Most digital content distributed in information-goods platforms encounter the threat of online piracy. Strategic pricing, technology-based platform protection, and deterrent enforcement such as legal and moral measures are viewed as antidotes to piracy. We examine the effects of deterrent...

Online marketplaces are increasingly adopting innovative business models such as using paid advertising as a major revenue source. We explore the two popular advertising tools, sponsored search and social media endorsement, in attracting web traffic from online sellers' perspective. We estimate...

Through reimbursing a portion of the transactional amount to some consumers in a form of cashback, merchants are able to exercise third-degree price discrimination by offering two asymmetric prices via an online dual channel. To better understand such a novel pricing mechanism, we develop a game...

This paper examines the impact of the cashback mechanism on online merchants’ affiliate and pricing strategies. Through reimbursing a portion of the transactional amount to consumers in a form of cashback, merchants are able to practice second-degree price discrimination. We develop an...

Users’ participation in virtual communities is a complex process. On the one hand, there exist more than one dynamic sources, such as sequential dynamics and temporal dynamics. On the other hand, users may develop different participation focuses through the participation process. These aspects...