Everyone makes decisions, some simple, others complex. In business-to-business (B2B) marketing environments, decision-making becomes even more complicated. The decision-makers require an adequate set of facts to support their decision-making. In order to provide the necessary decision-support, B2B organisations invest huge amounts of money in information systems such as enterprise resources planning applications, customer relationship management software, and other types of databases. These systems store, analyse, manipulate and/or integrate internal data and perhaps force-feed it to the decision-makers; what we call a foie-gras approach. On the other hand, organisations may allow the decision-makers to search for the desired facts or decision-support by themselves; what we refer to as anarchic resources utilisation. Alternatively, the decision-makers may utilise resources with a combination of the two approaches. Previous studies have shown that many factors may influence the resources utilisation; however, not many studies have been conducted in the B2B context. This research, therefore, aims to provide a better understanding of how decision-makers utilise the available resources by firstly identifying B2B factors affecting the resources utilisation, and then explaining how these factors influence them. Results from in-depth interviews with the marketing decision-makers from three case studies show that the value of customers, supplier-customer relationships, and the nature of demand are the most influential B2B factors affecting the resources utilisation of the decision-makers. Other factors such as experience, nature of decisions, and management style are also found to have considerable impact on the approach the decision-makers adopt. In order to provide adequate decision-support, the providers may need to consider these factors and understand their effects on the decision-makers in the organisation, and design or choose the right information system(s); this should then result in better quality decisions.

This study models and examines how changes in marketing information affects the degree of investor¡¦s risk aversion, and in turn, influences investor¡¦s decision-makings process under uncertainty. Under the mixed assumptions, the theoretical evidence in this study indicates that cumulative prospect theory (CPT) investors have propensity to discipline their depreciated assets and to sell their appreciated assets. Further, I find that CPT investors have less incentive to sell their holdings with higher advertising than ones with lower advertising when facing a paper gain or a paper loss. The empirical evidence indicates that advertising can help funds stem cash outflows, and finds investors are less willing to sell high performing investments with high fund family advertising than investments with low fund family advertising, and are more reluctant to redeem losing mutual funds with high fund family advertising than funds with low fund family advertising. For loser funds, a possible explanation from this study is that advertising seems to re-enforce the efficacy of recent investor decisions and adjust their beliefs to confirm past decisions, thus lets investors have more incentive to continue holding losing funds. For winner funds, this study infers that advertising may signal product quality, increase consumer satisfaction, brand equity and consumer loyalty that lead investors satisfied with their past decisions to have a greater propensity to retain their winning investments.

<p> The advances in information technologies and the Internet significantly promote the prosperous growth of electronic commerce in recent years. Simply surfing the Internet allows consumers to conveniently explore endless product choices and a flood of related product information. As one of the most important sources of product information, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) helps consumers assess product quality, reduces decision risk without physical trials, and thus facilitates locating their best matches. WOM volume on the Internet has been rising fast while the Internet also unprecedentedly enhances the reach of WOM. As a result, online WOM could significantly influence consumer decision-making. More and more firms are embracing and applying online WOM marketing as a complementary strategy for advertising to increase sales. Even so, not much has been known regarding the mechanism underlying the WOM effect on online consumer behavior. A deeper understanding of the economic impact of online WOM is needed to provide practitioners insightful guidance on information systems design and the allocation of firm resources to more effectively develop online WOM marketing strategies. </p><p> This dissertation seeks to shed light on online WOM effect from three angles using a three-essay structure. The first essay of this dissertation investigates how a demand side factor (online user-generated WOM) interplays with a supply side factor (product variety) to affect a product's popularity in the online market where product choices are abundant and consumers can easily access product information. Extant research primarily looks into either demand side or supply side justifications for the