The Impact of Third-Party Information on the Dynamics of Online Word-of-Mouth and Retail Sales

Consumers have been widely searching information on third-party and retail websites before making product choices, yet receiving limited systematic investigation of how consumers process third-party information and retailer-hosted (internal) word-of-mouth (WOM) and its consequences on retail sales. In this research, we examine the impact of third party information on the dynamics of internal WOM and retail sales by analyzing a simultaneous equation system in a Bayesian hierarchical framework in online software market. We find that third-party information moderates the positive feedback mechanism between internal WOM and retail sales. Receiving third-party reviews positively interact with retail sales to increase volume of internal WOM, thus leading to more sales; whereas consumer adoption of free-trial services negatively moderates the impact of retail sales on internal WOM, which may potentially have a negative impact on future sales indirectly. The findings imply that third-party information interact with retail website information in influencing consumers’ product choices

Online User Reviews and Professional Reviews: A Bayesian Approach to Model Mediation and Moderation Effects

We propose a Bayesian analysis of mediation and moderation effects embedded within a hierarchical structure to examine the impacts of two sources of WOM information — online user reviews and professional reviews in the context of software download. Our empirical results indicate that the impact of user reviews on software download varies over time and such variation is moderated by product variety. The increase in product variety strengthens the impact of positive user reviews, while weakening the impact of negative user reviews. Furthermore, professional reviews influence software download both directly and indirectly, partially mediated by volume of online user reviews. Receiving positive professional reviews leads to more software download, yet receiving very negative professional reviews has a negative impact on the number of download. The increase in professional ratings not only directly promotes software download but also leads to more active user WOM interactions, which in turn leads to more download

Product Variety, Online Word of Mouth and Long Tail: An Empirical Study on the Internet Software Market

This study examines the impact of both demand and supply side factors on long tail and superstar effects in the context of online software download. Our descriptive analysis suggests the coexistence of a steeper head and a longer but slimmer tail. Employing a novel empirical approach via the quantile regression model, we find a significant interaction effect between the demand-side factor (online user reviews) and the supply-side factor (product variety) on users’ software download. The influence of the two factors and their interplay on long tail and superstar effects vary significantly across different product popularity level. The results highlight the importance of incorporating both supply and demand factors in long tail research. The findings also offer an explanation for the mixed results reported in extant studies on the influence of online user reviews

DOES IT MATTER WHERE THE WORD-OF-MOUTH OCCURS?: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE SALES IMPACT OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF ONLINE USER REVIEWS

Consumers consistently resort to online Word-of-Mouth (WOM) in online shopping, thanks to the reach of the Internet and various web tools. Nevertheless, they are confronting relatively different levels of search costs for WOM information available on the Internet, depending on the distribution of WOM across websites. This study investigates the sales impacts of dispersion of WOM volume and variation of WOM valence by using sales and WOM data of software programs from Amazon and download.com. Our results suggest that less evenly distributed WOM leads to more sales, conditional on the total number of WOM conversations across websites. And it is even more beneficial for a product’s sales if having this less dispersed WOM distribution skewed towards retailing websites. In addition, more consistent consumer evaluations across websites encourage online purchasing decisions. By comparing the volume dispersion and variance variation, we find that receiving one hundred reviews of 5-star average rating on Amazon leads to sales almost six time greater than receiving fifty reviews of 5-star average rating on Amazon and another fifty reviews of 5-star average rating on download.com

The Sales Impact of Word-of-Mouth Distribution across Retail and Third-Party Websites

With online search tools and users’ Internet experiences, online consumers are shown to rely on Word-of-Mouth (WOM) information hosted by both retail and third-party websites. Nevertheless, will online consumers conduct the same comprehensive level of WOM search, if the distribution of WOM across websites differs? This study is intrigued by this question to propose that the distribution of WOM across websites affects the search cost of WOM information during consumers’ decision making, and thus influences online retail sales. By using sales and WOM data of software programs from Amazon and a third-party website download.com, we find negative sales impacts of WOM volume dispersion and valence variation. Our results show that less dispersed WOM leads to more sales. And it is even more beneficial for a product’s sales if having this less dispersed WOM distribution skewed towards retail websites. In addition, more consistent consumer evaluations across websites encourage online purchase decisions

