This study examines the effects of reputation in the nascent but rapidly growing online labor markets. In these markets contract winners (vendors) provide clients with customized products such as computer software, business plans and artistic designs. The products are used primarily for business...

Organizations employ various risk-mitigation strategies to cope with the uncertainty in marketing new products. In the motion picture industry, an important strategy is to cast star actors and actresses in movies. The ultimate box office success, however, depends on multiple stakeholders...

Video games have become a major contributor to the US and global economy. This paper studies network externalities in the online video game industry. Even though network externalities are recognized as a major driver of new product diffusion, testing the existence and the impact of network...

This study examines how the structure of distribution channels may influence firms’ quality and price strategies and how they may in turn affect consumer welfare. It treats product quality as a decision variable so that the degree of product substitution becomes endogenous rather than...

Networks and the embedded relationships are critical determinants of how people communicate and form beliefs. The explosion of social media has significantly increased the scope and impact of social learning among consumers. This paper studies observational learning in networks of friends versus...

The consumption of digital content products (e.g., video games and live streaming) is often associated with multi-faceted, dynamically interacting consumer behavior that is subject to influence from pertinent external events. Inspired by these characteristics, we develop a novel attention-based...