heterogeneity of consumption pattern. Alternatively, this study highlights that consumers' reliance on online user reviews to choose products is significantly influenced by the quantity of products available. </p><p> In addition, this dissertation also explores the differential impact of online WOM created by different types of reviewers on online user choices. While consumers are widely exposed to both online user reviews and professional reviews, those two sources of WOM information are generally believed to influence user choices independently. However, an in-depth mediation analysis conducted in the Bayesian framework shows that professional reviews influence online user choices not only directly but also indirectly through the volume of online user reviews. This study also proposes a more robust hierarchical structure to model the interaction effect between online user reviews and product variety, refining the first essay. </p><p> Following this line of inquiry, this dissertation further studies the impact of the distribution of online WOM across retailing and third-party websites on consumers' purchasing decisions. In parallel with the flocking WOM available on the Internet, nowadays consumers are able to reach almost every piece of online WOM information relevant to their interested products. The distribution of WOM information across the Internet may accordingly influence consumers' search costs for product information and affect their final decisions. This research has found empirical evidence that both the dispersion of WOM volume and variation of WOM valence across the Internet significantly influence online retail sales.</p>

<p> Online reviews have become a popular method for consumers to express personal evaluation about products. Ecommerce firms have invested heavily into review systems because of the impact of product reviews on product sales and shopping behavior. However, the usage of product reviews is undermined by the increasing appearance of shill or fake reviews. As initial steps to deter and detect shill reviews, this study attempts to understand characteristics of shill reviews and influences of shill reviews on product quality and shopping behavior. To reveal the linguistic characteristics of shill reviews, this study compares shill reviews and normal reviews on informativeness, readability and subjectivity level. The results show that these features can be used as reliable indicators to separate shill reviews from normal reviews. An experiment was conducted to measure the impact of shill reviews on perceived product quality. The results showed that positive shill reviews significantly increased quality perceptions of consumers for thinly reviewed products. This finding provides strong evidence about the risks of shill reviews and emphasizes the need to develop effective detection and prevention methods.</p>

O ritmo acentuado e a magnitude das mudanças desafiam a estabilidade em diversos setores da economia, sem indícios que o mundo amanhã será menos instável e complicado. Por isso, as informações acerca do que se conhece hoje já não são suficientes para que se tome uma boa decisão: os gestores precisam antever, de modo sistemático, o que irá acontecer para que possam administrar os efeitos da mudança ou, se possível, antecipá-los, construindo assim o futuro e não somente respondendo a ele quando este mudar. Desde o surgimento dos estudos do futuro no meio empresarial na década de 1970, houve um crescimento da utilização dos cenários. Tal crescimento não afastou, contudo, discussões que abordassem a sua real contribuição, apoiadas principalmente nas seguintes idéias: muitas previsões feitas não se tinham concretizado, eventos inesperados alteram o que se conhece; e eventos acontecem aleatoriamente. Porém, tais idéias foram contestadas considerando que não é possível saber se as previsões falharam, ou o curso da história foi alterado pelo homem ao tomar conhecimento prévio dos problemas; os eventos inesperados não alteram permanentemente todos os sistemas e costumes; e, eventos aparentemente aleatórios possuem uma longa acumulação de tendências na superfície. Portanto, embora, não seja possível conhecer plenamente o futuro, pode-se reconhecer ou, pelo menos, ter uma indicação do que vai acontecer. Uma analogia pode ser feita comparando os cenários ao funcionamento dos faróis de um carro à noite. Embora não revelem tudo o que virá à frente, é impossível guiar o carro com os faróis apagados. Nesse sentido, esta tese buscou compreender como os cenários podem ser usados para a tomada de decisão em marketing. A partir do refinamento deste problema de pesquisa, chegou-se ao objetivo de analisar a elaboração de cenários, como um dos produtos possibilitados pelo Sistema de Informação de Marketing (SIM), para fins de aplicação em marketing. Para atingi-lo, inicialmente foi realizada uma revisão teórica do SIM e de cenários - congregando mais de 25 métodos - estes dois corpos teóricos foram aproximados, o que contribuiu por trazer para o centro das discussões a teoria de cenários, que até então era discutida de forma pouco aprofundada na literatura especializada de marketing. Na sequência, realizou-se uma pesquisa de campo, de caráter exploratório e qualitativo, utilizando-se