Product information websites have become ubiquitous in supporting B2C E-Commerce. This paper explores their impact on firm profitability, consumer surplus, and social welfare. Using an analytical model, we show that firms take advantage of such infomediaries and reduce their own information...

The digitization of commerce has caused fundamental changes in consumer information search and use. With an increasing number of consumers using search engines as an integral component of their online purchase process, online sponsored search markets, such as those provided by Google and Yahoo!,...

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...

Using detailed social broadcasting data from an online charitable giving campaign on Twitter, we evaluate two competing models of economic incentives on online pro-social behavior. Specifically, we focus on the effectiveness of gratitude-embedded messages on online charitable giving behavior,...