Min Zhang: Mining consumer reviews for innovation gold

A soon-to-be published study co-authored by Min Zhang, graduate student in informatics, finds that companies can find ideas for innovative new products in the consumer review sections on e-commerce websites like Amazon. The review sections are essentially free focus groups where consumers can leave ideas for new or improved products, says Weiguo Fan, professor of business analytics in the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business and study co-author. Finding those nuggets of consumer wisdom can be a challenge, though. Few companies have the resources to sift through thousands of comments across dozens of e-commerce sites, only a small number of which offer any kind of information that could be used for product innovation.

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