Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the difference and connection between the network big data analysis technology and the psychological empirical research method.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzed the data from laboratory setting first, then the online sales data from Taobao.com to explore how the influential factors, such as online reviews (positive vs negative mainly), risk perception (higher vs lower) and product types (experiencing vs searching), interacted on the online purchase intention or online purchase behavior.
Findings
Compared with traditional research methods, such as questionnaire and behavioral experiment, network big data analysis has significant advantages in terms of sample size, data objectivity, timeliness and ecological validity.
Originality/value
Future study may consider the strategy of using complementary methods and combining both data-driven and theory-driven approaches in research design to provide suggestions for the development of e-commence in the era of big data.
Environmental discourse in hotel online reviews: a big data analysis