Market Segmentation of Online Reviews: A Network Analysis Approach

With the popularity of online reviews, brand managers have opportunities to segment their markets according to the reviews of their products or services by customers. Nonetheless, it has been suggested that traditional market segmentation methods are ineffective at analyzing online review data due to the complex features and large amount of this type of data; specifically, traditional methods fail to take into account the networked nature of interactive relationships among reviewers and brands across online review websites. Accordingly, this study proposes a network analysis approach for the market segmentation of online reviews. Collecting samples from Yelp via web scraping, this study demonstrates how network analysis techniques can be utilized to segment online reviewers through a four-step process. The results reveal the core and peripheral market segments, as well as the bridge segment in the core. The study contributes to offering marketing researchers and managers a new network structure analysis approach for the market segmentation of online reviews.