Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow: Digital Devices' Effects on Cognitive Reflection

2023 | Journal of Management Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Figl, Kathrin; Remus, Ulrich

Abstract: Informed by theoretical perspectives on working memory demands and devices' pote ... Expand

Abstract: Informed by theoretical perspectives on working memory demands and devices' potential to "prime" different types of cognitive processing, this paper investigates whether we tend to think "faster" and more intuitively, with less reflection when we use a smartphone instead of a personal computer (PC) or notebook. Three complementary experimental studies with a total of 823 participants reveal that the results of using such devices surface only when participants can select the smartphone as their preferred device. Controlling for potential confounding variables reveals no evidence of general differences between devices. Our findings caution against overemphasizing the importance of the type of device in thinking slow or fast and establish self-selection bias as an important factor in explaining such differences. This study contributes to clarifying the psychology of smartphone screens and how humans make choices when they are using these devices. Collapse

Topics: smartphone electronic mail social media decision making laptop computer

Methods: survey within subject experiment longitudinal research experiment hierarchical linear modeling

Theories: dual-system theory cognitive theory

To Brush or Not to Brush: Product Rankings, Consumer Search, and Fake Orders

2023 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 0

Authors: Jin, Chen; Yang, Luyi; Hosanagar, Kartik

Abstract: Brushing—online merchants placing fake orders of their own products—has been a w ... Expand

Abstract: Brushing—online merchants placing fake orders of their own products—has been a widespread phenomenon on major e-commerce platforms. One key reason why merchants brush is that it boosts their rankings in search results. Products with higher sales volume are more likely to rank higher. Additionally, rankings matter because consumers face search frictions and narrow their attention to only the few products that show up at the top. Thus, fake orders can affect consumer choice. We focus on this search-ranking aspect of brushing and build a stylized model to understand merchants’ strategic brushing behavior as well as how it affects consumers. We consider a high-type merchant (who sells a more popular product) and a low-type merchant (who sells a less popular product) competing on an e-commerce platform where product rankings evolve over time. We find that if brushing gets more costly for merchants (e.g., due to stricter platform policies), it may sometimes surprisingly harm consumers as it may only blunt brushing by the high-type merchant but intensify brushing by the low-type merchant. If search is less costly for consumers (e.g., due to improved search technologies), it may not always benefit consumers, either. Moreover, the design of the ranking algorithm is critical: placing more weight on sales-volume-related factors may trigger a nonmonotone change in consumer welfare; tracking recent sales only as opposed to cumulative sales does not always dial down brushing and, in fact, may sometimes cause the low-type merchant to brush more.History: Ravi Bapna, Senior Editor; De Liu, Associate Editor.Funding: C. Jin gratefully acknowledges the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund [Tier 1, Grant R-253-000-144-133], The Wharton School Dean’s Postdoctoral Research Fund, and Mack Institute Research Fund. All authors gratefully acknowledge the 2019 Networks, Electronic Commerce and Telecommunications Institute (NET) Summer Research Grant.Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1128. Collapse

Topics: IS economics consumer surplus electronic commerce fake review electronic market

Methods: computational algorithm literature sample

Theories: economic search theory

Analyzing Frictions in Generalized Second-Price Auction Markets

2023 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 0

Authors: Kannan, Karthik; Pamuru, Vandith; Rosokha, Yaroslav

Abstract: We investigate the role of frictions in determining the efficiency and bidding b ... Expand

Abstract: We investigate the role of frictions in determining the efficiency and bidding behavior in a generalized second-price auction—the most preferred mechanism for sponsored-search advertisements. In particular, we take a twofold approach of Q-learning–based computational simulations in conjunction with human-subject experiments. We find that the lower valued advertisers (who do not win the auction) exhibit highly exploratory behavior. Moreover, we find the presence of market frictions moderates this phenomenon and results in higher allocative efficiency. These results have implications for policymakers and auction-platform managers in designing incentives for more efficient auctions. History: Ahmed Abbasi, Senior Editor; Idris Adjerid, Associate Editor. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1187. Collapse

Topics: search engine search engine marketing artificial intelligence IS economics economic surplus

Methods: experiment simulation agent based simulation machine learning experimental design

Theories: behavioral economics

Personalized Ranking at a Mobile App Distribution Platform

2023 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 0

Authors: Mao, Shengjun; Dewan, Sanjeev; Ho, Yi-Jen (Ian)

Abstract: The ease of customer data collection has enabled the widespread personalization ... Expand

