  Negative reviews on e-commerce platforms, mainly in the form of texts, are
posted by online consumers to express complaints about unsatisfactory
experiences, providing a proxy of big data for sellers to consider
improvements. However, the exact knowledge that lies beyond the negative
reviewing still remains unknown. Aimed at a systemic understanding of how
online consumers post negative reviews, using 1, 450, 000 negative reviews from
JD.com, the largest B2C platform in China, the behavioral patterns from
temporal, perceptional and emotional perspectives are comprehensively explored
in the present study. Massive consumers behind these reviews across four
sectors in the most recent 10 years are further split into five levels to
reveal group discriminations at a fine resolution. Circadian rhythms of
negative reviewing after making purchases were found, and the periodic
intervals suggest stable habits in online consumption and that consumers tend
to negatively review at the same hour of the purchase. Consumers from lower
levels express more intensive negative feelings, especially on product pricing
and seller attitudes, while those from upper levels demonstrate a stronger
momentum of negative emotion. The value of negative reviews from higher-level
consumers is thus unexpectedly highlighted because of less emotionalization and
less biased narration, while the longer-lasting characteristic of these
consumers' negative responses also stresses the need for more attention from
sellers. Our results shed light on implementing distinguished proactive
strategies in different buyer groups to help mitigate the negative impact due
to negative reviews.
