Effects of online review positiveness and review score inconsistency on sales: A comparison by product involvement

This study demonstrates the unique importance of online review positiveness and review score inconsistency in increasing product sales which vary for low and high involvement products. Two different datasets of online consumer reviews of high and low involvement products (i.e., musical instruments and digital music, respectively) and their associated sales ranks were obtained from Amazon.com. To extract sentiments, a document-based sentiment analysis technique was used. The findings reveal that for high involvement products, review text sentiment, review score and review score inconsistency impact product sales, while for low involvement products, review title sentiment, and review score impact product sales.