EXPRESS: Finding Important Interdependent Product Features: A Simultaneous Consideration of Price and Quality Features

Abstract

Product feature prioritization guides product managers to identify the most important product features or feature mixes (e.g., consumers’ simultaneous consideration of cleanliness and sleep quality with value for the money in hotel services) out of various features characterizing the product category. In e-commerce, consumers’ online product reviews are a critical source of information detailing their consumption experiences. However, e-commerce consumers usually discuss only a few features in their online reviews. This data structure creates a problem of missing information. We test multiple missing data imputation methods and empirically select the best one for the next step (called feature engineering) to identify important features and feature mixes. In identifying important features, most research has focused on individual features without considering the simultaneous dependencies involving multiple features. Our feature engineering approach considers not only individual features but also a mix of features in product evaluations. Thus, our procedure for feature prioritization allows product managers to identify important feature mixes for existing product improvements and new product development. Our empirical applications involve four product categories (hotels, restaurants, moisturizers, and tablets) examined under various conditions; moreover, they consistently underscore the crucial role of consumers’ value-for-the-money perceptions in selecting and evaluating product quality features.