Knowledge extraction by integrating emojis with text from online reviews
Authors: Lin Kuoyi , Kan Xiaoyang , Liu Meilian 
Published: July 2024

Purpose

This study develops and validates an innovative approach for extracting knowledge from online user reviews by integrating textual content and emojis. Recognizing the pivotal role emojis play in enhancing the expressiveness and emotional depth of digital communication, this study aims to address the significant gap in existing sentiment analysis models, which have largely overlooked the contribution of emojis in interpreting user preferences and sentiments. By constructing a comprehensive model that synergizes emotional and semantic information conveyed through emojis and text, this study seeks to provide a more nuanced understanding of user preferences, thereby enhancing the accuracy and depth of knowledge extraction from online reviews. The goal is to offer a robust framework that enables more effective and empathetic engagement with user-generated content on digital platforms, paving the way for improved service delivery, product development and customer satisfaction through informed insights into consumer behavior and sentiments.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a structured methodology to integrate and analyze text and emojis from online reviews for effective knowledge extraction, focusing on user preferences and sentiments. This methodology consists of four key stages. First, this study leverages high-frequency noun analysis to identify and extract product attributes mentioned in online user reviews. By focusing on nouns that appear frequently, the authors can systematically discern the primary features or aspects of products that users discuss, thereby providing a foundation for a more detailed sentiment and preference analysis. Second, a foundational sentiment dictionary is established that incorporates sentiment-bearing words, intensifiers and negation terms to analyze the textual part of the reviews. This dictionary is used to assign sentiment scores to phrases and sentences within reviews, allowing the quantification of textual sentiments based on the presence and combination of these predefined lexical items. Third, an emoticon sentiment dictionary is developed to address the emotional content conveyed through emojis. This dictionary categorizes emojis based on their associated sentiments, thus enabling the quantification of emotional expressions in reviews. The sentiment scores derived from the emojis are then integrated with those from the textual analysis. This integration considers the weights of text- and emoji-based emotions to compute a comprehensive attribute sentiment score that reflects a nuanced understanding of user sentiments and preferences. Finally, the authors conduct an empirical study to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in mining user preferences from online reviews by applying the approach to a data set of online reviews and evaluating its ability to accurately identify product attributes and user sentiments. The validation process assessed the reliability and accuracy of the methodology in extracting meaningful insights from the complex interplay between text and emojis. This study offers a holistic and nuanced framework for knowledge extraction from online reviews, capturing both explicit and implicit sentiments expressed by users through text and emojis. By integrating these elements, this study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of user preferences, contributing to improved consumer insight and strategic decision-making for businesses and researchers.

Findings

The application of the proposed methodology for integrating emojis with text in online reviews yields significant findings that underscore the feasibility and value of extracting realistic user knowledge to gain insights from user-generated content. The analysis successfully captured consumer preferences, which are instrumental in informing service decisions and driving innovation. This achievement is largely attributed to the development and utilization of a comprehensive emotion-sentiment dictionary tailored to interpret the complex interplay between textual and emoji-based expressions in online reviews. By implementing a sentiment calculation model that intricately combines textual sentiment analysis with emoji sentiment analysis, this study was able to accurately determine the final attribute emotion for various product features discussed in the reviews. This model effectively characterized the emotional knowledge of online users and provided a nuanced understanding of their sentiments and preferences. The emotional knowledge extracted is not only quantifiable but also rich in context, offering deeper insights into consumer behavior and attitudes. Furthermore, a case analysis is conducted to rigorously test the validity of the proposed model in a real-world scenario. This practical examination revealed that the model is not only capable of accurately extracting and analyzing user preferences but is also adaptable to different contexts and product categories. The case analysis highlights the robustness and flexibility of the model, demonstrating its potential to enhance the precision of knowledge extraction processes significantly. Overall, the results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach in integrating text and emojis for comprehensive knowledge extraction from online reviews. The findings validate the model’s capability to offer actionable insights into consumer preferences, thereby supporting more informed and strategic decision-making by businesses. This study contributes to the broader field of sentiment analysis by showcasing the untapped potential of emojis as valuable indicators of user sentiments, opening new avenues for research and applications in digital marketing and consumer behavior analysis.

Originality/value

This study introduces a pioneering approach to extract knowledge from Web user interactions, notably through the integration of online reviews that incorporate both textual content and emoticons. This innovative methodology stands out because it holistically considers the dual channels of communication, text and emojis, to comprehensively mine Web user preferences. The key contribution of this study lies in its novel insights into the extraction of consumer preferences, advancing beyond traditional text-based analysis to embrace nuanced expressions conveyed through emoticons. The originality of this study is underpinned by its acknowledgment of emoticons as a significant and untapped source of sentiment and preference indicators in online reviews. By effectively merging emoticon analysis and emoji emotion scoring with textual sentiment analysis, this study enriches the understanding of Web user preferences and enhances the accuracy and depth of consumer preference insights. This dual-analysis approach represents a significant leap forward in sentiment analysis, setting a new standard for how digital communication can be leveraged to derive meaningful insights into consumer behavior. Furthermore, the results have practical implications to businesses and marketers. The insights gained from this integrated analytical approach offer a more granular and emotionally nuanced view of customer feedback, which can inform more effective marketing strategies, product development and customer service practices. By pioneering this comprehensive method of knowledge extraction, this study paves the way for future research and practice to interpret and respond more accurately to the complex landscape of online consumer expressions. This study’s originality and value lie in its innovative method of capturing and analyzing the rich tapestry of Web user communication, offering a ground-breaking perspective on consumer preference extraction that promises to enhance both academic research and practical applications in the digital era.