A method for exploring consumer satisfaction factors using online reviews: A study on anti-cold drugs

Xiangqi Zhao and Zhe Huang

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2024, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Anti-cold drugs prove effective in alleviating cold symptoms and minimizing complications. In recent years, there has been a growing tendency among the public to purchase these drugs online, driven by the prevalence of influenza. Maintaining a high level of consumer satisfaction is crucial for online pharmaceutical platforms. This study introduces a Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method to analyze online reviews from 31,392 consumers at JD Pharmacy. Unlike previous studies, multiple analytical tools are employed jointly to identify factors influencing consumer satisfaction. Four dosage forms of anti-cold drugs (granule, tablet, syrup, and spray) were analyzed using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation Model (LDA). Three tools (topic coherence curve, topic perplexity curve, and pyLDAvis visualization) were jointly applied. Then five satisfaction factors were identified as logistics distribution, drug efficacy, online consultation service, drug prices, and packaging quality. PROMETHEE II method was applied to rank the above factors. The results revealed variations in consumer satisfaction among different drug dosage forms. We conducted a detailed analysis of these distinctions. The results from this study will provide an effective reference to improve consumer satisfaction.

Keywords: Anti-cold drugs; Online reviews; Dirichlet allocation model; Consumer satisfaction; PROMETHEE II (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:81:y:2024:i:c:s0969698924001917

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103895

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