题　目：Search Prominence in a Distribution Channel

嘉　宾：朱毅，副教授，明尼苏达大学

主持人：孙海龙 助理教授 上海交通大学安泰经济与管理学院

时　间：2023年4月26日（周三）10:00-11:30am

地　点：安泰经济与管理学院A503

内容简介：

Consumers increasingly start their online price search from a specific retailer. We aim to determine the impact of such a prominent retailer on channel members and consumers. A search model is developed within a distribution channel where consumers sequentially searching for prices across retailers. The results show that search prominence has two effects: First, it de-escalates price competition among retailers under duopoly but intensifies competition under oligopoly; second, it worsens the channel coordination between the manufacturer and the prominent retailer. We also identify how the relative size of costly search consumer segment and search costs can moderate these effects. Compared with the situation without prominence, we find that (1) in a duopoly, all channel members’ prices decrease in search cost. The manufacturer (prominent retailer) is always worse (better) off, whereas the non-prominent retailer is better off if the proportion of costly search consumers is low. (2) In an oligopoly, (a) whereas the wholesale price decreases in search cost, the prominent retailer’s price first increases and then decreases in search cost; (b) non-prominent retailers are always worse off; and (c) the manufacturer and the prominent retailer are worse off when the search cost is medium and the proportion of costly search consumers is high, whereas both of them are better off when both search cost and the proportion of costly search consumers are low. (3) Although search prominence does not necessarily hurt the channel profit or social surplus, our analyses suggest it always results in a decrease in consumer surplus.

Keywords: Consumer Search; Search Prominence; Distribution Channel; Prominent Retailer; Competitive Strategy

演讲人简介：

Yi Zhu is an Associate Professor of Marketing, Mary & Jim Lawrence Fellow at the University of Minnesota. He received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Southern California (USC) and M.A. in Economics from University of British Columbia. His research interests focus on the application of industrial organization models in marketing, online auctions, consumer search, advertising, media slant, sharing economy and Chinese economy. His recent works have appeared or forthcoming at Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research and International Journal of Research in Marketing. 

Zhu is the recipient of the John D.C. Little Award for the best marketing paper published in Marketing Science or Management Science, the finalist for the Frank M. Bass Award, and the finalist for the Don Morrison Long Term Impact Award by ISMS twice (2021, 2022). He has been selected as a 2017 Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholars, a biennial award given to the most promising scholars in marketing, and the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholars in 2022, a biennial award given to "top scholars helping to set the research agenda for the field". His research was funded by 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Grant, the Marketing Science Institute Grant, Net Institute Grant, CIBER dissertation Grant, Carlson Dean's Small Research Grant, and Dean's Research Travel Grant.

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