o método de estudo de casos múltiplos. Participaram da pesquisa 3 empresas de grande porte, com atuação em setores diferentes e presença em mais de 90 países. Concluiu-se que o SIM não pode mais ser entendido como o foi no passado, ou seja, como um sistema separado, pois agora ele é uma parte conectada ao sistema que auxilia a gestão da empresa como um todo. Os cenários, que são elaborados para serem utilizados na tomada de decisão de marketing, são um produto do Sistema de Apoio a Decisões de Marketing e são elaborados a partir da interpretação dos dados e das informações fornecidas pelos demais componentes do SIM: Registros Internos, Inteligência de Marketing e Pesquisa de Marketing. As informações originadas de cada um dos componentes se materializam como insumo principal ou secundário para a elaboração dos cenários, dependendo do tipo de pergunta que se coloca em relação ao futuro, ou seja, se o tomador de decisão quer saber \"o vai acontecer\", então são elaborados cenários preditivos, e os registros internos são o insumo principal para isso; já se a questão colocada for \"o que pode acontecer?\", o insumo principal são as informações originadas no Sistema de Inteligência de Marketing; por fim, se a questão é \"como uma meta específica pode ser alcançada?\", o insumo principal são os registros internos. A tese mostrou que os cenários podem ser usados em marketing para apoiar uma série de decisões que requerem uma melhor compreensão do comportamento futuro tanto do consumidor quanto da concorrência, com a finalidade de identificar oportunidades e riscos de mercado. Enfim, os cenários ajudam os gestores de marketing a estarem mais atentos a temas emergentes. / The sharp pace and magnitude of change in business and the economy defies stability in diverse industries, and there are no evidences that the world tomorrow will be less volatile and complicated. Therefore, information about what is known today is not sufficient for making good decisions: managers need to predict what will happen in a systematic way, so that they can manage the effects of change or, if possible, anticipate them, thereby shaping the future and not just responding to it when it changes. Since the emergence of future studies in business in the 1970s, there was a growth in using scenarios. However, this growth not departed discussions that addressed their actual contribution, supported on the following ideas: many forecast had not materialized, unexpected events change what is known; events happen randomly. However, such ideas were challenged whereas that it is not possible to know if the predictions failed, or the course of history was changed by man for having prior knowledge of problems; unexpected events not alter permanently all systems and customs; and apparently random events have a long accumulation of trends in surface. Therefore, although it is not possible to fully know the future, it can be recognize or at least have an indication of what will happen. An analogy can be made comparing the scenarios with the operation of the headlights of a car at night. Although not show everything that will come forward, it is impossible to drive the car with the headlights off. In this sense, this thesis asks how scenarios can be used for decision making in marketing, from the refinement of this research problem, the goal of analyzing the scenario development, as one of the products made possible by Marketing Information System (MIS), was reached. To achieve this, initially a theoretical review of the MIS and scenarios was conducted; these two theoretical bodies were approximate, which contributed to bringing the theory of scenarios to the center of the discussion, which until then was little discussed in the marketing literature. Qualitative and exploratory field research was carried out, using the method of multiple case studies. It was concluded that the MIS cannot be understood as it was in the past, as a separate system, because now it is connected to the system that assists the management of the company as a whole. The scenarios, which are designed to be used in marketing decision making, are a product of the Marketing Decision Support System and are drawn from the interpretation of the data and information provided by other components of the MIS: Internal Database, Marketing Intelligence, and Marketing Research. The information derived from each component materializes as primary or secondary input to the scenario\'s development, depending on the type of question that arises for the future, i.e., if the decision maker wants to know \"what will happen\", predictive scenarios are then elaborated, and the internal database is the main input for this; if the question is \"what can happen\", the main input is the information originating in the Marketing System and finally, if the question is \"how a specific goal can be achieved\", the main input is Internal Database. The literature and field research showed that scenarios can be used in marketing to support a series of decisions that require a better understanding of both the consumer and competitive future behavior, in order to identify opportunities and market risks. Finally, the scenarios help marketing managers\' attend to the emerging themes.

