Abstract
Online reviews are considered free sales assistance and play an important role in consumers’ purchasing decisions. Most research on the effect of online reviews on product sales has focused on low-involvement products, while research on the offline sales of high-involvement products is scarce. In this study, we collect the monthly sales data of 34 car models from January 2016-January 2020 and the online review data of Autohome’s platform to construct two two-way fixed effects models for analyzing the impact of online reviews on sales of high-involvement products. We also explore whether there is a non-linear relationship between online review valence and product sales, and how the interaction of review valence and volume affects product sales. The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the valence of online reviews and the sales of high-involvement products. Moreover, the volume of online reviews has a significant positive impact on sales of high-involvement products, and an increase in the volume of online reviews boosts product sales. Furthermore, the valence of online reviews negatively moderates the relationship between the volume of online reviews and the sales of high-involvement products. The results of this study may help researchers to more fully understand the impact of online reviews on offline high-involvement product sales and provide guidance for managers to promote offline high-involvement products.
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