Evaluating Developer Responses to App Reviews: The Case of Mobile Banking Apps in Saudi Arabia and the United States

Application stores (app stores) enable developers to interact with users by responding to their reviews. Many developers continuously monitor user reviews and seek to respond to them effectively and efficiently to boost user satisfaction, which in the end increases the app's rating. Thus, it is essential to study developer responses and how to improve them. This research was aimed at evaluating developer responses to user reviews in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the banking domain. Ten Saudi and ten United States (U.S.) bank apps were selected from each store as the sample. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to code and categorize developer responses for each app using content analysis. The study found that developers' responses can be divided into three types of interaction: interactive response, semi-interactive response, and no response. A main finding is that responses by U.S. bank app developers outperformed those by Saudi bank app developers in terms of the number and quality of responses. This research provides valuable recommendations for users, developers, and app stores to enhance user-developer interaction.

Automated summary

App stores enable developers to respond to user reviews, and this research evaluates developer responses in the banking domain in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The study found that U.S. bank app developers outperformed Saudi bank app developers in terms of the number and quality of responses.