The existing literature on information disclosure commonly assumes full commitment to truthful disclosure and therefore revelations are always credible, which can be quite unrealistic in many circumstances. This thesis mainly contributes to the literature by studying information disclosure in the form of cheap-talk in auctions and monopoly pricing, which allows for mis-reporting and false disclosure. The thesis is composed mainly of three research papers. The first paper (Chapter 2), also the major chapter of this thesis, investigates cheap-talk information disclosure in auctions, where bidders' preferences are horizontally differentiated. The seller may reveal information of product attributes before the auction, and the disclosure policy is characterized by a partition of the attribute space. In a symmetric setting, I first show that informative equilibria reveal the feature that more precise information is provided for less popular product attributes. Second, I prove an equilibrium existence theorem that an informative equilibrium can be supported by an information partition of any degree, as long as the number of bidders is sufficiently large. And finally, the optimal disclosure policy reveals a complementarity relationship between the number of bidders and the optimal degree of equilibrium partitions. In this chapter, optimal information structure is endogenously determined. In the second paper (Chapter 3), I turn to study how a monopoly seller should reveal a product's horizontal attributes, when consumer preferences conform to a mixture distribution. I show that the optimal disclosure policy largely depends on the characteristics of the mixture distribution. Specifically, when consumer preferences are highly heterogenous, it is better for the seller to reveal information and serve different groups of consumers separately. And when the preference distribution becomes more asymmetric, cheap-talk disclosure is more likely to be dominated by no disclosure at all. In this chapter, information structure is taken as given. The third paper (Chapter 4) studies optimal regulation of risk-averse producers, in a setting of complementary production with independent cost realization. The production can be organized in the form of either component, or integrated production. I show in this paper that the relative virtues of these two forms of production depend on the degree of risk aversion of the producers.

Muitas vezes, os executivos encaram situações em que são obrigados a tomar decisões com base em seu feeling, sem dispor de informações seguras quanto ao uso de coleta e tratamento de dados que forneçam informação crível para apoio a sua tomada de decisão. Nesse sentido, em um cenário cada vez mais competitivo, a busca incessante por informações tem dado alternativas para as organizações se adaptarem ao panorama de mudanças constituídas pela demanda crescente por novas tecnologias de informação. Assim, evidencia-se a importância do sistema de informação de marketing, parte integrante do sistema de informação da empresa. Esta tese teve como proposta identificar e descrever a aplicação e utilização da arquitetura do sistema de informações de marketing por meio de seus subsistemas: a pesquisa de marketing, a inteligência de marketing, a contabilidade interna e o sistema analítico nas empresas de médio e grande porte. Por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica foi possível aprofundar e conhecer um pouco mais sobre esse assunto ainda pouco explorado no meio acadêmico. O levantamento teórico abordou temas como o sistema de informação gerencial: origem tipologias e sua evolução. Ênfase foi dada também ao sistema de apoio à administração de marketing explicando como a área de marketing incorporou o conceito de sistemas, criando assim uma ferramenta que operacionaliza o apoio à administração nas tomadas de decisão. O sistema de informação de marketing: conceitos e importância, as tipologias de modelos de sistemas de informação de marketing na visão de vários autores, sistema de informação de marketing: uso, aplicação e classificação, fases de um sistema de informação de marketing. E por fim, os subsistemas: pesquisa de marketing e inteligência de marketing. E para complementar o estudo foi conduzido uma pesquisa de cunho exploratório com 110 empresas de médio e grande porte na cidade de Londrina, com executivos do alto e médio escalão, por meio da técnica de amostragem probabilística sistemática. Chegou-se a resultados que evidenciaram algumas associações entre os segmentos e as atividades de marketing. O que por outro lado permitiu conhecer como as organizações utilizam as informações de marketing, com o auxílio dos testes estatísticos paramétricos (Anova) e não paramétricos (Qui-Quadrado), bem como o uso das técnicas multivariadas, a análise fatorial e de correspondência. Apesar da pesquisa ter sido realizada somente na cidade de Londrina, ela apontou indicadores muito interessantes, quanto ao conhecimento do tema proposto e que possivelmente reflita alguma realidade das empresas de hoje em dia. Naturalmente a limitação imposta é que a amostra não representa o universo das empresas do Brasil, não cabendo uma inferência ao todo. / A lot of times, the executives face situations in that they are forced to make decisions with base in your feeling, without disposing of safe information with relationship to the collection use and treatment of data that supply believable information for support your electric outlet of decision. In that sense, in a scenery more and more competitive, the incessant search for information has been giving alternatives for the organizations if