Online Information
Source: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/online-information Parent: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/bizthemes/data-analytics
SHANG, Weixin
WANG, Yunjie
Sharing Audit Information for Responsible Sourcing
Corporate Social Responsibility
Violations of social responsibility by suppliers, whether through unethical, dangerous, or irresponsible behavior, attract considerable attention from the media and the public. “When these violations occur, socially conscious consumers may boycott the guilty brands and switch to other brands,” say HKUST’s Albert Y. Ha and colleagues. Their study sheds new ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
MAGLARAS, Costis
SCARSINI, Marco
VACCARI, Stefano
Online Rankings and Raising Revenue
When making online purchases, consumers often encounter a lengthy list of products whose quality they know little or nothing about, ranked by an unknown algorithm. Users often turn to others’ online reviews to estimate product quality—a process known as social learning. HKUST’s Dongwook Shin and colleagues shed light on the challenges that platforms face ... Read More
[ BizStudies ] [ Digital Platform: Design and Strategy ]
ZHANG, Nan Andy
WANG, Chong
KARAHANNA, Elena
The Concept of Privacy in Online Communities Today
With the growth of social media and other online communities, online social interactions have become an important part of daily life. This has led to increasing concerns about online privacy in the context of e-commerce. On today’s Internet, privacy needs differ from those in traditional e-commerce due to their focus on interactions among online peers. In ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
The Pitfalls of Review Solicitation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on TripAdvisor
The under-provision of online reviews is a major challenge faced by review platforms and businesses alike. In response, many businesses have begun to actively solicit reviews from their consumers. But is this approach beneficial? In examining TripAdvisor’s launch of a review collection program, we found that while hotel participation in review solicitation ... Read More
[ BizTalks ]
CONG, Ziwei
What Are You Looking At? How Others Influence our Choices Online
Online platforms attract hundreds of millions of users, who post regularly on many topics. However, the algorithms used to direct them to content have faced criticism. HKUST’s Jia Liu and a colleague examine the phenomenon of “popularity bias” in recommender systems, taking advantage of a quasi-experiment conducted by China’s biggest online knowledge-sharing ... Read More
[ BizStudies ] [ Digital Platform: Design and Strategy ]
VACCARI, Stefano
ZEEVI, Assaf
How Online Reviews Affect Dynamic Pricing Strategies
Online product review platforms have become popular places for consumers to share their opinions on and experiences of the products and services they buy. In online marketplaces, the quality of a new product or service is initially unknown, but reviews posted by buyers inform subsequent customers. By reducing uncertainty about product quality, this type of ... Read More
[ BizStudies ] [ Digital Platform: Design and Strategy ]
LUO, Huajiang
SHANG, Weixin
The Manufacturer’s Dilemma: Which Channels to Use for Online Retailing?
In the early days of online retailing, many online retail platforms operated as “reselling channels”—purchasing goods from manufacturers and reselling them to consumers. Over time, some platforms (notably Amazon and JD) established “agency channels” (also known as “marketplace channels”) that allowed manufacturers to sell directly to consumers. Through their ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
CHEUNG, Muller Y. M.
For Businesses, a New Way to Improve Brainstorming Results
Among the inputs that executives rely on to run competitive organizations, a particular type resists classification: ideas. Companies need a steady supply of ideas, and they often turn to external venues for help. Say, for instance, a company is developing an advertising campaign that needs art and text to convey a targeted message. If the company lacks the ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
LIM, Hyungsoo
JUNG, Jaehwuen
KIM, Chul
Finding the Perfect Match Online
The Internet has revolutionized not only how we search for information but also how we communicate and interact with others. Central to the ever-expanding digital infrastructure for human connection are online matching platforms. Also known as two-sided markets, these platforms connect users with mutual interests in a range of markets, from ride-sharing (e.g ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]
CHEN, Xi
TRUSOV, Michael
Influence in Networks: Insights from a Roleplaying Game
An HKUST researcher has developed a methodology to optimize promotions in online networks. The methodology does not only consider the likelihood of whether an individual is interested in the promotion (i.e., whom to target), but also how it impacts other individuals in the network (i.e., social influence of the target) and the time it is most effective ( ... Read More
[ BizStudies ]