In this paper, we study the effects of three different kinds of search engine rankings on consumer behavior and search engine revenues: direct ranking effect, interaction effect between ranking and product ratings, and personalized ranking effect. We combine a hierarchical Bayesian Model...

The phenomenon of sponsored search advertising – where advertisers pay a fee to Internet search engines to be displayed alongside organic (non-sponsored) web search results – is gaining ground as the largest source of revenues for search engines. Using a unique 6 month panel dataset of...

A unique aspect of sponsored search advertising is that it allows firms to track what products consumers initially search for and what products they eventually buy after visiting their website – something that is typically hard to acquire in physical world settings. Based on a unique dataset...

User-Generated Content (UGC) on social media platforms and product search engines is changing the way consumers shop for goods online. However, current product search engines fail to effectively leverage information created across diverse social media platforms. Moreover, current ranking...