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on Marketing |
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Issue of 2007‒11‒03
two papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Raposo, Mário; Alves, Helena |
| Abstract: | In order to attract the best students, institutions of higher education need to understand how students select colleges and universities (Kotler and Fox, 1995). Understanding the choice process of a university is an instrument with high potential for developing universities marketing strategies (Plank and Chiagouris, 1997). Although many studies have tried to investigate which criteria students use to select a college or university, few have tried to analyse this trough a model that allows the interaction of all these criteria. This study presents a model of university choice, analysed through structural equations modelling using the Partial Least Squares approach. |
| Keywords: | Marketing; student recruitment and selection; high institution development; strategic planning. |
| JEL: | I21 C30 M31 I23 |
| Date: | 2007–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5523&r=mkt |
| By: | Andres Hervas-Drane (Harvard Business School and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); ; |
| Abstract: | I present a model where consumers face a search problem within a pool of heterogeneous experience goods supplied by a monopolist. Consumers are endowed with a taste profile that determines their probability of matching with any given product, but arrive to the market uninformed and cannot identify which products are more likely to yield a match. Consumers may search for a match by drawing products from the assortment or by seeking recommendations from other consumers. Product evaluations prior to purchase and recommendations are both shown to arise endogenously, increasing consumer participation and the concentration of sales. Introducing taste heterogeneity reveals that such effects are more pronounced for consumers endowed with the prevalent taste in the population. Insights are derived on the mechanisms driving concentration in artistic markets, the impact of recommender systems such as those implemented by Amazon and other online retailers, and their implications for the Long Tail debate. The model is suited for markets where product choices are driven by taste, such as music, cinema, literature and video game entertainment. |
| Keywords: | Taste, Search, Product Recommendations, Sales Concentration, Long Tail |
| JEL: | C78 D42 D83 L15 M31 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0741&r=mkt |