Pub Date : 2023-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2255110
Mengli Li, Li Wan
ABSTRACTDifferent information disclosure formats have been implemented to solve the severe product-return issue in platform retail. Considering the significant impact of channel structure choice on the information disclosure strategy, we explore their interaction by investigating the role of product returns. A multistage sequential game model is built in a supply chain comprising a platform and supplier. First, we derive the equilibrium pricing decisions in the short term and examine the role of product returns. Second, we study the optimal information disclosure strategy and channel structure choice in the long term. We also investigate the impact of the optimal strategy on the entire supply chain’s profits and consumer surplus. The following results were obtained: (1) Under the no information disclosure strategy, the presence of product returns weakens the impact of double marginalization in the wholesale model. Therefore, the information disclosure strategy improves product returns, but aggravates the double marginalization effect. (2) Information disclosure benefits the consumer and supply-chain members who disclose information, but may hurt the entire supply chain due to its negative spillover effect on other supply-chain members. (3) The optimal channel structure choice for the platform depends on the trade-off between these two effects of the information disclosure strategy on product returns. Therefore, platforms and suppliers should reexamine their attitudes toward product returns and be aware that more information is not always better, because of the impact of product returns.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Platform retailinginformation disclosurewholesale modelagency modelproduct returnsonline platformsonline returnschannel structure AcknowledgmentsWe appreciate the editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and thorough comments, which help us to improve our study.Data availability statementTableDownload CSVDisplay TableDisclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. See https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales, accessed on June 29, 2023.2. See https://www.statista.com/statistics/266282/annual-net-revenue-of-amazoncom, accessed on June 29, 2023.Additional informationFundingThis research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant no. 72101041]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant no. 2022M722896]; National Office for Philosophy and Social Science of China [grant no. 21CGL003]; and Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [grant no. KJQN202100606].Notes on contributorsMengli LiMengli Li (limengli@zzu.edu.cn) is a lecturer in the School of Management at Zhengzhou University, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in management from Chongqing University. Dr. Li’s research interests include platform retailing, supply-chain management, and the applications of the game theory.Li Wa
{"title":"The Interaction Between Information Disclosure Strategy and Channel Structure in Platform Retailing: The Role of Product Returns","authors":"Mengli Li, Li Wan","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2255110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2255110","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTDifferent information disclosure formats have been implemented to solve the severe product-return issue in platform retail. Considering the significant impact of channel structure choice on the information disclosure strategy, we explore their interaction by investigating the role of product returns. A multistage sequential game model is built in a supply chain comprising a platform and supplier. First, we derive the equilibrium pricing decisions in the short term and examine the role of product returns. Second, we study the optimal information disclosure strategy and channel structure choice in the long term. We also investigate the impact of the optimal strategy on the entire supply chain’s profits and consumer surplus. The following results were obtained: (1) Under the no information disclosure strategy, the presence of product returns weakens the impact of double marginalization in the wholesale model. Therefore, the information disclosure strategy improves product returns, but aggravates the double marginalization effect. (2) Information disclosure benefits the consumer and supply-chain members who disclose information, but may hurt the entire supply chain due to its negative spillover effect on other supply-chain members. (3) The optimal channel structure choice for the platform depends on the trade-off between these two effects of the information disclosure strategy on product returns. Therefore, platforms and suppliers should reexamine their attitudes toward product returns and be aware that more information is not always better, because of the impact of product returns.