Structural and Temporal Topic Models of Feedbacks on Service Quality – A Path to Theory Development?

There is growing interest in applying computational methods in analysing large amount of data without sacrificing rigour in Information Systems research. In this paper, we demonstrate how the use of structural and temporal topic modelling can be employed to produce insights of both theoretical and practical importance from the analysis of textual comments on the quality of services in hospitals. As a first step, we revealed the thematic structures in the comments as topics which were aligned with the SERVQUAL dimensions. Following this, we established the temporal precedence among SERVQUAL factors based on the evolution of the topics over time. Theoretically, our findings were consistent with the emerging consensus on the nature of SERVQUAL dimensions from extant quantitative research and offer new propositions on the relationships among these dimensions. From the practice perspective, we produced quantified measures of factors associated with healthcare service experienc