Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews

Khaled Alanezi; Nuha Albadi; Omar Hammad; Maram Kurdi; Shivakant Mishra

doi:10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664

Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews

Khaled Alanezi, Nuha Albadi, Omar Hammad, Maram Kurdi, Shivakant Mishra

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Online reviews have become essential for users to make informed decisions in everyday tasks ranging from planning summer vacations to purchasing groceries and making financial investments. A key problem in using online reviews is the overabundance of online that overwhelms the users. As a result, recommendation systems for providing helpfulness of reviews are being developed. This paper argues that cultural background is an important feature that impacts the nature of a review written by the user, and must be considered as a feature in assessing the helpfulness of online reviews. The paper provides an in-depth study of differences in online reviews written by users from different cultural backgrounds and how incorporating culture as a feature can lead to better review helpfulness recommendations. In particular, we analyze online reviews originating from two distinct cultural spheres, namely Arabic and Western cultures, for two different products, hotels and books. Our analysis demonstrates that the nature of reviews written by users differs based on their cultural backgrounds and that this difference varies based on the specific product being reviewed. Finally, we have developed six different review helpfulness recommendation models that demonstrate that taking culture into account leads to better recommendations.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022
Editors	Jisun An, Chelmis Charalampos, Walid Magdy
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages	308-315
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	9781665456616
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664
State	Published - 2022
Externally published	Yes
Event	14th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022 - Virtual, Online, Turkey Duration: 10 Nov 2022 → 13 Nov 2022

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022

Conference

Conference	14th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022
Country/Territory	Turkey
City	Virtual, Online
Period	10/11/22 → 13/11/22

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.

Keywords

Online review helpfulness
cultural background
review recommendations

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Artificial Intelligence
Computer Networks and Communications
Information Systems
Information Systems and Management
Communication

Access to Document

10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664

Cite this

Alanezi, K., Albadi, N., Hammad, O., Kurdi, M., & Mishra, S. (2022). Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews. In J. An, C. Charalampos, & W. Magdy (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022 (pp. 308-315). (Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664

Alanezi, Khaled ; Albadi, Nuha ; Hammad, Omar et al. / Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022. editor / Jisun An ; Chelmis Charalampos ; Walid Magdy. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2022. pp. 308-315 (Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022).

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title = "Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews",

abstract = "Online reviews have become essential for users to make informed decisions in everyday tasks ranging from planning summer vacations to purchasing groceries and making financial investments. A key problem in using online reviews is the overabundance of online that overwhelms the users. As a result, recommendation systems for providing helpfulness of reviews are being developed. This paper argues that cultural background is an important feature that impacts the nature of a review written by the user, and must be considered as a feature in assessing the helpfulness of online reviews. The paper provides an in-depth study of differences in online reviews written by users from different cultural backgrounds and how incorporating culture as a feature can lead to better review helpfulness recommendations. In particular, we analyze online reviews originating from two distinct cultural spheres, namely Arabic and Western cultures, for two different products, hotels and books. Our analysis demonstrates that the nature of reviews written by users differs based on their cultural backgrounds and that this difference varies based on the specific product being reviewed. Finally, we have developed six different review helpfulness recommendation models that demonstrate that taking culture into account leads to better recommendations.",

keywords = "Online review helpfulness, cultural background, review recommendations",

author = "Khaled Alanezi and Nuha Albadi and Omar Hammad and Maram Kurdi and Shivakant Mishra",

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year = "2022",

doi = "10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664",

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Alanezi, K, Albadi, N, Hammad, O, Kurdi, M & Mishra, S 2022, Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews. in J An, C Charalampos & W Magdy (eds), Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., pp. 308-315, 14th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022, Virtual, Online, Turkey, 10/11/22. https://doi.org/10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664

Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews. / Alanezi, Khaled; Albadi, Nuha; Hammad, Omar et al.
Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022. ed. / Jisun An; Chelmis Charalampos; Walid Magdy. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2022. p. 308-315 (Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Albadi, Nuha

AU - Hammad, Omar

AU - Kurdi, Maram

AU - Mishra, Shivakant

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Online reviews have become essential for users to make informed decisions in everyday tasks ranging from planning summer vacations to purchasing groceries and making financial investments. A key problem in using online reviews is the overabundance of online that overwhelms the users. As a result, recommendation systems for providing helpfulness of reviews are being developed. This paper argues that cultural background is an important feature that impacts the nature of a review written by the user, and must be considered as a feature in assessing the helpfulness of online reviews. The paper provides an in-depth study of differences in online reviews written by users from different cultural backgrounds and how incorporating culture as a feature can lead to better review helpfulness recommendations. In particular, we analyze online reviews originating from two distinct cultural spheres, namely Arabic and Western cultures, for two different products, hotels and books. Our analysis demonstrates that the nature of reviews written by users differs based on their cultural backgrounds and that this difference varies based on the specific product being reviewed. Finally, we have developed six different review helpfulness recommendation models that demonstrate that taking culture into account leads to better recommendations.

AB - Online reviews have become essential for users to make informed decisions in everyday tasks ranging from planning summer vacations to purchasing groceries and making financial investments. A key problem in using online reviews is the overabundance of online that overwhelms the users. As a result, recommendation systems for providing helpfulness of reviews are being developed. This paper argues that cultural background is an important feature that impacts the nature of a review written by the user, and must be considered as a feature in assessing the helpfulness of online reviews. The paper provides an in-depth study of differences in online reviews written by users from different cultural backgrounds and how incorporating culture as a feature can lead to better review helpfulness recommendations. In particular, we analyze online reviews originating from two distinct cultural spheres, namely Arabic and Western cultures, for two different products, hotels and books. Our analysis demonstrates that the nature of reviews written by users differs based on their cultural backgrounds and that this difference varies based on the specific product being reviewed. Finally, we have developed six different review helpfulness recommendation models that demonstrate that taking culture into account leads to better recommendations.

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Alanezi K, Albadi N, Hammad O, Kurdi M, Mishra S. Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews. In An J, Charalampos C, Magdy W, editors, Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. 2022. p. 308-315. (Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, ASONAM 2022). doi: 10.1109/ASONAM55673.2022.10068664

Understanding the Impact of Culture in Assessing Helpfulness of Online Reviews

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Cite this