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Platform retailinginformation disclosurewholesale modelagency modelproduct returnsonline platformsonline returnschannel structure AcknowledgmentsWe appreciate the editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and thorough comments, which help us to improve our study.Data availability statementTableDownload CSVDisplay TableDisclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. See https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales, accessed on June 29, 2023.2. See https://www.statista.com/statistics/266282/annual-net-revenue-of-amazoncom, accessed on June 29, 2023.Additional informationFundingThis research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant no. 72101041]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant no. 2022M722896]; National Office for Philosophy and Social Science of China [grant no. 21CGL003]; and Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [grant no. KJQN202100606].Notes on contributorsMengli LiMengli Li (limengli@zzu.edu.cn) is a lecturer in the School of Management at Zhengzhou University, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in management from Chongqing University. Dr. Li’s research interests include platform retailing, supply-chain management, and the applications of the game theory.Li Wa","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135947924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-20DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2255109
Yiru Wang, Yilong Zheng, Xun Xu
ABSTRACT Experience sharing is becoming popular as customers increasingly respond to the rapid platform technology development. However, because of format diversity and quality variation, customers refer to multiple information sources before booking. Two of the most important information sources are the hosts’ self-disclosure texts about the experience project and customers’ online reviews. Using natural language processing (NLP) techniques, we analyze the data from Airbnb experience projects. We find that the information discrepancies in hosts’ self-disclosure texts of the experience project and customers’ online reviews, in terms of their focus on the attributes of products and services and the linguistic styles, exist, and these discrepancies affect sales. Hosts elaborate more on the descriptive attributes, whereas customers focus mainly on individual perceptions in their reviews. Customers also write online reviews in a more concise, diverse, and relaxed fashion, conveying positive emotion and a more subjective tone than expressed by hosts’ project descriptions. Additionally, a large topic difference, reflected by customers’ more details about various attributes elaborated in their online reviews compared with the attributes described by the hosts in the project description, increases sales. Further, a larger discrepancy in length and diversity increases sales, whereas a larger discrepancy in subjectivity reduces sales. Compared with the online mode, the in-person mode strengthens the impact of content and linguistic discrepancies on sales. This study’s findings will help hosts and sharing economy platforms use a relative approach to optimize their information provision and exploit the electronic word-of-mouth effect to improve customers’ online purchase intention and behavior.
{"title":"The Impact of Discrepancies between Offerors’ Self-Disclosure and Customers’ Reviews on Online Sales of Experiences in Sharing Economy","authors":"Yiru Wang, Yilong Zheng, Xun Xu","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2255109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2255109","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Experience sharing is becoming popular as customers increasingly respond to the rapid platform technology development. However, because of format diversity and quality variation, customers refer to multiple information sources before booking. Two of the most important information sources are the hosts’ self-disclosure texts about the experience project and customers’ online reviews. Using natural language processing (NLP) techniques, we analyze the data from Airbnb experience projects. We find that the information discrepancies in hosts’ self-disclosure texts of the experience project and customers’ online reviews, in terms of their focus on the attributes of products and services and the linguistic styles, exist, and these discrepancies affect sales. Hosts elaborate more on the descriptive attributes, whereas customers focus mainly on individual perceptions in their reviews. Customers also write online reviews in a more concise, diverse, and relaxed fashion, conveying positive emotion and a more subjective tone than expressed by hosts’ project descriptions. Additionally, a large topic difference, reflected by customers’ more details about various attributes elaborated in their online reviews compared with the attributes described by the hosts in the project description, increases sales. Further, a larger discrepancy in length and diversity increases sales, whereas a larger discrepancy in subjectivity reduces sales. Compared with the online mode, the in-person mode strengthens the impact of content and linguistic discrepancies on sales. This study’s findings will help hosts and sharing economy platforms use a relative approach to optimize their information provision and exploit the electronic word-of-mouth effect to improve customers’ online purchase intention and behavior.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"2016 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136312804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-19DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2255112
Qian Hu, Zhao Pan, Yaobin Lu, Bin Wang
