IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v21y2002i4p412-434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Referral Infomediaries

Author

Listed:
  • Yuxin Chen

    (Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, New York 10012)

  • Ganesh Iyer

    (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720–1900)

  • V. Padmanabhan

    (Olin School of Business, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130–4899)

Abstract

An interesting phenomenon has been the emergence of “infomediaries” in the form of Internet referral services in many markets. These services offer consumers the opportunity to get price quotes from enrolled brick-and-mortar retailers and direct consumer traffic to particular retailers who join them. This paper analyzes the effect of referral infomediaries on retail markets and examines the contractual arrangements that they should use in selling their services. We identify the conditions necessary for the infomediary to exist and explain how they would evolve with the growth of the Internet. The role of an infomediary as a price discrimination mechanism leads to lower online prices. Perhaps the most interesting result is that the referral infomediary can unravel (i.e., no retailer can get any net profit gain from joining) when its reach becomes too large. The analysis also shows why referral infomediaries would prefer to offer geographical exclusivity to joining retailers.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuxin Chen & Ganesh Iyer & V. Padmanabhan, 2002. "Referral Infomediaries," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 412-434, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:21:y:2002:i:4:p:412-434
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.21.4.412.135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.21.4.412.135
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.21.4.412.135?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-659, September.
    2. Jeffrey R. Brown & Austan Goolsbee, 2000. "Does the Internet Make Markets More Competitive?," NBER Working Papers 7996, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Erik Brynjolfsson & Michael D. Smith, 2000. "Frictionless Commerce? A Comparison of Internet and Conventional Retailers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(4), pages 563-585, April.
    4. Jeffrey R. Brown & Austan Goolsbee, 2002. "Does the Internet Make Markets More Competitive? Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(3), pages 481-507, June.
    5. Narasimhan, Chakravarthi, 1988. "Competitive Promotional Strategies," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(4), pages 427-449, October.
    6. Fiona Scott Morton & Florian Zettelmeyer & Jorge Silva‐Risso, 2001. "Internet Car Retailing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 501-519, December.
    7. Lal, Rajiv & Villas-Boas, J Miguel, 1996. "Exclusive Dealing and Price Promotions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(2), pages 159-172, April.
    8. Rajiv Lal & Miklos Sarvary, 1999. "When and How Is the Internet Likely to Decrease Price Competition?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 485-503.
    9. Fiona Scott Morton & Florian Zettelmeyer & Jorge Silva-Risso, 2001. "Internet Car Retailing," NBER Chapters, in: E-commerce, pages 501-519, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. repec:bla:jindec:v:49:y:2001:i:4:p:501-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Florian Zettelmeyer & Fiona Scott Morton & Jorge Silva-Risso, 2005. "How the Internet Lowers Prices: Evidence from Matched Survey and Auto Transaction Data," NBER Working Papers 11515, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Il-Horn Hann & Kai-Lung Hui & Sang-Yong Tom Lee & Ivan P.L. Png, 2005. "Sales and Promotions: A More General Model," Industrial Organization 0508014, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Catherine Tucker & Juanjuan Zhang, 2008. "Decomposing the Congestion Effect and the Cross-Platform Effect in Two-Sided Networks: A Field Experiment," Working Papers 08-12, NET Institute, revised Oct 2008.
    4. Arnold Michael A. & Pénard Thierry, 2007. "Bargaining and Fixed Price Offers: How Online Intermediaries are Changing New Car Transactions," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-27, June.
    5. David Soberman, 2005. "Questioning Conventional Wisdom About Competition in Differentiated Markets," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 41-70, January.
    6. Fay, Scott & Xie, Jinhong & Feng, Cong, 2015. "The Effect of Probabilistic Selling on the Optimal Product Mix," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 451-467.
    7. Bing Jing & Z. Zhang, 2011. "Product line competition and price promotions," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 275-299, September.
    8. Michael Arnold & Chenguang Li & Christine Saliba & Lan Zhang, 2011. "Asymmetric Market Shares, Advertising And Pricing: Equilibrium With An Information Gatekeeper," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 63-84, March.
    9. Kim, Nayeong & Lee, Dongmin & Cho, Seonghwan & Moon, Junghoon, 2023. "The effect of exclusive distribution on the sales of ready-made meals in online retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    10. Florian Zettelmeyer & Fiona Scott Morton & Jorge Silva-Risso, 2001. "Cowboys or Cowards: Why are Internet Car Prices Lower?," NBER Working Papers 8667, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Gielens, Katrijn & Gijsbrechts, Els & Dekimpe, Marnik G., 2014. "Gains and losses of exclusivity in grocery retailing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 239-252.
