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This dissertation is a compilation of three essays that analyze price dispersion in an online retail marketplace. Price dispersion is a measure of the variation in prices that sellers charge for products. Online price dispersion has been thoroughly analyzed in the past decade as it has numerous implications for firm pricing strategy as well as consumer welfare. Chapter 1 of this dissertation offers a literature review of price dispersion research, and discusses key explanations as to why this phenomenon exists on the web. Also, a literature review of shop-bots is presented as they are similar to online marketplaces and form the basis of the three studies. Chapter 2 is the first study, and it establishes the existence of price dispersion in online marketplaces and offers a comparison with price dispersion in shop-bots. It is determined that online marketplaces may have less variation than on shop-bots, yet the price dispersion is still high. Chapter 3 is the second study and it explains much of the dispersion found in the online marketplace through differences in seller service quality and seller reputation. A seller's reputation was found to be the key contributor to variation in the online marketplace hence, study 3, which is chapter 4 of this dissertation, employs an experimental approach designed to offer a perspective of buyers and sellers to determine why price varies with reputation and if consumers value the reputation score. It was determined that buyers prefer sellers with strong long run reputation scores more than sellers with strong short-term reputation scores. Based on these reputation scores sellers want to try to offer a higher price than consumers are willing to pay, and sellers think that a strong score conveys higher levels of trust than buyers believe. This mismatch between how sellers think consumers respond, and how the consumers actually respond could be another driver of price dispersion online. A discussion of the implications of these research studies is offered in Chapter 5. / Business Administration

This dissertation examines the innovations in electronic commerce and their managerial impacts. In the first essay, we investigate the importance of product and retailer uncertainty in a customer's online purchase decision as well as the uncertainty-reduction effects of retailer characteristics. In the second essay, we examine online pricing strategies of B2C retailers, with an aim to understand whether and how the driving factors of price dispersion evolve over time. Based on the theories of resource-based view (RBV), IT business value, and competitive dynamics, the third essay examines the factors that affect cross-channel capabilities and competitive actions in the apparel industry in the U.S.

Submitted by Mateus Rabello (mateus_rabello@hotmail.com) on 2011-08-24T03:24:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado - Mateus Rabello.pdf: 425155 bytes, checksum: eb391a2f1f35ae446621fecfaf956f8b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado (andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2011-08-25T13:20:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado - Mateus Rabello.pdf: 425155 bytes, checksum: eb391a2f1f35ae446621fecfaf956f8b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-08-25T13:40:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado - Mateus Rabello.pdf: 425155 bytes, checksum: eb391a2f1f35ae446621fecfaf956f8b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-04 / Em modelos de competição de preços, somente um custo de procura positivo por parte do consumidor não gera equilíbrio com dispersão de preços. Já modelos dinâmicos de switching cost consistentemente geram este fenômeno bastante documentado para preços no varejo. Embora ambas as literaturas sejam vastas, poucos modelos tentaram combinar as duas fricções em um só modelo. Este trabalho apresenta um modelo dinâmico de competição de preços em que consumidores idênticos enfrentam custos de procura e de switching. O equilíbrio gera dispersão nos preços. Ainda, como os consumidores são obrigados a se comprometer com uma amostra fixa de firmas antes dos preços serem definidos, somente dois preços serão considerados antes de cada compra. Este resultado independe do tamanho do custo de procura individual do consumidor. / In models of price competition, positive consumer search cost alone does not lead to a price dispersion equilibrium. Dynamic models with switching cost, on the other hand, consistently generate this well-documented feature of retail prices. Even though both literature are vast, very few models attempted to put both frictions together. This paper presents a dynamic model of price competition where identical consumers face both search and switching cost. Equilibrium prices display price dispersion. Moreover, becouse consumers have to commit to a sample size before prices are set, then only two prices will be considered before each purchase. This result is independent of the size of the individual search cost.