ABSTRACTThe proliferation of social media platforms has empowered social media influencers to trigger impulsive buying behavior among consumers. The effectiveness of social media influencers relies on their ability to establish parasocial relationships with their followers. By leveraging both heterophily and homophily, influencers can cultivate dual parasocial relationships that cater to their followers’ needs for information seeking or affection exchange, thereby influencing impulsive buying. However, little is known about the contribution of dual parasocial relationships to impulsive buying behavior and the competing roles of heterophily (vs. homophily) in fostering different types of parasocial relationships. In line with the two fundamental dimensions of social ties, this study distinguishes between instrumental and expressive parasocial relationships to investigate and compare their effects on impulsive buying behavior. Additionally, we dissect heterophily (vs. homophily) into visible, informational, and value dimensions to investigate their impacts on dual parasocial relationships. The findings reveal that dual parasocial relationships have varying effects on impulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, the three types of heterophily (vs. homophily) exhibit complex and nonlinear impacts on dual parasocial relationships. These insights advance our theoretical understanding of heterophily, homophily, and parasocial relationships in the context of impulsive buying. They also offer practical guidance for social media influencer marketers to develop effective strategies for maintaining relationships with followers, while harnessing the power of both heterophily and homophily.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Social commerceheterophilyhomophilyparasocial relationshipimpulsive buyingonline influencersonline retaile-retailonline followers Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (project no. 72171095) and the National Social Science Fund of China (project no. 22VRC153 and no. 18ZDA109).Notes on contributorsQian HuQIAN HU (huq@wtu.edu.cn) is an assistant professor at the School of Management, Wuhan Textile University, China. Dr. Hu’s research focuses on social commerce, information management, and smart service. Her work has been published in International Journal of Information Management, Internet Research, Behaviour & Information Technology, and other journals.Zhao PanZHAO PAN (victola.pz@gmail.com; corresponding author) is an associate professor in the School of Management at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Pan’s research focuses on smart service, social commerce, and social computing. His work has been published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information & Management, Information Technology & People, International Journal of Information Management, Com
摘要社交媒体平台的激增使得社交媒体影响者能够触发消费者的冲动购买行为。社交媒体影响者的有效性依赖于他们与追随者建立准社会关系的能力。通过利用异性恋和同质性，网红可以培养双重副社会关系，以满足其追随者的信息寻求或情感交流需求，从而影响冲动购买。然而，人们对双重副社会关系对冲动购买行为的贡献以及异性恋(与同质)在培养不同类型副社会关系中的竞争作用知之甚少。根据社会关系的两个基本维度，本研究区分了工具性和表现性副社会关系，以调查和比较它们对冲动购买行为的影响。此外，我们将异性恋(相对于同性)分解为可见、信息和价值维度，以研究它们对双重副社会关系的影响。研究结果表明，双重副社会关系对冲动购买行为有不同的影响。此外，三种类型的异亲性(相对于同质性)对双重副社会关系表现出复杂的非线性影响。这些见解促进了我们对冲动购买背景下的异性恋、同质性和副社会关系的理论理解。他们还为社交媒体影响者营销人员提供了实用的指导，以制定有效的策略来维持与粉丝的关系，同时利用异性恋和同质性的力量。关键词:社交商业异性恋同性关系冲动性购买网络影响者网上零售网上关注者披露声明作者未报告潜在的利益冲突。本研究由国家自然科学基金资助(项目编号:no. 1)。国家社科基金项目(项目编号:72171095);22VRC153和no。18 zda109)。胡倩(huq@wtu.edu.cn)，中国武汉纺织大学管理学院助理教授。主要研究方向为社交商务、信息管理和智能服务。她的研究成果发表在《国际信息管理杂志》、《互联网研究》、《行为与信息技术》等期刊上。赵攀赵攀(victola.pz@gmail.com;通讯作者)，中国华中科技大学管理学院副教授。潘博士的研究重点是智能服务、社交商务和社交计算。他的研究成果发表在《管理信息系统杂志》、《信息与管理》、《信息技术与人》、《国际信息管理杂志》、《计算机与人类行为》等期刊上。卢耀斌(luyb@hust.edu.cn)，华中科技大学管理学院管理科学与信息系统特聘教授。卢博士的研究兴趣包括社交商务、移动商务、商业模式、电子商务等相关课题。王斌(bin.wang@utrgv.edu)，美国德克萨斯大学里奥格兰德谷分校信息系统教授。他在《管理信息系统杂志》、《国际电子商务杂志》、《决策支持系统》、《信息与管理》、《信息技术杂志》、《信息系统杂志》等主要国际期刊上发表了60多篇论文。他的研究重点是社交媒体和社交商务、众筹、电子商务、移动商务、信息技术(IT)采用和IT公司的绩效。她在《Journal of Management Information Systems》、《信息与管理》、《信息系统杂志》等期刊上发表了40多篇论文。
{"title":"Heterophily or Homophily of Social Media Influencers: The Role of Dual Parasocial Relationships in Impulsive Buying","authors":"Qian Hu, Zhao Pan, Yaobin Lu, Bin Wang","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2255112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2255112","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTThe proliferation of social media platforms has empowered social media influencers to trigger impulsive buying behavior among consumers. The effectiveness of social media influencers relies on their ability to establish parasocial relationships with their followers. By leveraging both heterophily and homophily, influencers can cultivate dual parasocial relationships that cater to their followers’ needs for information seeking or affection exchange, thereby influencing impulsive buying. However, little is known about the contribution of dual parasocial relationships to impulsive buying behavior and the competing roles of heterophily (vs. homophily) in fostering different types of parasocial relationships. In line with the two fundamental dimensions of social ties, this study distinguishes between instrumental and expressive parasocial relationships to investigate and compare their effects on impulsive buying behavior. Additionally, we dissect heterophily (vs. homophily) into visible, informational, and value dimensions to investigate their impacts on dual parasocial relationships. The findings reveal that dual parasocial relationships have varying effects on impulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, the three types of heterophily (vs. homophily) exhibit complex and nonlinear impacts on dual parasocial relationships. These insights advance our theoretical understanding of heterophily, homophily, and parasocial relationships in the context of impulsive buying. They also offer practical guidance for social media influencer marketers to develop effective strategies for maintaining relationships with followers, while harnessing the power of both heterophily and homophily.