Online word-of-mouth communication in the form of product reviews is a major information source for consumers and marketers about product quality. The literature has used the mean of online reviews to predict product sales, assuming that the mean reflects product quality. However, using a...

Consumer buzz in the form of user-generated reviews, recommendations and blogs signals consumer attitude and advocacy can influence firm value. Web traffic also affects brand awareness and customer acquisition, and is a predictor of the performance of a firm’s stock in the market. The...

Balancing the amount of advertising and content affects the profitability of the web site and its attractiveness to potential visitors. This tradeoff is modeled as a control problem for a web site manager who is maximizing the net present value of cash flows by controlling the amount of...

This paper studies the impact of consumers' social learning from the reviews of early adopters of a new product. We consider a two-period setting with an introduction (penetration) period followed by the product maturing period. Early buyers make purchase decisions in the introduction period...

We analyze the spillover effects of the online reviews of other co-visited products on the purchases of a focal product using clickstream data from a large retailer. Drawing upon signaling theory, as online reviews serve as signals, the proposed spillover effects are moderated by: (a) whether...