本研究主要目的在探討價格離散對消費者價格知覺的影響。藉由心理物理理論—適應水準理論、範圍理論與範圍頻次理論，為理論基礎以預測價格刺激在價格離散市場對消費者價格知覺判斷的影響，且基於物理刺激與價格刺激的本質差異，針對價格刺激的價值特性，提出兩點作為價格離散效果的推論基礎。第一、消費者對金錢損失與利得的不對稱反應，使得消費者對低價刺激比高價刺激更敏感。第二、價格資訊複雜時，消費者傾向以價格帶的價格頻次作為處理價格資訊的捷思。本論文藉由三個系列研究，以實驗設計法，將價格離散的效果來源區分為平均價格、價格範圍、價格範圍端點與價格型態四方面探討。 研究一結果發現，價格範圍會降低消費者能接受的最低價格水準並影響消費者的預期最低價格。低平均價格則會降低消費者可接受的最高價格。因此，當市場價格離散程度提高，市場價格範圍變寬或平均價格降低時，會使得消費者的可接受價格帶價格水準降低。可接受價格帶降低會影響價格判斷結果。在消費者主觀知覺上，寬價格範圍使得消費者知覺價格離散程度提高，代表著知覺價格差異、知覺價格不一致與知覺價格混亂三方面的指標都提高。 研究二則進一步證實，市場低價端點與高價端點對消費者的影響權重並不對稱。結果顯示，低價端點的寬價格範圍組會拉低可接受價格帶，然而，高價端點的寬價格範圍組並不會提高可接受價格帶，這是由於消費者對低價與高價的不對稱反應，使得低價與高價對消費者的影響權重有別。同時，在少數低價端點的高價格離散市場，消費者會感受到較高的價格離散程度，主要反映在知覺價格差異與不一致程度；相對地，若是少數高價端點的高價格離散市場，知覺價格離散程度不會顯著提高。一般在運用心理物理理論時，並未提到低價端點與高價端點的相對影響上的不同，事實上則會降低理論預測消費者面對市場價格差異的真實反應。 研究三探討集中分佈與兩極分佈兩種價格型態的影響，結果顯示價格分佈對可接受價格並無顯著影響。然而，兩極價格呈現的是市場價格變異很大的高價格離散市場，確實消費者的知覺價格離散亦有大於集中價格的情況，主要反映在知覺價格混亂程度方面。因此，欲瞭解價格離散對消費者價格知覺的影響，則需從平均價格、價格範圍與價格範圍端點分析之。 / The main purpose of this dissertation is to explore the impact of price dispersion on consumers’ price perception. Borrowing from psychophysics theories, such as Adaptation-Level Theory, Range Theory and Range-Frequency Theory, this research predicts how price stimuli in a product market with high price dispersion have effects on consumers’ price perception and judgments. On top of the difference between physic stimuli and price stimuli which has monetary value attached in nature, two assumptions are proposed for hypothesis inferences. First, consumers have asymmetric responses towards monetary loss and monetary gain, which make them more sensitive to low prices than high prices. Second, consumers tend to use relative price frequency among different price zones as a heuristic to process complicated price information. Therefore, this dissertation conducted three studies, all with experimental designs, to explore the effects of price dispersion from four dimensions- price mean, price range (width), extremely high or low prices and price pattern. This dissertation includes three studies. Study one was designed to explore the effect of price mean and price range. The result indicated that wide price range lowered down the lower boundary of acceptable price. Meanwhile, price range has effect on consumers’ lower boundary of expected price. In contrast, lower mean marked down the upper boundary of acceptable price. Thus, in a market of high price dispersion, the wide price range or lower mean tends to lower down the level of acceptable price, which further influences consumers’ price judgment. In addition, wide price range raised a consumer’s perceived price dispersion, which could be measured from higher perceived price difference, higher perceived price inconsistency and higher perceived price chaos. Study two focused on the effect of extreme prices under high price dispersion. Wide price range with relatively fewer extremely low prices maked down the range of acceptable price. However, wide price range with relatively fewer extremely high prices had no impact at all. This is because of consumers’ asymmetric responses towards low prices and high prices, which make consumer more sensitive to lower prices than high prices. Consumers’ perceived high price dispersion aroused by fewer extremely low prices was mainly the perception of high price difference and price inconsistency. In contrast, fewer extremely high prices would not enhance perceived price dispersion. Past application of psychophysics theories to predict the effect of price stimuli did not emphasize the different weight of low and high prices on consumers’ perception. Then the theories could not fully predict consumers’ real perception of market price difference. Study three further explored the effect of price pattern by comparing two price patterns, normally-centered and bipolarly-separated. The result indicated no effect on the range of acceptable price, but two patterns differed in their perceived price dispersion. What the pattern of bipolarly-separated represented was a market with high price variances, which also led consumers to perceive higher price dispersion, especially higher price chaos. Accordingly, the overall effect of price dispersion should be analyzed through the effect of mean, price range and extreme prices.

