The computer software industry is an extreme example of rapid new product introduction. However, many consumers are sophisticated enough to anticipate the availability of upgrades in the future. This creates the possibility that consumers might either postpone purchase or buy early on and never...

Diverting large quantities of goods from authorized distribution channels to unauthorized or “gray market” channels, albeit legal, significantly affects both firms and consumers due to effects on price, revenue, service and warranty availability, and product availability. In this paper we...

In this paper, we analyze the contracting issues that arise in collaborative services, such as consulting, financial planning, and IT outsourcing. In particular, we investigate how the choice of contract type, among fixed-fee, time-and-materials, and performance-based contracts, is driven by the...

As seen in the data of Snir and Hitt (2003), online service procurement auctions often end without achieving a contract despite active bidding, yet the existing auction literature is silent on why this occurs. One explanation for these unconsummated auctions may be that perfectly acceptable bids...