Managing merchants challenges a selling platform. Using a multi-sender framework we ask if a platform and a competing merchant’s prices can together signal product quality if consumers’ information is incomplete. We find that both separating and pooling equilibria exist but for separation...

Merchants are wary of a platform entering as a competitor and adversely affecting sales and margins. A platform wanting to maximize profits is interested also in gaining consumer trust and confidence by providing credible quality information to consumers. As a practical matter, could a...

In today’s media ecosystem, advertisers face the challenge to create ad campaigns with the ability to engage consumers and ultimately increase conversions. Hence, they need guidance on how to design promising ad copies and on which websites to deliver these ads. In this study, the authors...

Many customers visit several online platforms before making a product purchase. These online platforms often offer multiple "ad positions" that advertisers can obtain via bidding in an auction. The ad positions differ in their "prominence" - the probability of engaging incoming visitors. We...