The long tail phenomenon has been attributed to both supply side and demand side economies. While the cause on the supply side is well-known, research on the demand side has largely focused on the awareness effect of online information that helps consumers discover new and often niche products....

Consumers consistently resort to online Word-of-Mouth (WOM) as an effective remedy for the lack of physical trials in online shopping. Nevertheless, they are confronting relatively different levels of search costs for WOM information depending on the distribution of WOM across websites. This...

Our study examines the impact of both a demand side factor (online user reviews) and a supply side factor (product variety) on the long tail and superstar phenomena in the context of online software downloading. The descriptive analysis suggests a significant superstar download pattern and also...

It is well known that the Internet has significantly reduced consumers' search costs online. But relatively little is known about how search costs affect consumer demand structure in online markets. In this paper, we identify the impact of search costs on firm competition and market structure by...