Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the marketing literature and practice by examining the effect of product pricing on consumer behaviours with regard to the assertiveness and the sentiments expressed in their product reviews. In addition, the paper uses new data collection and machine learning tools that can also be extended for other research of online consumer reviewing behaviours.

Design/methodology/approach

Using web crawling techniques, a large data set was extracted from the Google Play Store. Following this, the authors created machine learning algorithms to identify topics from product reviews and to quantify assertiveness and sentiments from the review texts.

Findings

The results indicate that product pricing models affect consumer review sentiment, assertiveness and topics. Removing upfront payment obligations positively impacts the overall and pricing specific consumer sentiment and reduces assertiveness.

Research limitations/implications

The results reveal new effects of pricing models on the nature of consumer reviews of products and form a basis for future research. The study was conducted in the gaming category of the Google Play Store and the generalisability of the findings for other app segments or marketplaces should be further tested.

Originality/value

The findings can help companies that create digital products in choosing a pricing strategy for their apps. The paper is the first to investigate how pricing modes affect the nature of online reviews written by consumers.

中文翻译：

---

应用程序定价结构对产品评估的影响

目的

本文的目的是通过检查产品定价对消费者行为的影响，以评估其产品评论中的自信和情感，从而为营销文献和实践做出贡献。此外，本文使用了新的数据收集和机器学习工具，这些工具也可以扩展到在线消费者评论行为的其他研究中。

设计/方法/方法

使用网络抓取技术，从Google Play商店中提取了大数据集。随后，作者创建了机器学习算法，以从产品评论中识别主题，并从评论文本中量化自信和情感。

发现

结果表明，产品定价模型会影响消费者的评论情绪，自信心和主题。取消前期付款义务会对总体和特定价格的消费者情绪产生积极影响，并降低自信。

研究局限/意义

结果揭示了定价模型对消费者对产品的评论性质的新影响，并为将来的研究奠定了基础。该研究是在Google Play商店的游戏类别中进行的，应进一步测试其他应用细分或市场的发现的一般性。

创意/价值

这些发现可以帮助创建数字产品的公司为其应用选择定价策略。该论文是第一个调查定价模式如何影响消费者撰写的在线评论的性质的论文。