An Integrated Framework for Competitive Multi-channel Marketing of Multi-featured Products

For any company, multiple channels are available for reaching a population in order to market its products. Some of the most well-known channels are (a) mass media advertisement, (b) recommendations using social advertisement, and (c) viral marketing using social networks. The company would want to maximize its reach while also accounting for simultaneous marketing of competing products, where the product marketings may not be independent. In this direction, we propose and analyze a multi-featured generalization of the classical linear threshold model. We hence develop a framework for integrating the considered marketing channels into the social network, and an approach for allocating budget among these channels

Effects of Time Horizons on Influence Maximization in the Voter Dynamics

In this paper we analyze influence maximization in the voter model with an active strategic and a passive influencing party in non-stationary settings. We thus explore the dependence of optimal influence allocation on the time horizons of the strategic influencer. We find that on undirected heterogeneous networks, for short time horizons, influence is maximized when targeting low-degree nodes, while for long time horizons influence maximization is achieved when controlling hub nodes. Furthermore, we show that for short and intermediate time scales influence maximization can exploit knowledge of (transient) opinion configurations. More in detail, we find two rules. First, nodes with states differing from the strategic influencer's goal should be targeted. Second, if only few nodes are initially aligned with the strategic influencer, nodes subject to opposing influence should be avoided, but when many nodes are aligned, an optimal influencer should shadow opposing influence.Comment: 22 page

Estimation of Cost Pass Through to Michigan Consumers in the ADM Price Fixing Case

This report analyzes the economic impact of price fixing in the wet corn milling industry on consumers in the State of Michigan. Two of the companies who produce citric acid have pleaded guilty to fixing its price. In this report we assume that price fixing also occurred among HFCS producers. Given the structure of the corn wet milling industry and the direct purchaser industries, the overcharge is essentially uniform across buyers and selling arrangements. We develop an actual economic model of price transmission based upon the three facts: 1) The overcharge as a percent of the processed product value at wholesale and at retail is small, 2) Fixed proportion technology, and 3) consumers have imperfect information about prices so a small price change has no effect on their purchase behavior. These facts establish that 100 percent or more of the common overcharge will be passed through to consumers. In a more general economic model, we analyze pass through when consumer demand is not perfectly inelastic. For different strategies (profit maximization, sales maximization subject to a target level of profit, and loss leader strategies) and for different market structures (competitive, monopoly, oligopoly), the rate of pass through is 100 percent or greater given certain documented characteristics of the industries in this case. Given the prior points consumer damages are the common overcharges for each commodity times the amount of the commodity sold during the damage period. This is a lower bound estimate of consumer damages because pass through may well be greater than 100%.price fixing, overcharge, cost pass through, fixed proportion production technology, flexible demand specifications, competitive structure, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,