eBay’s feedback rating system is currently widely used. In this study, we examine if eBay’s feedback rating types (+, 0, −) are consistent with the sentiments reflected in the textual comments posted by buyers. Using the datasets collected from eBay, we test the hypotheses associated with the research questions at three levels: individual, group, and total. Overall, the types of feedback ratings are consistent with the sentiments embedded in the textual comments. However, there are some issues with eBay’s current feedback rating system: (1) at the individual level, the correlation coefficient between the ratings and the comments’ sentiments is low at 0.4311 (<0.5). While the three types of ratings are symmetric, like (−1, 0, +1), buyers’ textual comments have asymmetric distributions of sentiments among these three types. The three simple feedback ratings (+, 0, −) are not fully aligned with the sentiments revealed in the textual comments posted by buyers. We propose expanding the current three ratings into five ratings such as (−2, −1, 0, +1, +2), which might help remedy the issue. We contribute to the literature by tapping into this less-studied area vital to improving the online marketplace’s efficiency.

中文翻译：

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eBay 的反馈评级与文本评论中嵌入的情感一致吗？实证研究


eBay的反馈评级系统目前被广泛使用。在本研究中，我们检查 eBay 的反馈评级类型（+、0、-）是否与买家发布的文字评论中反映的情绪一致。使用从 eBay 收集的数据集，我们在三个层面测试与研究问题相关的假设：个人、群体和总体。总体而言，反馈评级的类型与文本评论中嵌入的情绪一致。然而，eBay当前的反馈评分系统存在一些问题：（1）在个人层面，评分与评论情绪之间的相关系数较低，为0.4311（<0.5）。虽然这三种类型的评级是对称的，例如（−1,0,+1），但买家的文字评论在这三种类型之间的情绪分布不对称。三个简单的反馈评级（+、0、-）与买家发布的文字评论中所揭示的情绪并不完全一致。我们建议将当前的三个评级扩展到五个评级，例如（−2，−1，0，+1，+2），这可能有助于解决该问题。我们通过利用这个研究较少的领域来为文献做出贡献，这对于提高在线市场的效率至关重要。