Abstract: The ease of customer data collection has enabled the widespread personalization of content and services in digital platforms. We examine personalization in a hitherto unaddressed context: that of mobile app distribution. Specifically, we develop a comprehensive framework for the personalized ranking of app impressions, leveraging revealed preferences embedded in consumer clickstream data. To improve platform revenues, the framework jointly accounts for consumer utility and cost per action (CPA) margin, which is the revenue earned by the platform per app installation. To this end, we specify a structural model of click and installation choices, jointly estimated as a function of a comprehensive set of numerical (screen rank, quality, and popularity) and textual (titles, descriptions, and reviews) covariates. Our novel data set is at the granular user-impression level and uniquely includes app CPA margins paid to the platform. We conduct a series of policy experiments to quantify the value of personalization. Specifically, we show that a personalized hybrid margin and utility margin ranking scheme outperforms other personalized methods, including those based on utilities alone or a combination of utilities and margins. Overall, our analysis demonstrates how platforms can leverage routine consumer clickstream data to personalize the ranking of app impressions, thereby more effectively monetizing mobile app distribution.History: Param Singh, Senior Editor; Juan Feng, Associate Editor.Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1156. Collapse

Topics: mobile application personalization usability search engine accounting

Methods: experiment mathematical model robustness check latent dirichlet allocation Markov chain Monte Carlo

Theories: utility theory

Competitive Poaching in Search Advertising: Two Randomized Field Experiments

2022 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 0

Authors: Bhattacharya, Siddharth; Gong, Jing; Wattal, Sunil

Abstract: Keyword searches with brand names occur very commonly on search engines, enablin ... Expand

Abstract: Keyword searches with brand names occur very commonly on search engines, enabling firms to infer not only when consumers are searching for them but also when consumers are searching for their competitors. This enables firms to generate traffic from search advertising by bidding not only on their own keywords but also on competitors’ keywords. The strategy of bidding on competitors’ keywords, known as competitive poaching, presents unique opportunities for academic research. In this research, we examine the factors that influence the effectiveness of competitive poaching, specifically the role of different ad copies and the type of competitor (poached brand) from which a brand is poaching. We also examine how the presence of sponsored ads from the poached brand affects competitive poaching. We collected data from two randomized field experiments, one with a business school in the Northeastern United States and the other one with a leading automobile dealership company, where these firms bid on keywords of competing brands and randomly display different types of ad copies in the sponsored search listings. We find that, when poaching on keywords of high-quality brands, ad copies that feature vertical differentiation are more effective than the control ad copies, which do not convey any differentiation or prescriptive messages. We also find that when poaching from low-quality brands, ad copies featuring horizontal differentiation perform better than the control ad copies. Finally, we show that the presence of the poached brand’s own ad has a positive association with the ad effectiveness of the poaching brand when that poached brand is high quality and a negative association when the poached brand is low quality. The academic and managerial contributions are also discussed. Collapse

Topics: search engine search engine marketing vertical differentiation horizontal differentiation Google+

Methods: field experiment chi squared test experiment randomized field experiment Poisson regression

Customer-initiated and firm-initiated online shopping visits under competition for attention: A conceptual model and empirical analysis

2022 | Decision Support Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Bhatnagar, Amit; De, Prabuddha; Sen, Arun; Sinha, Atish P.

Abstract: Customer-initiated vs. firm-initiated visitsMarketing researchers distinguish b ... Expand

Abstract: Customer-initiated vs. firm-initiated visitsMarketing researchers distinguish between customer-initiated channels and firm-initiated channels [7,28,51,79]. Customer-initiated channels, e.g., organic search and paid search, allow a consumer to search for information on her own initiative. On the other hand, firminitiated channels, e.g., banner ads and Facebook ads, help a firm initiate marketing interventions to attract traffic to the firm's website. As A. Bhatnagar et al. Collapse

Topics: search engine Facebook electronic commerce website marketing management

Methods: conceptual modelling probit regression theoretical contribution company material literature study

Can Positive Online Social Cues Always Reduce User Avoidance of Sponsored Search Results?

2022 | Management Information Systems Quarterly | Citations: 1

Authors: Deng, Honglin; Wang, Weiquan; Li, Siyuan; Lim, Kai

Abstract: Online social cues that utilize user-generated data, such as user reviews and pr ... Expand

