Understanding the relationship between reviews, search and sales: a study of the Indian car market

Purpose While there has been extensive research on understanding the effects of online reviews on product sales, there is not enough investigation of the inter-relationships between online reviews, online search and product sales. The study attempts to address this gap in the context of the Indian car market. Design/methodology/approach The research uses text mining and considers six important review features volume, valence, length, deviation of valence, sentiment and readability within the heuristic and systematic model of information processing. Panel data regression is used along with mediation analysis to study the inter-relationships between features of reviews, online search and sales. Findings The study finds that numerical heuristic features significantly affect sales and online search, numerical systematic feature affects sales and the textual heuristic and systematic features do not affect sales or online search in the Indian car market. Further, online search mediates the association between features of reviews and sales of cars. Research limitations/implications Although only car sales data from India is considered in this research, similar relationships between review features, online search and sales could exist for the car market of other countries as well. Originality/value This research uncovers the unique role of online search as a mediator between review features and sales, whereas prior literature has considered review features and online search as independent variables that affect sales.