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.