Measuring Product Type and Purchase Uncertainty with Online Product Ratings: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Application

Search and experience goods, as well as vertical and horizontal differentiation, are fundamental concepts of great importance to business operations and strategy. In our paper, we propose a set of theory-grounded data-driven measures that allow us to measure not only product type (search vs. experience and horizontal vs. vertical differentiation) but also sources of uncertainty and to what extent consumer reviews help resolve uncertainty. We used product rating data from Amazon.com to illustrate the relative importance of fit in driving product utility and the importance of search for determining fit for each product category at Amazon. Our results also show that, whereas ratings based on verified purchasers are informative of objective product values, the current Amazon review system appears to have limited ability to resolve fit uncertainty. Industry practitioners could utilize our approaches to quantitatively measure product positioning to support marketing strategy for retailers and manufacturers, covering an expanded group of products.

The moderating effect of agglomeration on horizontal differentiation and online reviews: the case of Paris hotels

PurposeHotels are immersed in a very competitive environment and hoteliers have to plan and redesign their strategies to stay in the hospitality industry while faced with a steady rise in competition. Hoteliers can employ horizontal differentiation strategies and pricing decisions to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. The goal of our work is to analyse the effect of pricing and horizontal differentiation strategy of a hotel on its online reputation and to analyse if the hotel location and agglomeration of competitors moderates their relationship with online reputation.Design/methodology/approachWith a sample of 264 hotels from Paris, an empirical study is developed that aims to analyse, using regression techniques, the impact of price, differentiation, location and competitive environment on online ratings given by consumers in the hospitality context.FindingsThe paper provides empirical evidence of how a good location improves the online reputation of a company and how pricing strategies should take into account the location and number of competitors since a good location allows premium prices to be valued positively by consumers while an inappropriate location can produce the opposite effect. Depending on location, the number of competitors can intensify or reduce the effect of price on online reputation. Finally, online reputation only benefits from horizontal differentiation strategies when the degree of agglomeration is low.Originality/valueThis work provides insights about how hotels can strengthen their online reputation through pricing and differentiation strategies, incorporating elements of their environment such as location and competition in this decision-making process.

Horizontal Differentiation and the Policy Effect of Charter Schools

While school choice may enhance competition, incentives for public schools to raise productivity may be muted if public education is imperfectly substitutable with alternatives. This paper estimates the aggregate effect of charter school expansion on education quality while accounting for the horizontal differentiation of charter programs. Our research design leverages variation following the removal of North Carolina’s statewide cap to compare test score changes for students who lived near entering charters to those farther away. We find learning gains that are driven by public schools responding to increased competition from non-horizontally differentiated charter schools, even before those charters actually open. (JEL H75, I21, I28)

Privatization Policies by National and Regional Governments

In order to analyze the privatization policies undertaken by the national and regional governments, I consider a horizontal differentiation model with price competition in which a country consists of two regions of different sizes. I show that public-sector intervention by either the national or regional government is essential for achieving the social optimum. The preferences of consumers and firms about privatization policy are completely opposite: consumers prefer a regional public-sector intervention, while firms prefer a national public-sector intervention. Finally, I find that the preferences of the two regions about market structures are also opposite: the least populated region prefers the private duopoly, while the most populated region prefers a government intervention in the market.

EXPRESS: Positioning new identities for appeal: Configurations of optimal distinctiveness amid ancestral identities

The theory of strategic balance argues that organizations that are neither too similar to nor too distinct from their rivals will be best positioned to meet competing demands for legitimacy and competition. This is because a similar identity to other organizations signals conformity, thus generating legitimacy, while adopting a distinctive identity through differentiation provides competitive advantage. Recent studies have noted that various combinations of conformity and differentiation tactics can achieve “optimal distinctiveness”, which, depending on the particular competitive landscape, may be low, moderate, or high. This study disentangles the effect of distinctiveness in a landscape from the effects of conformity to and differentiation from ancestral identities that serve as templates for new identities. Taking a configurational approach, we explore whether distinctiveness, proximity to an ancestral identity, hybridization of multiple ancestral identities, vertical and horizontal differentiation are necessary or sufficient, alone or in combination, to generate appeal for new identities.

Soil enzyme activity in the dry valley phytocenoses under the influence of Acer negundo L.

The activity of hydrolytic enzymes in the soil of dry valley phytocenoses under the influence of ash-leaved maple was investigated. The research objects were selected taking into account the ranking of plantations by crown density. Soil samples were collected depending on the horizontal differentiation of communities in the undercrown and outer zones of phytogenic fields. An increase in the enzyme activity during the period of active tree growth among experimental and control samples was established. Among the enzymes, invertase demonstrated the highest activity, while protease and phosphatase were characterised by medium activity. An increased invertase activity was found in the trees with a high crown density as compared to the trees of other groups. The obtained data can be used as diagnostic indicators of soil condition for monitoring natural ecosystems.

AN INDEX FOR MEASURING HORIZONTAL DIFFERENTIATION IN HOSPITALITY

Amid a continuous and evolving offer of new services, the hospitality industry is immersed in a highly competitive changing environment, being differentiation an essential strategy to survive and gain a competitive advantage. As a consequence, a differentiation strategy is continuously being defined and adapted. Beyond the vertical differentiation, focused on objective quality signals, horizontal differentiation offers more chance and alternatives to hoteliers for using own resources and capabilities to gain a competitive advantage. In particular, product analysis and competition evaluation are a must-be to offer a value proposition co-created with the customer. Considering the great range of services, and the need to compute all properly and understandably, this work aims to design and index that can integrate all services of a hotel and allow comparison to evaluate the level of differentiation.

Strategic Customer Behavior and Pricing Strategy Based on the Horizontal Differentiation of Products

Manufacturers produce products with horizontal differences to meet different needs of customers. This paper compares the influence of three different sales channels on strategic customers’ choice and the pricing strategy of products with horizontal differentiation. The results show that the strategic customers whose willingness to pay (WTP) is close to 1 will buy high-performance products and whose WTP is close to 0 will not purchase any kind of products in the two dual-channel models. If the manufacturers adopt dual channel to sell products with horizontal differences, the retailers agree that the manufacturers sell high-performance products in the traditional channel and sell low-performance products in the electronic channel. In dual-channel supply chain model I, the higher the satisfaction of high-performance products and the lower the satisfaction of low-performance products, the more conducive to the retailers.

Forbidding and Enjoying: Warlpiri Taboos

This chapter systematically analyses Warlpiri taboos showing how they can all be dispatched into four contexts (socialisation rituals, totemic relationships, mother-in-law/son-in-law relation, death) and four domains (space, language, sexuality and goods, especially food). Each combination of a context and a domain virtualises forms of obligations and ritual transgressions, which connect all taboos in a hypercubic way (see chapter 6). In that underlying entanglement of prohibitions and transgressions, any structural dualism seems to be conjured. Taboos become a way to create human and non human heterogeneous temporality, both as a vertical transmission – in the succession of generations re-enacted through socialisation and mourning rituals – and as a horizontal differentiation perpetually redefining these modalities of alliance and of ritual interdependance between the totemic groups. Everybody has an interest in reproducing a balance that respects the Law and pressing others to do the same, as well as giving what he/she has so that others will reciprocate. Such a social pressure partly explains the refusal to accumulate and the systematic circulation of all possessions, cars, clothes, etc., although it does not prevent conflicts. In fact, a certain dissensus is valued. First published in French in 1991.