Abstract: Online social cues that utilize user-generated data, such as user reviews and product ratings, have become one of the key factors influencing online user behavior and decisions. Online users who shared their reviews and ratings about a product (or a seller) become an abstract reference group to a focal user interested in the same product. This study focuses on sponsored search results (SSRs), a type of unsolicited information that matches users’ search queries and receives high evaluations from prior consumers. We investigate the effects of positive social cues on alleviating users’ avoidance responses toward an encountered SSR when searching for a product in a C2C e-commerce context. We synthesize the avoidance literature and identify three forms of SSR avoidance, namely, cognitive, behavioral, and affective avoidance. We apply users’ implicit concerns on SSRs to explain users’ avoidance of an encountered SSR. In addition, we extend social influence theory to online settings where abstract reference groups are posited to trigger social influence. We examine how and under what conditions the three forms of SSR avoidance can be reduced by various positive online social cues (i.e., product- and seller-related). We conduct three laboratory experiments. Results attest to users’ implicit concerns on SSRs and their avoidance of SSRs and reveal different effects of various social cues on reducing the three forms of SSR avoidance. This study uncovers the theoretical mechanisms of social influence on reducing SSR avoidance in online settings. It also offers practical implications for online search service providers to help online users’ decision making in their search process. Collapse

Topics: social influence advertising management electronic commerce marketing management search engine

Methods: experiment experimental group oculometry theory development experimental task

Theories: social influence theory

Time-varying effects of search engine advertising on sales–An empirical investigation in E-commerce

2022 | Decision Support Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Yang, Yanwu; Zhao, Kang; Zeng, Daniel Dajun; Jansen, Bernard Jim

Abstract: As a mainstream advertising channel, Search Engine Advertising (SEA) has a huge ... Expand

Abstract: As a mainstream advertising channel, Search Engine Advertising (SEA) has a huge business impact and attracts a plethora of attention from both academia and industry. One important goal of SEA is to increase sales. Never­ theless, while previous research has studied multiple factors that are potentially related to the outcome of SEA campaigns, effects of these factors on actual sales generated by SEA remain understudied. It is also unclear whether and how such effects change over time in dynamic SEA campaigns that last for an extended period of time. As the first empirical investigation of the dynamic advertisement-sales relationship in SEA, this study builds an advertising response model within a time-varying coefficient (TVC) modeling framework, and estimates the model using a unique dataset from a large e-commerce retailer in the United States. Results reveal the effects of the advertising expenditure, consumer behaviors and advertisement characteristics on realized sales, and demonstrate that such effects on sales do change over time in non-linear ways. More importantly, we find that carryover has a stronger effect in generating sales than immediate or direct response does, and advertisers need to carefully decide how much to bid for higher ad positions. These findings have direct implications for business decision-making to launch more effective SEA campaigns and for SEA platforms to improve their pricing mechanism. Collapse

Topics: advertising management electronic commerce search engine consumer behavior search engine marketing

Methods: digital trace data longitudinal research hierarchical linear modeling robustness check ordinary least square

The Relationship Between Online Referral Marketing and Price Promotion: Evidence from a Large E-Commerce Platform

2021 | Journal of Management Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Cao, Zike; Chu, Junhong; Hui, Kai-Lung; Xu, Hong

Abstract: We empirically examine the effectiveness of referral marketing and price promoti ... Expand

Abstract: We empirically examine the effectiveness of referral marketing and price promotion in generating sales in a large e-commerce platform. Our results show that although referral marketing increases sales, its effect is attenuated by price promotion. We argue that price promotion arouses quality concerns and undermines the credibility of online paid referrals in a weak-tie environment. This finding implies diminishing marginal returns for referral marketing and price promotion spending. We conduct a battery of validation tests to support our argument. Our research highlights the importance of scrutinizing the complementarity of marketing promotions in the unique context of the Internet. Depending on the persuasiveness of the brand and the promotional channel, promotional strategies may conflict in addressing consumers' quality concerns. Our findings suggest that marketing managers should use discretion in combining online referral marketing and price promotion. We advise sellers against using both marketing tactics if they lack a strong brand image. Collapse

Topics: marketing management electronic commerce internet technology search engine search engine marketing

Methods: longitudinal research regression analysis method descriptive statistic Student's t-test robustness check

Bidding on Keyword Auctions: Advertiser’s Perspective

2021 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Garg, Anurag; Cho, Soohyun; Aytug, Haldun

Abstract: We formulate an advertiser's bidding problem as a profit maximization problem i ... Expand

Abstract: We formulate an advertiser's bidding problem as a profit maximization problem in which the advertiser has to decide on how much to bid on each keyword subject to a budget, given that she can only observe her bid, her rank, the search frequency and the click frequency. We assume that the other advertisers' bids are i.i.d. random variables. We discuss how to determine a bid that will maximize expected profits when the search traffic for each keyword is generated by an independent Poisson process. We provide a formulation and discuss several properties of the problem. Collapse

Topics: advertising management online learning system marketing management real-time bidding search engine

Methods: computational algorithm stochastic model optimization model