Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2019 Firms’ Strategies for Technology and Platform- based Markets Tianxin Zou Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, and the Marketing Commons Recommended Citation Zou, Tianxin, "Firms’ Strategies for Technology and Platform-based Markets" (2019). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1802. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1802 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Olin Business School Dissertation Examination Committee: Baojun Jiang, Chair Chakravarthi Narasimhan Seethu Seetharaman Raphael Thomadsen Bo Zhou Firms’ Strategies for Technology and Platform-based Markets by Tianxin Zou A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2019 St. Louis, Missouri © 2019, Tianxin Zou Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... vi Abstract of the Dissertation .......................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 Can Musicians and Fans Benefit When a Primary Ticket Platform Controls the Resale Market?................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Literature Review................................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Model ................................................................................................................................. 10 1.4 Analysis.............................................................................................................................. 15 1.4.1 The Case of High Resale Percentage Fee .................................................................... 16 1.4.2 The Case of Low Resale Percentage Fee ..................................................................... 25 1.5 Extensions .......................................................................................................................... 26 1.5.1 The Impact of Scalpers ................................................................................................ 26 1.5.2 Endogenous Resale Percentage Fee ............................................................................. 33 1.5.3 Competition between Resale Platforms ....................................................................... 34 1.6 Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 37 1.7 Empirical Study ................................................................................................................. 39 1.8 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 43 1.9 References .......................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 2 Consumer Search on Online Retail Platforms............................................................ 50 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 50 2.2 Literature Review............................................................................................................... 56 2.3 Model Setup ....................................................................................................................... 59 2.4 Equilibrium Analysis ......................................................................................................... 64 2.4.1 Exogenous Referral Fee ............................................................................................... 65 2.4.2 Endogenous Referral Fee ............................................................................................. 69 2.5 Filtering .............................................................................................................................. 73 ii 2.6 Extensions .......................................................................................................................... 77 2.6.1 Heterogeneous Search Cost ........................................................................................ 77 2.6.2 Heterogeneous Product Quality .................................................................................. 79 2.6.3 Fixed Referral Fee....................................................................................................... 81 2.6.4 Outside Option and Retail Platform Competition ....................................................... 82 2.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 83 2.8 References .......................................................................................................................... 87 Chapter 3 The Bright Side of Cost Transparency: Facilitating Product Innovation .................... 91 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 91 3.2 Literature Review............................................................................................................... 95 3.3 Model ................................................................................................................................. 97 3.4 Analysis.............................................................................................................................. 99 3.4.1 Firm Pricing Decisions ................................................................................................ 99 3.4.2 Firm Innovation Decision .......................................................................................... 106 3.5 Extension.......................................................................................................................... 108 3.5.1 Time Discount ............................................................................................................ 108 3.5.2 Market with Low Entry-barriers ................................................................................ 110 3.6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 113 3.7 References ........................................................................................................................ 116 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 120 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................. 135 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................. 140 iii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Seat Map of a Concert with Ticketmaster Resale ………………..………………...…2 Figure 1.2: Three Types of Market Structures …………………….…………………...…………4 Figure 1.3: Primary-Market Service Fee Divided by Face Price…………………….………...…41 Figure 1.4: Resale Percentage Fee: Ticketmaster vs. StubHub ……………………...…….….…43 Figure 2.1: Estimated Search Cost vs Dataset Time …………………………………….….....…52 Figure 2.2: Screenshot of Search Results of “Nike Lunarglide 8” on Amazon.com ………….…60 Figure 2.3: Screenshot of Search Results of “Nike Lunarglide 8” on Amazon.com, Sorted by Option “Price: Low to High” ………………… ………………..………………...…63 Figure 2.4: Seller’s and Platform’s Profits …………….……….. …………………...…………68 Figure 2.5: Numerical Example with Endogenous Referral Fee ……………...……………...…72 Figure 3.1: Equilibrium Outcome ……….…………………….. …………………...…………102 Figure 3.2: Equilibrium Outcome – Market with Low Entry Barriers ……………...…………111 iv List of Tables Table 1.1: Examples of Equilibrium Resale Prices 풓∗………………………………………....13 Table 1.2: Equilibrium Outcomes of the Integrated Platform Case ퟐ With 푽 > 푽 …………………………………………..……………….... ........22 푨 ퟐ−풌 푪 Table 1.3: Profit Decomposition with 훽 = 0 and 훽 = 0.2 ………………………….…….……30 Table 1.4: Summary Statistics….…………………………….….……………...………...….…40 Table 1.5: Estimation Results………………………………….………………………..………42 v Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor and committee chair Dr. Baojun Jiang