Consumers’ purchase decisions can be influenced by others’ opinions, i.e., word-of-mouth (WOM), and/or others’ actions, i.e., observational learning. While information technologies are creating increasing opportunities for firms to facilitate/manage these two types of social interaction, researchers so far have encountered difficulty in disentangling their competing effects and have provided li...

I this paper, we explore the economics of free under perpetual licensing. In particular, we focus on two emerging software business models that involve a free component: feature-limited freemium (FLF) and uniform seeding (S). Under FLF, the firm offers the basic software version for free, while charging for premium features. Under S, the firm gives away for free the full product to a percentage...

In this study, blog data were collected and network parameters were captured to represent three common measurements of online Word-Of-Mouth: intensity, influence level, and dispersion. These parameters were then analyzed using a General Estimating Equation (GEE) model to test their effects on average weekly movie box office receipts. Findings indicated that all three parameters were significant...

Flash memory is a leading storage media with excellent features such as random access and high storage density. However, it also faces significant reliability and endurance challenges. In flash memory, the charge level in the cells can be easily increased, but removing charge requires an expensive erasure operation. In this thesis we study rewriting schemes that enable the data stored in a set ...

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is, according to Reichheld, the single most reliable indicator of company growth, and many companies use this recommendation-based technique for measuring customer loyalty. Despite its widespread adoption by many companies across multiple industries, the debate about NPS goes on. A major concern is that managers treat NPS as being equivalent across customers, which ...

Based on Social Exchange Theory and Motivation Crowding Theory, we study the motivations of consumers to spread e-WOM by benefit factors and cost factors. Meanwhile, we brought the motivation crowding effect into the analysis model, and discussed the effect of extrinsic motivation on intrinsic motivation and internalized extrinsic motivation. Through empirical analysis in China, we find that al...

From the perspective of consumers, taking "Changbai Mountain Ginseng" as an example, the paper has proved the influences of geographical brand image on consumers’ behaviors. And further more, it has confirmed the significant adjustment function of WOM information on the relationship between geographical brand image and consumers’ behavioral intentions. The conclusion of the study can provide ra...