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Social commerceheterophilyhomophilyparasocial relationshipimpulsive buyingonline influencersonline retaile-retailonline followers Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (project no. 72171095) and the National Social Science Fund of China (project no. 22VRC153 and no. 18ZDA109).Notes on contributorsQian HuQIAN HU (huq@wtu.edu.cn) is an assistant professor at the School of Management, Wuhan Textile University, China. Dr. Hu’s research focuses on social commerce, information management, and smart service. Her work has been published in International Journal of Information Management, Internet Research, Behaviour & Information Technology, and other journals.Zhao PanZHAO PAN (victola.pz@gmail.com; corresponding author) is an associate professor in the School of Management at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Dr. Pan’s research focuses on smart service, social commerce, and social computing. His work has been published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information & Management, Information Technology & People, International Journal of Information Management, Com","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135014736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-13DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2255108
Andrew S. Manikas, James R. Kroes, Shaunn Mattingly, Garrett A. McBrayer
This study explores how emphasizing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in item descriptions relates to purchasing decisions for consumers buying goods through online auctions. We leverage herd mentality theory, the heuristic–systematic model (HSM), and signaling theory to develop a framework of how online auctions may be impacted by item descriptions touting CSR. We then utilize text analysis to examine 23,932 auctions and analyze how emphasizing CSR in item descriptions influenced actual purchase opportunities. In this study, we find that including more CSR terminology in an item description increases sales both directly and indirectly, via an increase in the number of bids. These findings can be leveraged by sellers to better promote their products, by using terminology that targets the desire of bidders to experience positive psychosocial and values-affirming sentiments when making purchases.
{"title":"Improving Sales in Online Auctions: The Impact of Emphasizing Corporate Social Responsibility in Item Descriptions","authors":"Andrew S. Manikas, James R. Kroes, Shaunn Mattingly, Garrett A. McBrayer","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2255108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2255108","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores how emphasizing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in item descriptions relates to purchasing decisions for consumers buying goods through online auctions. We leverage herd mentality theory, the heuristic–systematic model (HSM), and signaling theory to develop a framework of how online auctions may be impacted by item descriptions touting CSR. We then utilize text analysis to examine 23,932 auctions and analyze how emphasizing CSR in item descriptions influenced actual purchase opportunities. In this study, we find that including more CSR terminology in an item description increases sales both directly and indirectly, via an increase in the number of bids. These findings can be leveraged by sellers to better promote their products, by using terminology that targets the desire of bidders to experience positive psychosocial and values-affirming sentiments when making purchases.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135741863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2226898
Anshu Suri, Bo Huang, S. Sénécal
ABSTRACT Extant research on social media influencers primarily focuses on the prepurchase stage (i.e., how influencers affect consumers’ purchase intentions), while overlooking the postpurchase stage. In this research, we investigate how the valence of an influencer’s product review can impact consumers’ affective states after a dissatisfactory experience with the product. Specifically, two rival hypotheses, based on Social Contagion theory and cognitive dissonance theory, respectively, are tested to assess whether an influencer’s positive (vs. negative) review about the same product can improve consumers’ affect. Results from automatic facial expression analysis and sentiment analysis show that an influencer’s positive (vs. negative) review leads to an improvement in consumers’ post-failure affect. Reconciling the two theories, the authors show that the improvement in consumers’ post-failure affect is a result of their improved attitude toward the product, following an influencer’s positive review. In addition, findings suggest this effect is moderated by the level of trust in the influencer, as well as the severity of the product failure. The results also show an important managerial outcome: An improvement of consumers’ post-failure affect (i.e., happiness) leads to a decrease in consumers’ willingness to share negative word-of-mouth.