they adapt to the panorama of changes constituted by the growing demand by new technologies of information. Like this, the importance of the system of marketing information is evidenced, it leaves integral of the system of information of the company. This thesis had as intended to identify and to describe the application and use of the architecture of the system of marketing information through your subsystems: the marketing research, the marketing intelligence, the accounting interns and the analytic system in the companies of medium and big load. Through a bibliographical revision it was still possible to deepen and to know a little more on that subject little explored in the academic middle. The theoretical rising approached themes as the system of managerial information: origin typologies and your evolution. Emphasis was also given to the support system to the marketing administration explaining as the marketing area it incorporated the concept of systems, creating like this a tool that operational the support to the administration in the electric outlet of decision. The system of marketing information: concepts and importance, the typologies of models of systems of marketing information in the several authors\' vision, system of marketing information: use, application and classification, phases of a system of marketing information. It is finally, the subsystems: marketing research and marketing intelligence. And to complement the study a research of exploratory stamp it was led with 110 companies of medium and big load in the city of Londrina, with executives of the high and medium step, through the technique of sampling systematic probability. It was arrived to results that evidenced some associations between the segments and the marketing activities. What on the other hand allowed to know as the organizations they use the marketing information, with the aid of the parametric statistical tests (Anova) and not parametric (Qui-square), as well as the use of the techniques multivariate, the factorial analysis and of correspondence. In spite of the research it was only accomplished in the city of Londrina, she pointed very interesting indicators, with relationship to the knowledge of the proposed theme and that possibly reflects some reality of the companies nowadays. Naturally the imposed limitation is that the sample doesn\'t represent the universe of the companies of Brazil, not falling an inference to the whole.

Muitas vezes, os executivos encaram situações em que são obrigados a tomar decisões com base em seu feeling, sem dispor de informações seguras quanto ao uso de coleta e tratamento de dados que forneçam informação crível para apoio a sua tomada de decisão. Nesse sentido, em um cenário cada vez mais competitivo, a busca incessante por informações tem dado alternativas para as organizações se adaptarem ao panorama de mudanças constituídas pela demanda crescente por novas tecnologias de informação. Assim, evidencia-se a importância do sistema de informação de marketing, parte integrante do sistema de informação da empresa. Esta tese teve como proposta identificar e descrever a aplicação e utilização da arquitetura do sistema de informações de marketing por meio de seus subsistemas: a pesquisa de marketing, a inteligência de marketing, a contabilidade interna e o sistema analítico nas empresas de médio e grande porte. Por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica foi possível aprofundar e conhecer um pouco mais sobre esse assunto ainda pouco explorado no meio acadêmico. O levantamento teórico abordou temas como o sistema de informação gerencial: origem tipologias e sua evolução. Ênfase foi dada também ao sistema de apoio à administração de marketing explicando como a área de marketing incorporou o conceito de sistemas, criando assim uma ferramenta que operacionaliza o apoio à administração nas tomadas de decisão. O sistema de informação de marketing: conceitos e importância, as tipologias de modelos de sistemas de informação de marketing na visão de vários autores, sistema de informação de marketing: uso, aplicação e classificação, fases de um sistema de informação de marketing. E por fim, os subsistemas: pesquisa de marketing e inteligência de marketing. E para complementar o estudo foi conduzido uma pesquisa de cunho exploratório com 110 empresas de médio e grande porte na cidade de Londrina, com executivos do alto e médio escalão, por meio da técnica de amostragem probabilística sistemática. Chegou-se a resultados que evidenciaram algumas associações entre os segmentos e as atividades de marketing. O que por outro lado permitiu conhecer como as organizações utilizam as informações de marketing, com o auxílio dos testes estatísticos paramétricos (Anova) e não paramétricos (Qui-Quadrado), bem como o uso das técnicas multivariadas, a análise fatorial e de correspondência. Apesar da pesquisa ter sido realizada somente na cidade de Londrina, ela apontou indicadores muito interessantes, quanto ao conhecimento do tema proposto e que possivelmente reflita alguma realidade das empresas de hoje em dia. Naturalmente a limitação imposta é que a amostra não representa o universo das empresas do Brasil, não cabendo uma inferência ao todo. / A lot of times, the executives face situations in that they are forced to make decisions with base in your feeling, without disposing of safe information with relationship to the collection use and treatment of data that supply believable information for support your electric outlet of decision. In that sense, in a scenery more and more competitive, the incessant search for information has been giving alternatives for the