Should Firms Share Information About Expensive Customers? An Equilibrium Analysis
By: Sameer Mathur, doctoral student in Marketing; Kannan Srinivasan, H. J. Heinz II Professor of Management, Marketing and Information Systems; Baohong Sun, Associate Professor of Marketing.

2007 Tepper School of Business Working Paper

Summary:
Advances in information technology increasingly allow firms to identify expensive, high-cost customers, who are not only individually less profitable for firms but also raise the average marginal cost incurred by firms and thus impose a negative externality on inexpensive customers. Should competing firms share information that identifies such customers? The answer to this question has important implications for firm profitability, consumer welfare, and privacy laws that currently constrain firms’ ability to share information.

The Impact of Advertising on Consumer Price Sensitivity in Experience Goods Markets
By: Tülin Erdem, Michael Keane and Baohong Sun

Forthcoming in Quantitative Marketing and Economics

Summary:
In this paper we use Nielsen scanner panel data on four categories of consumer goods to examine how TV advertising and other marketing activities affect the demand curve facing a brand. Advertising can affect consumer demand in many different ways.

Indeterminacy and Live Television
By: Joachim Vosgerau, Klaus Wertenbroch and Ziv Carmon

Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 32, March 2006, pp. 487-495

Summary:
Why would audiences prefer live television so strongly, even when tape-delayed broadcasts provide the same sensory experience and when viewers of the live and the taped broadcasts face the same uncertainty about the event that is shown?

Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenter Entry on Consumer Purchase Behavior: An Empirical Investigation
By: Vishal Singh, Karsten Hansen and Robert Blattberg

Tepper Working Paper, 2005.

Summary:
Supermarkets operate in an increasingly competitive environment. The rapid growth of alternative retail formats has transformed not only the competitive structure of the industry, but also the way in which consumers shop. The biggest challenge to the industry is coming from none other than the world’s larges retailer: Wal-Mart.

Is Silence Golden? An Inquiry Into the Meaning of Silence in Professional Product Evaluations
By: Wagner A. Kamakura, Suman Basuroy and Peter Boatwright

Tepper Working Paper, 2005

Summary:
The world today is rife with product recommendations from professional critics and experts that are available from numerous sources - television, magazines, radio, internet, etc. Very often these recommendations shape our decisions and choices. In this study, we investigate two main issues regarding expert opinions.