Sponsored search advertising has emerged as an important and significant forum for advertisers, accounting for 40% of all advertising spending online. The unique features of sponsored search advertising - the nature of consumer search as well as the pricing mechanisms employed - differentiate it...

Online sponsored search advertising has emerged as the dominant online advertising format largely due to their "pay-for-performance" nature, wherein advertising expenditures are closely tied to outcomes. While the pay-for-performance format substantially reduces the "wastage" incurred by...

The presence of extraordinary geographical variation in Internet use in the U.S. is widely acknowledged. Prior research suggests that individual, household, and regional differences are responsible for this disparity. We argue for an alternative explanation: that individual choice is subject to...

We study whether and how contractual arrangements (fixed price vs. time-and-materials contracts) change the effect of reputation, certification, and language characteristics on the chances of winning outsourcing contracts. Using a comprehensive dataset from an online outsourcing marketplace, we...

The growth of the Internet has spawned an increasing number of online information sources (OISs). The effect of OISs on consumer information search processes has been particularly striking in sectors such as auto retailing, where the typical consumer has conventionally confronted an unpleasant...

It has become widely accepted that information technology (IT) has had a profound influence on market transactions, with lower search costs for buyers often considered the key to lower prices and higher consumer welfare. However, sellers also use online channels to search for buyers whose...

This paper focuses on a novel mechanism for market segmentation and price discrimination based on consumers' use of online infomediaries. Using the auto-retailing context as the setting for our study we address the following question: Can online infomediaries serve as a viable mechanism for...