Understanding the textual content of online customer reviews in B2C websites: A cross-cultural comparison between the U.S. and China

Understanding the textual content of online customer review (OCR) is very meaningful and previous studies suggested that the cross-cultural differences of OCRs exist. This paper proposes the textual content dimensions of OCRs and compares the differences between Chinese and American cultural contexts by conducting two studies. Based on theoretical analysis, expert advice, and online content analysis, 10 dimensions about the textual content of OCRs were proposed in Study 1, namely, seller trustworthiness, logistics quality, and service quality (seller-related), product functionality, price, product quality, and product aesthetics (product-related), emotional attitudes, recommendation expressions, and attitudinal loyalty (consumer-related). The differences in the proposed 10 dimensions mentioned in OCRs between American and Chinese consumers were statistically compared in Study 2. The data was collected from Amazon.com and Amazon.cn, which included 1565 OCRs of six products. The results show that the Chinese are more likely to mention seller trustworthiness, product functionality, price, product quality, and product aesthetics, while Americans are more likely to mention emotional attitudes and recommendation expressions in OCRs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.