Business and Information Systems Engineering and Marketing

Electronic media have tremendously changed marketing’s opportunities and challenges. The interactive nature of the Internet has empowered consumers, for example by enabling them to actively engage in the pricing process via interactive and dynamic pricing mechanisms (Bichler et al. 2010; Hinz et al. 2011; Skiera et al. 2005). Furthermore, consumers can exchange information on products and prices within their social networks, which helps them take better consumer decisions but puts additional effort on the business models of online retailers to account for consumers’ social interaction (Hinz and Spann 2008). However, the Internet also provides new opportunities for marketers: recommender systems enable online retailers to cross-sell and up-sell, and they change the way products are sold (Hinz and Eckert 2010; Mertens 1997). Advertisers can much better evaluate the advertising effectiveness and efficiency in electronic media compared to traditional media such as print or television (Animesh et al. 2010; Ghose and Yang 2009). Rich data and user interaction enable personalized products, advertising and the individualized management of customer relationships (Ray et al. 2005; Tam and Ho 2006). Furthermore, new forms of marketing in search engines, social networks, and via mobile devices such as location-based services have emerged (e.g., Kumar and Benbasat 2006). Hence, consumers leave many digital footprints in the form of transactional data and user-generated content which provide multiple opportunities for enterprises to grow. However, this information incorporates the challenge that companies have to turn these data into actionable intelligence. These data can be used to create new products, reduce operating costs, and develop a better understanding of the consumers’ needs. As the data contain a lot of noise and are hard to handle because of sheer size (catchword: big data), marketers need the input of business information systems departments and researchers to create knowledge from these immense data volumes. But then, the big data opportunity also requires a critical reflection with respect to consumers’ privacy concerns. Therefore researchers in this area have to actively participate in the ongoing discussion on data protection. It is necessary to find a balance between the consumers’ rights on the one hand and potential innovations based on these data on the other hand. We refer to the ongoing discussion on data protection in Europe, see for example http://www.dataprotectioneu.eu. All the described developments have been enabled by recent developments in information systems. Thus, business information systems did not only enable these new opportunities in digital marketing, but the intersection of marketing and BISE also provides very promising research opportunities. In this special focus issue, we want to highlight these research opportunities and advance research on BISE and Marketing. The goal of this special focus was to increase our understanding of the opportunities and challenges for business information systems research at the intersection with marketing. The call for papers generated a total of 18 submissions, which went through a double-blind review process. Of these submissions, five papers were accepted for this special focus. The five contributions in this issue show a width of topics and methods which reflect the scope of this promising research field. Research topics range from consumer reviews and electronic word-of-mouth, online social networks to deal-of-the-day platforms and revenue management. The articles employ a broad methodological spectrum from simulation to qualitative and quantitative empirical work using survey and observational data. The first two papers focus on how online consumers use information from their peers in order to take purchase decisions. Lis studies the factors that drive the credibility of online consumer recommendations. Testing her theoretical predictions based on a survey of 643 consumers, she finds that the sender characteristics expertise and trustworthiness are the most important factors influencing the credibility of electronic word-ofmouth and subsequently consumers’ purchase decision. Scholz and Dorner study the