{"title":"This Product Seems Better Now: How Social Media Influencers’ Opinions Impact Consumers’ Post-failure Responses","authors":"Anshu Suri, Bo Huang, S. Sénécal","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2226898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2226898","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Extant research on social media influencers primarily focuses on the prepurchase stage (i.e., how influencers affect consumers’ purchase intentions), while overlooking the postpurchase stage. In this research, we investigate how the valence of an influencer’s product review can impact consumers’ affective states after a dissatisfactory experience with the product. Specifically, two rival hypotheses, based on Social Contagion theory and cognitive dissonance theory, respectively, are tested to assess whether an influencer’s positive (vs. negative) review about the same product can improve consumers’ affect. Results from automatic facial expression analysis and sentiment analysis show that an influencer’s positive (vs. negative) review leads to an improvement in consumers’ post-failure affect. Reconciling the two theories, the authors show that the improvement in consumers’ post-failure affect is a result of their improved attitude toward the product, following an influencer’s positive review. In addition, findings suggest this effect is moderated by the level of trust in the influencer, as well as the severity of the product failure. The results also show an important managerial outcome: An improvement of consumers’ post-failure affect (i.e., happiness) leads to a decrease in consumers’ willingness to share negative word-of-mouth.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"27 1","pages":"297 - 323"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59791662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2226899
Cui Zhao, Xiaoshuai Peng
ABSTRACT We study dynamic quality and pricing strategies in an e-platform with firm competition and online reviews by developing a two-period game-theoretical model. The results show that in equilibrium, online reviews lead to low selling prices in the early period but high product prices in the later selling period. On the side of equilibrium quality, online reviews will result in increased or reduced quality relying on the potential market size. Further, we examine the profit potential of the dynamic quality and/or dynamic price competition strategies. We find that the single dynamic quality competition strategy will always decrease profits of the firms. Regarding the single dynamic price competition strategy, it will increase profits of the rival firms with a large potential market size. Moreover, with a relatively large potential market size, the hybrid dynamic competition (dynamic quality and dynamic price competition) strategy is more likely to outperform the static competition strategy financially. Furthermore, we extend our model to examine how the quality and price strategies and the profit potential of dynamic competition strategies will change in the case of unit variable costs. We show from the extended analysis that in our setting, incorporating variable production costs does not alter the main findings of our research. The findings provide a decision-making framework for firms in choosing the initial and updated quality and price competition strategies with customer reviews.
{"title":"Influence of Online Reviews on the Dynamics of Product Quality and Pricing in a Competitive Market","authors":"Cui Zhao, Xiaoshuai Peng","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2226899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2226899","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We study dynamic quality and pricing strategies in an e-platform with firm competition and online reviews by developing a two-period game-theoretical model. The results show that in equilibrium, online reviews lead to low selling prices in the early period but high product prices in the later selling period. On the side of equilibrium quality, online reviews will result in increased or reduced quality relying on the potential market size. Further, we examine the profit potential of the dynamic quality and/or dynamic price competition strategies. We find that the single dynamic quality competition strategy will always decrease profits of the firms. Regarding the single dynamic price competition strategy, it will increase profits of the rival firms with a large potential market size. Moreover, with a relatively large potential market size, the hybrid dynamic competition (dynamic quality and dynamic price competition) strategy is more likely to outperform the static competition strategy financially. Furthermore, we extend our model to examine how the quality and price strategies and the profit potential of dynamic competition strategies will change in the case of unit variable costs. We show from the extended analysis that in our setting, incorporating variable production costs does not alter the main findings of our research. The findings provide a decision-making framework for firms in choosing the initial and updated quality and price competition strategies with customer reviews.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"27 1","pages":"324 - 353"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47378436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2226900
Margot Racat, D. Plotkina
ABSTRACT Haptics are innovative sensory-enabling technologies that can be used to improve consumers’ online shopping experiences. These technologies can be used in addition to other actual sensory stimulation, such as visual and auditory. However, little is known of how the addition of haptics affects consumers’ mobile shopping behavior. Therefore, this article examines the effect of the presence of haptic feedback (i.e., vibrations) when shopping on a retailer mobile app. Drawing on the results of three quantitative studies, the findings show that the presence of haptic feedback influences consumer behavior, but consumers’ perceptions modify the outcome, which is also moderated by individual need for touch. Moreover, the findings herein show a sequential mediating effect of psychological and affective variables on purchasing outcomes. These findings therefore stress the importance of considering haptics as a potential economic value for online shopping. Accordingly, we suggest that retailers should be more aware of their online sensory strategies and think about disclaimers and personalizing the consumer interface (e.g., turning off the haptic feedback).
