Posts and reviews in P2P online lending platforms: a sentiment analysis and cross-culture comparison

P2P online lending platforms have been developing rapidly worldwide in recent years. This study seeks to explain platform users’ behaviour in different cultures. Specifically, this research aims to investigate the sentiment polarity of the posts in P2P online lending platforms and how it influences the quantity and quality of user reviews. Over 3000 online posts were collected from large online platforms in China and U.S. The findings indicate that in U.S. P2P online lending platforms, there are more reviews for negative-sentiment posts than those for positive-sentiment posts. In a collective culture such as China, there are more reviews in P2P online lending platforms for positive-sentiment posts, and platform participants tend to post strong sentiment information.

近年来，点对点（Peer-to-Peer, P2P）网络借贷平台在全球范围内发展迅猛。本研究旨在阐释不同文化语境下平台用户的行为规律。具体而言，本研究旨在探究P2P网络借贷平台帖子的情感极性，及其对用户评论的数量与质量产生的影响。本研究从中国与美国的大型网络平台中收集了超过3000条在线帖子。研究结果显示，在美国的P2P网络借贷平台中，负面情感帖子所获得的评论数量多于正面情感帖子；而在以中国为代表的集体主义文化语境中，P2P网络借贷平台的正面情感帖子会获得更多评论，且平台参与者更倾向于发布情感倾向强烈的帖子内容。