Examining the Usefulness of Customer Reviews for Mobile Applications

In the context of mobile applications (apps), the role of customers has been transformed from mere passive adopters to active co-creators through contribution of user reviews. However, customers might not always possess the required technical expertise to make commercially feasible suggestions. The value of customer reviews also varied due to their unmanageable volume and content irrelevance. In our study, over 189,000 user reviews with over 50 apps would be analyzed using review analysis and multivariate regression analysis to examine the impacts of innovation and improvement led by customers on app performance in terms of app revenues. The developers' lead time in responding to user reviews would be included as a moderator to investigate whether app performance would be enhanced if developers respond faster. This study should represent one of the first few attempts in offering empirical confirmation of the value of co-creation of apps with customers. The authors also present methodological contributions by establishing operationalization and analyses of user reviews.