nep-mkt New Economics Papers
on Marketing
Issue of 2017‒02‒26
eight papers chosen by
João Carlos Correia Leitão
Universidade da Beira Interior

  1. The Role of Social Media in Tourism By Tugay ARAT
  2. Consumer Rating Dynamics By Stenzel, André; Wolf, Christoph
  3. Multi-Product Firms and Product Quality By Kalina Manova; Zhihong Yu
  4. Capacity precommitment and price transparency platforms. Theoretical benchmark and experimental evidence By Stadler, Manfred; Güth, Werner; Zaby, Alexandra
  5. Competitive pricing and quality disclosure to cursed consumers By Schwardmann, Peter; Ispano, Alessandro
  6. Can Liberalization of Local Food Marketing Channels Influence Local Economies? A Case Study of West Virginia’s Craft Beer Distribution Laws By Trey Malone; Joshua C. Hall
  7. Participación online del cliente en el sector de la moda By Carlota Lorenzo Romero; Juan Antonio Mondéjar Jiménez; Leticia del Pozo Ruiz
  8. Carsharing Business Models in Germany: Characteristics, Success and Future Prospects By Karla Münzel; Wouter Boon; Koen Frenken; Taneli Vaskelainen

  1. By: Tugay ARAT (Selcuk University, Faculty Of Tourism)
    Abstract: As a result of the developments in information and communication Technologies, and their widely and densely use new marketing mediums have recently emerged. A number of platforms have also appeared in product preference in terms of consumers. The masses communicate with each other on social media. Firms are looking for the ways of affecting the preferences of customers, and they use social media as a marketing environment. Today, the competition between firms has raised, therefore most firms find traditional marketing methods inadequate in reaching to their customers. Therefore, they aim to take action in every environment in which customers exist. This situation causes producing firms to; conduct marketing activities in a more number of ways in digital or virtual media. In recent years, in tourism industry hotel services also use social media for purposes such as effective advertisement, reaching more customers and building brand loyalty. Through social media, tourism services can reach to more customer faster. Besides, customers can also quickly reach to tourism services through their social media accounts in the stages of information searching, assessment of alternatives, selecting choices and purchasing. The aim of this study is to explain how hotel services manage their Facebook accounts and which features they use, and to bring forward proposals. For this reason, Facebook accounts of these hotel services has been studied through content analysis method.
    Keywords: Tourism, Communication Technologies, Social Media
    JEL: M30
    Date: 2016–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:4707478&r=mkt
  2. By: Stenzel, André; Wolf, Christoph
    Abstract: We consider dynamic price-setting by firms in the presence of rating systems and asymmetric information about product quality. The current price determines the set of purchasing consumers and thereby affects future ratings and continuation profits. We outline the effects of prices on consumers' beliefs about quality as well as their review upon purchase. We provide a characterization of the firm's pricing decision in the presence of naive consumers who infer quality based on the observed aggregate rating, which reflects past consumers' gross utility, and price. We show that the firm charges a mark-up compared to the myopically optimal price: It restricts purchase to those consumers with a high degree of horizontal taste for the product which boosts reviews and hence future ratings and profits. Moreover, we show that if the firm takes the price's effect on reviews into account, the rating will not perfectly reveal the product's quality. If consumers hold a correct belief in the current period, future consumers will overestimate the product's quality.
    JEL: L00 D21 D83
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145694&r=mkt
  3. By: Kalina Manova; Zhihong Yu
    Abstract: We examine the global operations of multi-product firms. We present a flexible heterogeneous-firm trade model with either limited or strong scope for quality differentiation. Using customs data for China during 2002-2006, we empirically establish that firms allocate activity across products in line with a product hierarchy based on quality. Firms vary output quality across their products by using inputs of different quality levels. Their core competence is in varieties of superior quality that command higher prices but nevertheless generate higher sales. In markets where they offer fewer products, firms concentrate on their core varieties by dropping low-quality peripheral goods on the extensive margin and by shifting sales towards top-quality products on the intensive margin. The product quality ladder also governs firms' export dynamics, both in general and in response to the exogenous removal of MFA quotas on textiles and apparel. Our results inform the drivers and measurement of firm performance, the effects of trade reforms, and the design of development policies.
    Keywords: trade, trade reforms, multi-product firms, product quality, export prices
    JEL: D22 F10 F12 F14 L10 L11 L15
    Date: 2017–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1469&r=mkt
  4. By: Stadler, Manfred; Güth, Werner; Zaby, Alexandra
