Making sense of text: artificial intelligence-enabled content analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce, apply and compare how artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically the IBM Watson system, can be used for content analysis in marketing research relative to manual and computer-aided (non-AI) approaches to content analysis. Design/methodology/appr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of marketing 2020-03, Vol.54 (3), p.615-644
Main Authors: Lee, Linda W, Dabirian, Amir, McCarthy, Ian P, Kietzmann, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial intelligence
Automation
Complaints
Content analysis
Efficiency
IBM Watson
Leadership
Marketing
Qualitative research
Research methods
Researchers
Speeches
Text analysis
Topic modeling
User generated content
Validity
Websites
Women
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Summary:Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce, apply and compare how artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically the IBM Watson system, can be used for content analysis in marketing research relative to manual and computer-aided (non-AI) approaches to content analysis. Design/methodology/approach To illustrate the use of AI-enabled content analysis, this paper examines the text of leadership speeches, content related to organizational brand. The process and results of using AI are compared to manual and computer-aided approaches by using three performance factors for content analysis: reliability, validity and efficiency. Findings Relative to manual and computer-aided approaches, AI-enabled content analysis provides clear advantages with high reliability, high validity and moderate efficiency. Research limitations/implications This paper offers three contributions. First, it highlights the continued importance of the content analysis research method, particularly with the explosive growth of natural language-based user-generated content. Second, it provides a road map of how to use AI-enabled content analysis. Third, it applies and compares AI-enabled content analysis to manual and computer-aided, using leadership speeches. Practical implications For each of the three approaches, nine steps are outlined and described to allow for replicability of this study. The advantages and disadvantages of using AI for content analysis are discussed. Together these are intended to motivate and guide researchers to apply and develop AI-enabled content analysis for research in marketing and other disciplines. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to introduce, apply and compare how AI can be used for content analysis.
ISSN:0309-0566
1758-7123
1758-7123
DOI:10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0219