過去住宅價格的研究多以平均數為主軸，鮮少探討價格分散（price dispersion）的現象。然而，如市場上價格分散程度增加，則平均價格在市場整體價格的描述上將失去其經濟意義。因此，本文試圖了解平均價格與價格分散的關係及價格分散的影響原因。目前，價格分散之文獻多著重於需求者行為對成交價分散的影響，未探討造成表價差異的原因。過去文獻指出，景氣及區位皆會影響建商的推案行為及訂價行為。因此，本文從供給者角度，探討房價水準、景氣及區位對表價分散造成的影響。 本研究使用政治大學房地產研究中心與國泰建設公司所調查台北市與台北縣83Q1至97Q2住宅新推個案表價資料，分成台北市與台北縣市中心、市郊與郊外研究價格分散程度差異。結果顯示，住宅市場房價水準上升時，將增加建商的產品及訂價差異，在市場效率及資訊不足的情況下，使房價水準領先價格分散三季。而不景氣時容易對財務條件較差之廠商造成銷售壓力，使價格分散較景氣時大。區位較佳之地區因產品獨特性、價格僵固無彈性，而使分散程度小於區位較差地區。由市場上價格分散情形，我們可以觀察到市場風險的變化，景氣轉壞時或區位較差地區風險較高。 價格分散是市場上價格混亂的現象，在產品異質性較高故不易觀察的住宅市場中，本文釐清了價格分散來自於房價水準、景氣及區位。因此，當價格分散擴大時，學術上觀察平均價格時應更謹慎的看到個體的差異，而市場上需求者更應多搜尋與比較市場上的住宅產品。 / Price dispersion is a common issue in homogeneous goods literatures, but a few researches in housing market. In financial literatures, variation is an important index which means the risk of market. Especially in market depression, we should pay more attention to price variation. As a result, this paper focus on the price dispersion of housing market, and tries to find the effect of price level, real estate cycle, and location on price dispersion. Previous time-on-the-market studies focused on the relationship between listing price and trading price of housing unit, while this paper investigates the difference in listing price of different residential projects in new construction market. We demonstrate the degree of housing price dispersion which changes with price level, real estate cycle and location, because of the heterogeneity of seller’s strategies. After controlling the effect of product differentiation, we find that there is a positive correlation between price dispersion and risk. Our results suggest that besides the price level, we should pay more attention to the price dispersion of housing market.

This thesis shows that consumers' behaviour has a decisive impact on the innovative behaviour of firms and on the development of industry. As a framework, an evolutionary simulation model is chosen, and market interactions are modelled according to a search theoretic approach.

This dissertation is about games with a continuum of players and horizontal differentiation. The first chapter explains how price dispersion can be a feature of a competitive market with homogenous information and production costs. The second chapter extends the study to group consumption. The third chapter is about multiple equilibria in urban transportation. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Submitted by Manuela Lopes (manu.hlopes@hotmail.com) on 2012-03-23T05:02:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 discount.pdf: 259598 bytes, checksum: 22629d2c1b0a6a09240f05febeeddef1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado (andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2012-03-23T12:49:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 discount.pdf: 259598 bytes, checksum: 22629d2c1b0a6a09240f05febeeddef1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-03-27T18:24:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 discount.pdf: 259598 bytes, checksum: 22629d2c1b0a6a09240f05febeeddef1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-19 / Prices of a homogenous package of services present considerable dispersion across banks. A simple model that uses consumer search costs and loyalty is devolped in order to reproduce this empirical observation. Using data for the brazilian banking sector, empirical exercises are performed to allow for: (i) the estimation of consumer search costs by xing the values of other parameters; and (ii) the estimation of the corresponding deadweightlosses imposed by costly search. When only 80% of the population is free to engage in search activity, at a 0.5% monthly interest rate, the upper limit of the support of the search cost distribution is found to be 1805.80 BRL. In this case, the corresponding estimate of the deadweightloss imposed on an average searcher is 233.71 BRL. / Pode-se observar uma considerável dispersão entre os preços que diferentes bancos comerciais no Brasil cobram por um mesmo pacote homogêneo de serviços— dispersão esta que é sustentada ao longo do tempo. Em uma tentativa de replicar esta observação empírica, foi desenvolvido um simples modelo que lança mão do arcabouço da literatura de custos de procura (search costs) e que baseia-se também na lealdade por parte dos consumidores. Em seguida, dados de preços referentes ao setor bancário brasileiro são aplicados ao modelo desenvolvido e alguns exercícios empíricos são então realizados. Esses exercícios permitem que: (i) os custos de procura incorridos pelos consumidores sejam estimados, ao fixar-se os valores dos demais parâmetros e (ii) as correspondentes perdas de peso-morto que surgem como consequência dos custos de procura incorridos pelos consumidores sejam também estimadas. Quando apenas 80% da população é livre para buscar por bancos que cobrem menores tarifas, à taxa de juros mensal de 0,5%, o valor estimado do custo de procura médio incorrido pelos consumidores chega a 1805,80 BRL, sendo a correspondente perda de peso-morto média na ordem de 233,71 BRL por consumidor.

This thesis shows that consumers' behaviour has a decisive impact on the innovative behaviour of firms and on the development of industry. As a framework, an evolutionary simulation model is chosen, and market interactions are modelled according to a search theoretic approach.