We empirically examine the trade-off between the benefits of buying online and the benefits of buying in a local retail store. How does a consumer's physical location shape the relative benefits of buying from the online world? We explore this problem using data from Amazon on the top selling...

The diffusion of new information technology (IT) requires the development of an ecosystem of hardware and software producers, users, and other firms. It is widely believed that venture capitalists (VCs) can play a role in the development of such ecosystems. However, empirical research to...

We examine whether a firm's IP strategy in support of the open source software (OSS) community stimulates new OSS product entry by start-up software firms. In particular, we analyze the impact of strategic decisions taken by IBM around the mid-2000s, such as its announcement that it will not...

We examine whether the introduction of a patent commons, a special type of royalty free patent pool available to the open source software (OSS) community influences new OSS product entry by start-up software firms. In particular, we analyze the impact of The Commons--established by the Open...

We examine whether the introduction of a patent commons, a special type of royalty free patent pool available to the open source software (OSS) community influences new OSS product entry by start-up software firms. In particular, we analyze the impact of The Commons--established by the Open...

We empirically investigate the effect of the Internet on racial hate crimes in the United States from the period 2001–2008. We find evidence that, on average, broadband availability increases racial hate crimes. We also document that the Internet's impact on these hate crimes is not uniform in...

Online platforms offer access to a larger social group than is generally available through offline contacts, making the internet an emerging venue for seeking casual sex partners. The ease of seeking sex partners through classified ad sites may promote risky behaviors that increase transmission...

The phenomenon of sponsored search advertising – where advertisers pay a fee to Internet search engines to be displayed alongside organic (non-sponsored) web search results – is gaining ground as the largest source of revenues for search engines. Using a unique 6 month panel dataset of...

Online platforms offer access to a larger social group than is generally available through offline contacts, making the internet an emerging venue for seeking casual sex partners. The ease of seeking sex partners through classified ad sites may promote risky behaviors that increase transmission...

Price dispersion is an important indicator of market efficiency. Internet-based electronic markets have the potential to reduce transaction and search costs, thereby creating more efficient, “frictionless,” markets as predicted by theories in information economics. However, prior work has...