance to the language style that is presented in the use of function words, instead of product-related content words. This study aimed to examine the language style generated by customers’ comments relating to the product based on content words, that is, product-centered language style (PCLS). We built a corpus of Chinese women clothes online reviews to explore the general picture and distinct features of PCLS and the distinct feature of PCLS. A content-word-centered Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) in terms of product performance is established. PCLS is calculated based on the language style matching (LSM) algorithm. Our results show that the PCLS in women clothes online review is featured by diverse and polarized language styles among three groups of women clothes buyers, and the prioritized arrangement of words of importance contributes to the PCLS. The findings benefit the women clothes industry in which it can help companies quickly find the distinctive and the transition of PCLS and offer an approach for companies to indiscriminately look into the significance of the product category from the linguistic perspective, which can help with product sale strategy and product design.

The influence of firm’s feedbacks on user-generated content’s linguistic style matching–An explanation based on communication accommodation theory

“…Linguistic style matching, which measures the degree of integration or synchronization between communication partners (Ireland and Pennebaker, 2010), is an algorithm developed mainly to calculate textual cohesiveness based on a computer-aided automated TA of words (Tausczik and Pennebaker, 2010;Wang et al, 2022) and a pivotal point for understanding communication conformity. It refers to the 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.949968 degree of similarity in the linguistic styles of the two parties in a communication process.…”

“…For example, the online reviews' sentiment affects the degree of synchrony of expressed texts made by recipients (Yin et al, 2016). Wang et al (2022) found that the prioritized arrangement of words of importance contributes to the productcentered language style, an indicator calculated based on the LSM algorithm. However, current studies do not answer what firms can do to influence the LSM in the VBCs setting.…”

“…Only a few scholars have begun exploring the attendance of UGC in such communities (e.g., Yao et al, 2021). Furthermore, given the importance of common language style in the online environment (Wang et al, 2022), this paper focuses on how to drive convergence between users and firms in terms of linguistic style, enriching the theoretical research on VBCs.…”

“…Based on topic modeling and linguistic styles, Xiang et al (2022) explored the reasons for producing various topics when posting in VBCs and proposed the concept of users' variety-producing behaviors. Wang et al (2022) explored the corpus of the product-centered language style of female consumers in China. From these initial efforts, it is clear that academia intends to detail the antecedents of LSM between participators in the online conversations that synchronize that specific way of expression.…”

“…Existing literature on communication accommodation theory has demonstrated that people would automatically mimic others' linguistic or verbal styles during the communication process (Gnisci, 2005). Like face-to-face communication, individuals also experience online virtual interactions (Wang et al, 2022) while posting and replying. Especially in VBCs, users share strong connections to the brand, and the firm's feedback exerts great influence on users' following content (Piezunka and Dahlander, 2019).…”