An increasing amount of research papers is devoted in modeling Web functions. This effort is coming from many diverse disciplines like Computer Science, Economics, Mathematics, Social studies and others. At this stage, a set of definitions concerning the basic Web functions is needed in order to...

The proliferation of the Internet and the latest mobile communication technologies have given rise to new forms of communication that made it easier for sellers as well as consumers to communicate and conduct business in real time and in virtual space with manufacturers, retailers or among each...

E-commerce is growing rapidly on a global scale. Among many products purchased via the Internet, clothing is the first in terms of purchase frequency. However, there are growth barriers for this product category, which include, first of all, the client's fear of matching clothing to their own...

New sellers who enter online marketplaces have to build up an online reputation in order to be successful. I examine how sellers use "free'' (offering products at a zero price) as a dynamic pricing strategy to encourage consumers to experience their products, thereby increasing the number of...

Online question-and-answer platforms allow consumers to learn different perspectives of information and knowledge from content producers. Such platforms’ performance critically depends on both quantity and variety of knowledge contents generated by the crowd. This paper studies how early-stage...

Online product reviews may be subject to self-selection biases that impact consumer purchase behavior, online ratings' time series, and consumer surplus. This occurs if early buyers hold different preferences than do later consumers regarding the quality of a given product. Readers of early...

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...

The content industry has been undergoing a tremendous transformation in the last two decades. We focus in this paper on recent changes in the form of social computing. Although the content industry has implemented social computing to a large extent, it has done so from a techno-centric approach...

Pharmaceutical companies have been forced to change their approach to selling over-the-counter medicines (OTC) because of increased pressure on sales margins. The development of Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and social media technologies allow low-cost online marketing, including e-commerce. An...