Ratings Lead You to the Product, Reviews Help you Clinch it? The Dynamics and Impact of Online Review Sentiments on Product Sales
It is generally assumed that ratings are a numeric representation of text sentiments and their valences are consistent. This however may not always be true. Using a panel of data on over 4000 books from Amazon.com, we develop a multiple equation model to examine the inter-relationships between ratin...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/643 |
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| Institution: | Singapore Management University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | It is generally assumed that ratings are a numeric representation of text sentiments and their valences are consistent. This however may not always be true. Using a panel of data on over 4000 books from Amazon.com, we develop a multiple equation model to examine the inter-relationships between ratings, sentiments, and sales. We find that ratings do not have a significant direct impact on sales but have an indirect impact through sentiments. Sentiments, however, have a direct significant impact on sales. Our findings also indicate that the two most accessible types of reviews – most helpful and most recent – play a significant role in determining sales. This suggests that information that is easily accessible and cognitive effort-reducing heuristics play a role in online purchase decisions. This study advances our understanding on the inter-relationship between ratings, sentiments, and sales and sheds insight on the relevance of ratings and sentiments over a sequential decision making process. |
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