    12. Fay, Scott, 2008. "Selling an opaque product through an intermediary: The case of disguising one's product," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 59-75.
    13. Bing Jing, 2007. "Product differentiation under imperfect information: When does offering a lower quality pay?," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 35-61, March.
    14. Cai, Gangshu (George) & Chen, Ying-Ju, 2011. "In-Store Referrals on the Internet," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(4), pages 563-578.
    15. Lu Hsiao & Ying-Ju Chen, 2013. "The perils of selling online: Manufacturer competition, channel conflict, and consumer preferences," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 277-292, September.
    16. Reuber, A. Rebecca & Fischer, Eileen, 2011. "International entrepreneurship in internet-enabled markets," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 660-679.
    17. Yuangao Chen & Shuiqing Yang & Zhoujing Wang, 2016. "Service cooperation and marketing strategies of infomediary and online retailer with eWOM effect," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 109-118, June.
    18. Jianqiang Zhang & Zhuping Liu & Raghunath Singh Rao, 2018. "Flirting with the enemy: online competitor referral and entry-deterrence," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 209-249, June.
    19. Anindya Ghose & Tridas Mukhopadhyay & Uday Rajan, 2003. "Strategic Benefits of Referral Services," Review of Marketing Science Working Papers 2-2-1022, Berkeley Electronic Press.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oksana Loginova & Andrea Mantovani, 2019. "Price competition in the presence of a web aggregator," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 43-73, January.
    2. O. Loginova & A. Mantovani, 2015. "Information and Online Reviews," Working Papers wp996, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Fay, Scott, 2008. "Selling an opaque product through an intermediary: The case of disguising one's product," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 59-75.
    4. Backus, Matthew R. & Podwol, Joseph Uri & Schneider, Henry S., 2014. "Search costs and equilibrium price dispersion in auction markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 173-192.
    5. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2009. "Brand and Price Advertising in Online Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1139-1151, July.
    6. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2005. "Probabilistic Patents," Microeconomics 0504004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ya-Ling Chiu & Jiangze Du & Jying-Nan Wang, 2022. "The Effects of Price Dispersion on Sales in the Automobile Industry: A Dynamic Panel Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    8. Eymann, Torsten (Ed.), 2007. "Tagungsband zum Doctoral Consortium der WI 2007 [WI2007 Doctoral Consortium Proceedings]," Bayreuth Reports on Information Systems Management 24, University of Bayreuth, Chair of Information Systems Management.
    9. Häring, Julia, 2003. "Different Prices for Identical Products? Market Efficiency and the Virtual Location in B2C E-Commerce," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-68, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Byrne, David P. & Martin, Leslie A., 2021. "Consumer search and income inequality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Oksana Loginova, 2007. "Real and Virtual Competition," Working Papers 0715, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    12. Chuan He & Yuxin Chen, 2006. "Research Note—Managing e-Marketplace: A Strategic Analysis of Nonprice Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 175-187, 03-04.
    13. Whaley, Christopher M., 2019. "Provider responses to online price transparency," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 241-259.
    14. Anindya Ghose & Yuliang Yao, 2011. "Using Transaction Prices to Re-Examine Price Dispersion in Electronic Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 269-288, June.
    15. Anindya Ghose & Avi Goldfarb & Sang Pil Han, 2013. "How Is the Mobile Internet Different? Search Costs and Local Activities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 613-631, September.
    16. Anindya Ghose & Tridas Mukhopadhyay & Uday Rajan, 2007. "The Impact of Internet Referral Services on a Supply Chain," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 300-319, September.
    17. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2004. "Price Dispersion In The Small And In The Large: Evidence From An Internet Price Comparison Site," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 463-496, December.
    18. Wen, Zhong, 2014. "Mixed pricing in oligopoly with limited monopoly," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 87-92.
    19. Dinlersoz, Emin M. & Pereira, Pedro, 2007. "On the diffusion of electronic commerce," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 541-574, June.
    20. Genakos, Christos & Roumanias, Costas & Valletti, Tommaso, 2023. "Is having an expert “friend” enough? An analysis of consumer switching behavior in mobile telephony," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 359-372.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:21:y:2002:i:4:p:412-434. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.