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Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2226897
Vladimir Zwass
The supported, and often steered, bottom-up marketing by individuals on social media occupies a significant place in the firms’ marketing budgets and a highly respectable place in the researchers’ attention. As a component of the co-creation of value by consumers, it may be treated as a financial boon by the producers of goods and services, or managed at a great expense while maintaining the credibility of its independence. This resonant marketing intensifies the entry of the ever new influencers, the deployment of the accumulated longitudinal corpora, and the novel means of making the user-generated content accessible in an attractive form to the consumers and other parties at interest. The new uses of the real-time and the accumulated body of opinion emerge and are worthy of intensive study. The first article in this issue of IJEC does indeed investigate the use of the influencer opinion in the evaluation of the sellers’ responses to the cases when they failed to satisfy consumers. It had been established by prior marketing research and practice that a skillful response to such a failure often leads to long-term positive results for the brand, akin to a bond between the previously complaining consumer and the seller exceeding this consumer’s expectations in response. Anshu Suri, Bo Huang, and Sylvain Sénécal study empirically, with a strong theoretical grounding, the differential response of consumers at a postpurchase stage of their journey to a disappointment with their purchase—depending on the influencers’ opinion of the product. Will the reaction of Consumer A who encounters a positive influencer opinion as the disappointed consumer is trying to form her own opinion differ from the response of a disappointed Consumer B reading a negative opinion of influencers? This research shows that such response is indeed different, affectively and behaviorally. The positive opinion of the influencers matters on this stage as well—in the positive direction for the sellers. The work significantly expands our understanding of the role of influencers in the totality of e-retail. Product reviews reflect, most naturally, product quality. Quality costs money and needs to be congruent with the price and the satisfaction of the desires of the addressed consumer segments. In the face of this vox populi, the sellers need to select the bundle of quality and price to elicit a positive word of mouth online. The online environment also affords the opportunity to dynamically adjust prices and (to some extent and with a latency) quality in response to customer reviews. Here, Cui Zhao and Xiaoshuai Peng offer a formal gametheoretic model in a competitive setting that would allow the sellers to adjust prices and quality in seeking profits while benefiting from real-time consumer feedback online. The practical, as well as theoretical, conclusions of the work show up the potential of the distinguishing features of online selling in successfully addressing the consumer mar
{"title":"Editor’s Introduction","authors":"Vladimir Zwass","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2226897","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2226897","url":null,"abstract":"The supported, and often steered, bottom-up marketing by individuals on social media occupies a significant place in the firms’ marketing budgets and a highly respectable place in the researchers’ attention. As a component of the co-creation of value by consumers, it may be treated as a financial boon by the producers of goods and services, or managed at a great expense while maintaining the credibility of its independence. This resonant marketing intensifies the entry of the ever new influencers, the deployment of the accumulated longitudinal corpora, and the novel means of making the user-generated content accessible in an attractive form to the consumers and other parties at interest. The new uses of the real-time and the accumulated body of opinion emerge and are worthy of intensive study. The first article in this issue of IJEC does indeed investigate the use of the influencer opinion in the evaluation of the sellers’ responses to the cases when they failed to satisfy consumers. It had been established by prior marketing research and practice that a skillful response to such a failure often leads to long-term positive results for the brand, akin to a bond between the previously complaining consumer and the seller exceeding this consumer’s expectations in response. Anshu Suri, Bo Huang, and Sylvain Sénécal study empirically, with a strong theoretical grounding, the differential response of consumers at a postpurchase stage of their journey to a disappointment with their purchase—depending on the influencers’ opinion of the product. Will the reaction of Consumer A who encounters a positive influencer opinion as the disappointed consumer is trying to form her own opinion differ from the response of a disappointed Consumer B reading a negative opinion of influencers? This research shows that such response is indeed different, affectively and behaviorally. The positive opinion of the influencers matters on this stage as well—in the positive direction for the sellers. The work significantly expands