Indirect reciprocity is an important factor that motivates individual contributions in social networks. However, prior studies of indirect reciprocity are often limited to a snapshot view of individual interactions in social environments. This paper analyzes indirect reciprocity from a dynamic...

There are growing interests in understanding how word-of-mouth (WOM) on the Internet is generated and how it influences consumers' purchase decisions at retail outlets. A unique aspect of the WOM effect is the presence of a positive feedback mechanism between WOM and retail sales. We...

Peer-to-peer sharing networks have seen explosive growth recently. In these networks, sharing files is completely voluntary, and there is no financial reward for users to contribute. Yet many users continue to share despite the massive free-riding by others. Using a large-scale dataset of...

Online peer-to-peer communities and online social networks have become increasingly popular. In particular, the recent boost of online peer-to-peer communities leads to exponential growth in sharing of user-contributed content which have brought profound changes to business and economic...

Firms use social media marketing to promote products and collect consumer feedback for the product development process. Their practice of investing in retailer-hosted Word-of-Mouth (internal WOM) is supported by a positive feedback mechanism between internal WOM and retail sales. Internal WOM is...

With the broad reach of the Internet, online users frequently resort to various word-of-mouth (WOM) sources, such as online user reviews and professional reviews, during online decision making. Although prior studies generally agree on the importance of online WOM, we have little knowledge of...