Title: The use and impact of Goodreads rating and reviews, for readers of Arabic books

Authors: Ahmad Mohammad Alghamdi; Hisham Ihshaish

Addresses: Information Technology Department, Faculty of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, Al-Hawiya, Taif, 21974, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies, Faculty of Environment and Technology (CSCT/FET) – UWE Bristol, Room 2Q18, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK

Abstract: The focus of this research is to assess how the use of Goodreads can influence Arabic readers' selection of books, to study Arabic reviewers' behaviour and to explore the impact of Goodreads' metrics on book sales. Research methodology of the presented work consisted of a wide review of relevant literature, the collection and analysis of data from a questionnaire and a case study on a list of best-selling Arabic books fetched from two book-review platforms; Goodreads.com and Jamalon.com. The findings of the presented study show that Goodreads metrics reveal highly relevant indicators for books' contents, and consequently have a significant impact on Arab's book-purchasing decisions. Furthermore, we observed that Arabic Goodreads users tend to rate books rather than write reviews, and their book evaluation is mostly based on their contents. Primary research results suggest that, with proper analysis applied, Goodreads is an effective book evaluation network/online community for Arabic readers and Arabic book consumers. It is believed that the effectiveness of the studied network is mainly due to the metrics applied, which appear to be matching evaluation criteria as preferred by Arabic readers.

Keywords: Goodreads; online community; book reviews; Arabic book review; Arabic Goodreads; book rating; online bookstore; social network; Arabic lexicon; word-of-mouth recommendations; book sale; review economic impact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2021.117004

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2021 Vol.37 No.4, pp.442 - 466

Received: 01 May 2018
Accepted: 12 Mar 2019
Published online: 11 Aug 2021 *

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