Goods and services vary along a number of dimensions independently. Customers can choose to acquire information to assess the quality of some dimensions and not others. Their choices affect firms incentives to invest in quality and so lead to indirect externalities in consumers choices. We...

Consumers have only partial knowledge before making a purchase decision, but can choose to acquire more detailed information. A firm can make it easier or harder for these consumers to obtain such information. We explore consumers' information gathering and the firm's integrated strategy for...

Consumers have only partial knowledge before making a purchase decision, but can choose to acquire more detailed information. A firm can make it easier or harder for these consumers to obtain such information. We explore consumers' information gathering and the firm's integrated strategy for...

Goods and services vary along a number of dimensions independently. Customers can choose to acquire information to assess the quality of some dimensions and not others. Their choices affect firms' incentives to invest in quality and so lead to indirect externalities in consumers' choices. We...

The Internet has made consumer search much easier with consequences for competition, industry structure and product offerings. We explore these consequences in a rich but tractable model that allows for strategic design choices. We find a polarized market structure, where some firms choose...