The present article seeks to identify the reasons why some articles are more cited than others, with a specific focus on the recent and innovative research area of the sharing economy. To determine how characteristics of the research drive citations, we carry out a systematic analysis of articles published from 2012 to 2018 in high-impact social science journals. Comparative analyses were conducted to visualise what features relate to higher citations. The results show that citations vary depending on the approach, field, unit of analysis, and the data analyses used in the research. Our contributions will be useful both for authors when deciding the type of analysis to undertake and the journal to which to send their papers, as well as for editors setting editorial policy.