Published by De Gruyter

Volume 7 Issue 1

January 2009

Issue of Review of Marketing Science

Submit manuscript

Contents
Journal Overview

Article

February 3, 2009

Survival Determinants for Online Retailers

Ralitza Nikolaeva, Manohar U Kalwani, William T Robinson, S. Sriram

Article number: 0000102202154656161075

Abstract

Survival determinants can influence important strategic decisions. Analysis of longitudinal data on 418 online retailers in fourteen Bizrate product categories yields insights into key survival determinants. Survival tends to be easier for introductory versus growth stage entrants. Survival, however, is more difficult for e-tailers who sell touch and feel products and for pure e-tailers who do not have the support of either brick and mortar stores or catalog operations. While introductory stage entrants have higher survival rates versus growth stage entrants, there is no significant impact for rank order of entry or pioneer leadtime. These mixed results point to modest early mover advantages in online retailing. While some e-tailers like Amazon.com benefited from moving early, many others suffered from pioneer burnout.

July 14, 2009

Regression Analysis of Marketing Time Series: A Wavelet Approach with Some Frequency Domain Insights

Antonis A Michis

Article number: 0000102202154656161083

Abstract

Regression analysis with time series data is frequently used in marketing research. However, despite its popularity and ease of interpretation it cannot provide any information regarding the relations between marketing time series over different frequencies. This article proposes a new research tool, wavelet analysis, that when incorporated in regression analysis can provide some frequency domain insights about the effectiveness of marketing instruments over different cycles. In addition, by adopting appropriate regression-modeling techniques, wavelets can provide increased estimation and prediction accuracy of marketing causal effects.

August 5, 2009

Quality, Sunk Costs and Competition

John M. Crespi, Stephan Marette

Article number: 0000102202154656161096

Abstract

This paper explores the link between quality, cost and concentration. Using concentration and cost data and product quality indicators for 2,244 products in over eighty industries in 1997 and 2002 in the US, a two-stage, ordered probit, random effects estimation explores the impact of concentration and cost on quality. The results demonstrate that overall market concentration and high fixed costs are both positively correlated with product quality across most industries. Generally, when either industry concentration or industry fixed costs increase, the likelihood of the product being higher quality increases and the likelihood of observing a lower quality decreases. Further, the authors confirm that prices are a good signal of product quality. A theoretical model is also derived.

December 1, 2009

The Privacy Paradox: The Case of Secondary Disclosure

Giles D'Souza, Joseph E Phelps

Article number: 0000102202154656161072

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of privacy concerns on purchase likelihood. In many consumer-seller relationships, consumers are required to provide personal information to marketers in order to get better service. The law requires that marketer provide a statement of their privacy policies to consumers. Secondary disclosure is a key aspect of privacy policies. Consumers are concerned about giving up privacy, but the impact of such concerns on purchase behavior is unclear. By integrating several marketer-controlled variables like price, product, and channels with a marketers secondary disclosure policy, the study measures the relative importance of the latter along with the effects of secondary disclosure and internet attitudes. The results show that secondary disclosure attitudes influence the weight of secondary disclosure policies in purchase situations. The results also indicate that price sensitivity is influenced by secondary disclosure policies. The clear implications are that privacy concerns do matter and that privacy policies and marketing strategies cannot be set in isolation of each other. The findings are discussed in relation to prior research on privacy and future research directions. Statistical techniques used in the paper include structural equation models, conjoint analysis, and simultaneous equation regression.

December 1, 2009

A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Alternate Auction Policies for Search Advertisements

Subramanian Balachander, Karthik Kannan, David G Schwartz

Article number: 0000102202154656161101

Abstract

In the online world, publishers place ads from advertisers adjacent to internet search results for a given keyword. To sell such advertising, web publishers auction multiple ad slots using a generalized second-price auction. In this paper, we compare two auction policies that publishers can use to determine the rank and payments of bidding advertisers. The first policy, the highest bid policy, ranks ads based on the bids submitted while the second policy, the highest profit policy, ranks ads based on the expected profit generated to the publisher. Interestingly, we find that the highest profit policy may generate lower publisher profits per keyword even though it uses more information. Subsequently, we use data from a search engine and empirically establish that the correlation between valuations and click through rates are positive, an important assumption in our theoretical model. This finding provides significant support for the theoretical results.

About this journal

Objective

The Review of Marketing Science (ROMS) is a peer-reviewed journal whose mission is wide and rapid dissemination of cutting-edge quantitative research in marketing science and related disciplines.The journal’s focus is on topics and approaches in marketing science. Marketing science as a discipline places high value on approaches rooted in mathematics, economic theory, econometrics, statistics, and data-driven approaches.

The journal particularly encourages interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary work from diverse fields, as long as they are related to marketing science and generate insights that can be useful to marketing academics, managers or practitioners.

ROMS emphasizes substantive results that stimulate other researchers as they pursue their work. ROMS is especially interested in papers that are on topics that are under-represented in marketing and economics journals, topics and methods that might be considered controversial or too cutting-edge for other outlets, papers that report early but potentially underdeveloped results of substantial and time-sensitive nature, and papers that offer a broad overview of new and innovative topics or approaches that do not as of yet have an established base in the literature.

The journal values two-directional rapid feedback between the editors and authors. While the review process is strictly double-blind, authors are encouraged to contact the journal, through the journal’s email link, with questions regarding fit of papers and topics to the journal, questions seeking guidance, and communication pertaining to substance and methodology of technical nature. Young researchers will find a sympathetic hands-on non-adversarial editorial team that is deeply committed to their research objectives and success. Serious research will be met with sympathetic and helpful guidance.

Senior researchers should view this journal as a community platform to promote under-represented research topics and approaches of substantial promise. Specifically, the journal strongly encourages proposals by senior researchers in marketing, social sciences, behavioral disciplines, and business disciplines for special issues, as well as workshops, symposia, or special sessions that would yield a crop of related peer-reviewed papers on topics of importance.

Practitioners with cutting edge quantitative approaches, who have been finding academic publications to be impenetrable, will find an eager editorial team that will provide guidance and assistance in making substantial methodological contributions suitable for academic readership.

Topics

Marketing Science
Marketing Management
Economics
Statistics
Quantitative Consumer Research
Behavioral Marketing and Economics Research
Experimental Marketing and Economics Research

Article formats
Original research papers, special issues

Information on Submission Process