    Abstract: Price transparency in the sense of ‘more information for customers’ is known to increase efficiency. However, the introduction of price transparency platforms does not only providemore information for customers but also for rival firms—who may (mis)use the legal information channel to collude. We experimentally investigate transparency platforms in the context of a capacity-then-price setting game. Price transparency is implemented by allowing firms to send non-binding price messages after capacity but before price choices. As such messages are cheap talk they do not affect the subgame perfect equilibrium of the game. In our experiment, however, we find collusive price choices when price messages are possible, especially when they are truthful. While we find strong support for the theoretically predicted negative relation between capacities and prices, participants frequently install excessive capacities, which, in turn, induce collusive pricing behavior.
    JEL: C72 C91 L41
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145515&r=mkt
  5. By: Schwardmann, Peter; Ispano, Alessandro
    Abstract: We study the disclosure decision and price-setting behavior of competing firms in the presence of cursed consumers, who fail to be sufficiently skeptical about a firm's quality upon observing non-disclosure of quality-relevant information. We show that neither competition nor the presence of sophisticated consumers necessarily offer protection to cursed consumers. Exploitation arises if markets are vertically differentiated, if there are many sophisticated consumers, and if it is more likely ex ante that product quality is high. Information campaigns that seek to educate consumers may encourage exploitation and decrease social welfare. Mandatory disclosure laws restore efficiency, but at the cost of redistributing rents from consumers to firms. Our simple model delivers a rich set of positive results, captures important markets, like those for food and consumer finance, and speaks to several recent policy initiatives aimed at consumer protection.
    JEL: D40 D03 D83
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145573&r=mkt
  6. By: Trey Malone (Oklahoma State University, Department of Agricultural Economics); Joshua C. Hall (West Virginia University, Department of Economics)
    Abstract: Over the past decade, local food systems have been identified as having a significant influence on regional economies. Using a recent change in West Virginia’s craft beer distribution laws as a case study, we show that although employment might not experience a statistically significant change due to additional legalized marketing channels, wages did experience a significant increase. Our findings suggest that state economies might benefit from reducing restrictions on small, local producers.
    Keywords: craft beer, economic development, local foods, tourism
    JEL: D04 I18 O12
    Date: 2016–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wvu:wpaper:16-22&r=mkt
  7. By: Carlota Lorenzo Romero; Juan Antonio Mondéjar Jiménez; Leticia del Pozo Ruiz
    Abstract: Desde una revisión de la literatura, el presente trabajo muestra la relevancia de las acciones de colaboración abierta o co-creación online entre usuarios y empresas del sector textil español. El objetivo es plantear cómo la actual implicación del cliente en acciones de co-creación online en el sector, puede configurar un nuevo escenario de participación o colaboración en Internet. La activa participación online del usuario a través de la aportación de ideas, creaciones o cambios para el sector, es un planteamiento relevante siendo además el medio online, una excelente plataforma de interacción.
    Keywords: Sector textil, Co-creación en moda, Estrategia Omnicanal, Experiencia de co-creación
    JEL: L6 L67
    Date: 2017–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ovr:docfra:1702&r=mkt
  8. By: Karla Münzel; Wouter Boon; Koen Frenken; Taneli Vaskelainen
    Abstract: Carsharing provides an alternative to private car ownership by allowing car use temporarily on an on-demand basis. Operators provide carsharing services using different business models and ownership structures. We distinguish between cooperative, business-to-consumer (B2C) roundtrip and one-way, as well as peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing. This paper characterizes these different types of business models and compares their success in terms of diffusion using a comprehensive database of all 101 German carsharing providers in 2016. The key results hold that fleet size is significantly different across business models ranging from a few cars (cooperatives in small towns), to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country). By analyzing for each operator the number of cars per capita in the city they operate in, we do not find significant differences across business models indicating the viability of each separate business model type. Hence, we conclude that business models will continue to co-exist for a while, although some of the business models may well converge in the longer run due to Internet-of-Things applications and the introduction of self-driving cars.Creation-Date: 2017-02
    Keywords: Carsharing; sharing economy; platform economy; on-demand mobility services; business models; future mobility
    Date: 2017–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uis:wpaper:1702&r=mkt

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