| The advent of Web 2.0 applications in the last ten years has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other via the internet. Blogs, forums and social networks have expanded the possibilities for people to exchange information; smartphones and tablets have expanded the accessibility of such information. Beyond their undeniable influence on social activity, these changes have also introduced important changes on economic activity, especially in the way that companies think of---and deal with---their customers. An increasing number of players have now come to realize that a truly efficient Supply Chain is one that considers customers as an active part of it, and Web 2.0 applications make this not only possible, but also easy and inexpensive. Inspired by the innovative approach of startups like MyFab and by the trailblazing growth of startups like Groupon, my doctoral thesis uses dynamic games to examine a series of innovative business models where firms use the internet to engage with their customer base and, by doing so, acquire relevant information that they use to improve their business decisions, such as product development, seasonal opening/closing, and pricing. My work also aims at providing recommendations for the correct design of these novel business models, in order to induce truthful voluntary information sharing on the part of customers and maximize the benefit that the firm derives from the acquired information. The first chapter of my dissertation, "Information Acquisition Through Customer Voting Systems", co-authored with Prof. Karan Girotra, studies the use of customer-centric internet polls on the part of a firm to improve development and pricing decisions. The second and third chapters of my dissertation take a novel operational perspective on an innovative discount structure, pioneered by Groupon and copied by many of its competitors in the daily deal industry, in which a discounted deal is considered valid only if a pre-announced number of customers show interest in the offering---we call these threshold discounting offers. The third chapter of the dissertation, "Threshold Discounting Offers: Unintended Consequences and Incentive Conflicts", co-authored with Prof. Karan Girotra and Prof. Serguei Netessine, further expand the analysis on threshold discounting offers in several directions. Specifically, we consider cases in which discounts are not just an effective way to smooth demand across time, but are also an effective way to expand the market for a service. Overall, our results complement our analysis in chapter two by providing elements that caution towards the use of threshold discounting in certain settings, and by using our findings to explain what has happened in practice. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.). |