organizations if they adapt to the panorama of changes constituted by the growing demand by new technologies of information. Like this, the importance of the system of marketing information is evidenced, it leaves integral of the system of information of the company. This thesis had as intended to identify and to describe the application and use of the architecture of the system of marketing information through your subsystems: the marketing research, the marketing intelligence, the accounting interns and the analytic system in the companies of medium and big load. Through a bibliographical revision it was still possible to deepen and to know a little more on that subject little explored in the academic middle. The theoretical rising approached themes as the system of managerial information: origin typologies and your evolution. Emphasis was also given to the support system to the marketing administration explaining as the marketing area it incorporated the concept of systems, creating like this a tool that operational the support to the administration in the electric outlet of decision. The system of marketing information: concepts and importance, the typologies of models of systems of marketing information in the several authors\' vision, system of marketing information: use, application and classification, phases of a system of marketing information. It is finally, the subsystems: marketing research and marketing intelligence. And to complement the study a research of exploratory stamp it was led with 110 companies of medium and big load in the city of Londrina, with executives of the high and medium step, through the technique of sampling systematic probability. It was arrived to results that evidenced some associations between the segments and the marketing activities. What on the other hand allowed to know as the organizations they use the marketing information, with the aid of the parametric statistical tests (Anova) and not parametric (Qui-square), as well as the use of the techniques multivariate, the factorial analysis and of correspondence. In spite of the research it was only accomplished in the city of Londrina, she pointed very interesting indicators, with relationship to the knowledge of the proposed theme and that possibly reflects some reality of the companies nowadays. Naturally the imposed limitation is that the sample doesn\'t represent the universe of the companies of Brazil, not falling an inference to the whole.

<p>Aim: The aim of this thesis has been to try to answer the question of how an IT based marketing information system support the formation of business and product related strategies and when and how such a system should be integrated in a company</p><p>Method: Analytical meta-study of published literature condensed through a SWOT analysis and combined with a qualitative evaluation of questionnaires directed to companies with experience of developing and implementing marketing information systems.</p><p>Result & Conclusion: Company size and market volatility decides the time of implementation of a marketing information system. Implementation should be initiated top-down in order to secure full organisational inertia. The approach should be holistic and tailor-made for each specific organisation. Users should fully integrated in development and implementation.</p><p>Suggestions for future research: Supplementary work could be carried out in trying to quantify how a marketing information system affect the new product time to market and the strategic mismatch to real market development, hence the efficiency of such a system. Another question of interest is the organisational inbound resistance to change, how this resistance affect the implementation of a marketing information system and how to overcome the boundaries it poses.</p><p>Contribution of the thesis:This thesis contributes with a general framework that sustains the implementation of a marketing information system. It answers the initial questions that a manager has, standing before the possible implementation of such a tool.</p>

Aim: The aim of this thesis has been to try to answer the question of how an IT based marketing information system support the formation of business and product related strategies and when and how such a system should be integrated in a company Method: Analytical meta-study of published literature condensed through a SWOT analysis and combined with a qualitative evaluation of questionnaires directed to companies with experience of developing and implementing marketing information systems. Result &amp; Conclusion: Company size and market volatility decides the time of implementation of a marketing information system. Implementation should be initiated top-down in order to secure full organisational inertia. The approach should be holistic and tailor-made for each specific organisation. Users should fully integrated in development and implementation. Suggestions for future research: Supplementary work could be carried out in trying to quantify how a marketing information system affect the new product time to market and the strategic mismatch to real market development, hence the efficiency of such a system. Another question of interest is the organisational inbound resistance to change, how this resistance affect the implementation of a marketing information system and how to overcome the boundaries it poses. Contribution of the thesis:This thesis contributes with a general framework that sustains the implementation of a marketing information system. It answers the initial questions that a manager has, standing before the possible implementation of such a tool.