The Impact of Free Sampling of Information Goods on the Dynamics of Online Word-of-Mouth and Retail Sales

Free sampling of information goods has become a common business practice in expectation of reducing consumers’ uncertainty of product quality and helping product diffusion, yet receiving limited investigation of how consumers process free sampling and online word-of-mouth (WOM) and its consequences on retail sales. In this research, we examine the impact of free sampling of information goods on the dynamics of online WOM and retail sales by analyzing a simultaneous equation system in a Bayesian hierarchical framework in online software market. We find that free sampling of information goods asymmetrically moderates the positive feedback mechanism between online WOM and retail sales. More adoptions of free trial not only directly lead to more retail sales but also enhance online WOM effect. Nevertheless, more adoptions of free trial generate fewer WOM and weaken the impact of past sales on WOM, which could potentially have a negative impact on future sales

An Investigation of Marketing Compensation in Medicine: The Impact of the Information Disclosure Regulations

Pharmaceutical scandals frequently occupy national media headlines, and these controversial practices exacerbate the healthcare expenditure burden and cause ethical concerns. Big Pharma’s marketing strategies involve making various types and sizes of payments to healthcare providers to induce favorable prescribing behaviors for their drugs. Enacted in 2013, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA) mandates company disclosures of payments to physicians. Its effectiveness has been explored in various settings, but there have been few rigorous academic studies, and a unified conclusion has not been reached. In this paper, we utilized unique datasets, including pre- and post-PPSA payment data from six major pharmaceutical companies, to examine the impact of state-level disclosure policies and the federal PPSA on pharmaceutical companies’ payments to physicians. Difference-in-difference analysis was adopted to study the dynamics of company payments to physicians before and after the PPSA. We found significant interactions for the state policies and the PPSA on all studied payment types for the six companies. The companies generally decreased their total payments to physicians and the number of paid physicians. However, the policy impacts differed across the payment types and companies

PALLADIUM NANOSHEETS CATALYZED FORMIC ACID OXIDATION AND CO2 REDUCTION

Human society has been relied on the combustion of fossil fuel as the primary energy source for a long time, yet this has led to great emission of CO2 and corresponding environmental problems like global warming. Among all the technologies that have been developed to decrease the dependence on fossil fuel and alleviate the greenhouse effects, combing the electrochemical CO2 reduction and fuel cell applications could be a promising solution. Electrochemical CO2 reduction is an artificial way of carbon cycling. If supported by the renewably sourced electricity, the intermittent renewable energy could be stored in the form of chemical bond in the CO2 reduction products, part of which could be applied to fuel cells for efficient energy conversion and long-term energy consumption. In this way, a fossil fuel-free and economic energy cycle can be realized. Formic acid could be a target fuel to achieve this approach, since it is a common product in CO2 reduction and possesses high energy density as well as less membrane crossover problem when applied to fuel cell. One major challenge for the scale application of this idea is the large overpotential and low selectivity towards the electrochemical reaction, therefore it is desirable to develop bi-functional catalysts with high selectivity and activity towards formic acid in CO2 reduction, while also have excellent performance in the formic acid fuel cell. The work performed within this thesis reports a novel method to synthesize Pd nanosheets (Pd NSs) with different thickness and intrinsic in-plane compressive strain, as well as Au@Pd nanosheets. Their performance as electrocatalysts for formic acid oxidation (FAOR) and CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) have been evaluated. The activity of Pd NSs towards FAOR were demonstrated to be higher than commercial Pd, and growing gold on the Pd NSs could lead to a product selectivity change, suggesting that Pd-based nanosheets could be regarded as promising catalyst for electrochemical CO2 reduction and fuel cell application