our understanding of the role of influencers in the totality of e-retail. Product reviews reflect, most naturally, product quality. Quality costs money and needs to be congruent with the price and the satisfaction of the desires of the addressed consumer segments. In the face of this vox populi, the sellers need to select the bundle of quality and price to elicit a positive word of mouth online. The online environment also affords the opportunity to dynamically adjust prices and (to some extent and with a latency) quality in response to customer reviews. Here, Cui Zhao and Xiaoshuai Peng offer a formal gametheoretic model in a competitive setting that would allow the sellers to adjust prices and quality in seeking profits while benefiting from real-time consumer feedback online. The practical, as well as theoretical, conclusions of the work show up the potential of the distinguishing features of online selling in successfully addressing the consumer mar","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"27 1","pages":"295 - 296"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47632637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2023.2226902
Chongkai Wang, Minqiang Li, Haiyang Feng, Nan Feng
ABSTRACT The competition among mobile telecom carriers, serving as two-sided market platforms, is becoming more intensive in recent years. To gain additional profits from Internet content providers, mobile telecom carriers charge subsidization fees to Internet content providers by providing sponsored data plans wherein end users are subsidized by Internet content providers for the cost of data traffic consumption. This study employs a game-theoretical model to investigate the optimal strategies of competing mobile telecom carriers on providing sponsored data plans under cross-side network effects. We find that both mobile telecom carriers (only one mobile telecom carrier, neither mobile telecom carrier) will provide sponsored data plans in Nash equilibrium when the cross-side network effects are weak (moderate, strong). Also, considering the effect of sponsored data plan in terms of the increment in both the total number of end users and the average amount of data traffic each end user consumes, we find that both mobile telecom carriers (only one mobile telecom carrier) will provide sponsored data plans in Nash equilibrium when the effect of sponsored data plan is weak or strong (moderate). Moreover, in the scenario wherein a proportion of end users multi-home to mobile telecom carriers, we verify that end users’ multi-homing will conditionally benefit or hurt mobile telecom carriers, which is also a novel finding different from prior studies. In the scenario wherein end users are partially subsidized, when the cross-side network effects are not too large, the larger mobile telecom carrier will always totally subsidize end users while the smaller mobile telecom carrier may choose to totally, partially, or not subsidize end users.
{"title":"When Should Competing Mobile Telecom Carriers Provide Sponsored Data Plans Under Cross-Side Network Effects?","authors":"Chongkai Wang, Minqiang Li, Haiyang Feng, Nan Feng","doi":"10.1080/10864415.2023.2226902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2023.2226902","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The competition among mobile telecom carriers, serving as two-sided market platforms, is becoming more intensive in recent years. To gain additional profits from Internet content providers, mobile telecom carriers charge subsidization fees to Internet content providers by providing sponsored data plans wherein end users are subsidized by Internet content providers for the cost of data traffic consumption. This study employs a game-theoretical model to investigate the optimal strategies of competing mobile telecom carriers on providing sponsored data plans under cross-side network effects. We find that both mobile telecom carriers (only one mobile telecom carrier, neither mobile telecom carrier) will provide sponsored data plans in Nash equilibrium when the cross-side network effects are weak (moderate, strong). Also, considering the effect of sponsored data plan in terms of the increment in both the total number of end users and the average amount of data traffic each end user consumes, we find that both mobile telecom carriers (only one mobile telecom carrier) will provide sponsored data plans in Nash equilibrium when the effect of sponsored data plan is weak or strong (moderate). Moreover, in the scenario wherein a proportion of end users multi-home to mobile telecom carriers, we verify that end users’ multi-homing will conditionally benefit or hurt mobile telecom carriers, which is also a novel finding different from prior studies. In the scenario wherein end users are partially subsidized, when the cross-side network effects are not too large, the larger mobile telecom carrier will always totally subsidize end users while the smaller mobile telecom carrier may choose to totally, partially, or not subsidize end users.","PeriodicalId":13928,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Electronic Commerce","volume":"27 1","pages":"406 - 440"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43409564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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