The effect of online reviews on product sales: A joint sentiment-topic analysis

Xiaolin Li, Chaojiang Wu, Feng Mai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

248 Scopus citations

Abstract

This research examines the business impact of online reviews. It empirically investigates the influence of numerical and textual reviews on product sales performance. We use a Joint Sentiment-Topic model to extract the topics and associated sentiments in review texts. We further propose that numerical rating mediates the effects of textual sentiments. Findings not only contribute to the knowledge of how eWOM impacts product sales, but also illustrate how numerical rating and textual reviews interplay while shaping product sales. In practice, the findings help online vendors strategize business analytics operations by focusing on more relevant aspects that ultimately drive sales.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)172-184
Number of pages13
JournalInformation and Management
Volume56
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2019

Keywords

  • Electronic word-of-mouth
  • JST
  • Joint sentiment-topic analysis
  • Mediation analysis
  • Product reviews
  • Sales
  • Star rating
  • Textual sentiment
  • Topical sentiment
  • eWOM

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