{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/73054"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/73054","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Two essays on product positioning and social media","abstract":"This dissertation consists of two essays on product positioning and social media. In chapter 1, I study how firms should compete with existing products by enhancing product attributes that are important to consumers. I propose that firms can either improve upon one important attribute significantly (the dominant attribute design strategy) or enhance as many important attributes as possible moderately (the general improvement strategy), given that firms’ R&D resources are limited. Results from three empirical studies suggest that when the expected product quality is low or the marketing competition is high, the dominant attribute design strategy is more effective in increasing sales and product evaluations, whereas the general improvement strategy is more effective when the market conditions are the opposite. In chapter 2, I study how online user reviews and online expert reviews jointly affect sales. Although numerous studies have examined their effects separately, their joint effects have been largely neglected. Through three empirical studies, I find that the inconsistency of user reviews and that of expert reviews substitute each other, thus mitigating the negative influences of the inconsistency of user reviews and increasing sales. In addition, product quality could moderate these effects. I also identify the customer breadth effect and the customer depth effect as the underlying mechanisms.","abstract_html":"This dissertation consists of two essays on product positioning and social media. In chapter 1, I study how firms should compete with existing products by enhancing product attributes that are important to consumers. I propose that firms can either improve upon one important attribute significantly (the dominant attribute design strategy) or enhance as many important attributes as possible moderately (the general improvement strategy), given that firms’ R&D resources are limited. Results from three empirical studies suggest that when the expected product quality is low or the marketing competition is high, the dominant attribute design strategy is more effective in increasing sales and product evaluations, whereas the general improvement strategy is more effective when the market conditions are the opposite. In chapter 2, I study how online user reviews and online expert reviews jointly affect sales. Although numerous studies have examined their effects separately, their joint effects have been largely neglected. Through three empirical studies, I find that the inconsistency of user reviews and that of expert reviews substitute each other, thus mitigating the negative influences of the inconsistency of user reviews and increasing sales. In addition, product quality could moderate these effects. I also identify the customer breadth effect and the customer depth effect as the underlying mechanisms.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Liu, Xuefeng"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Business Administration","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Fang, Eric","Qualls, William J.","Shavitt, Sharon","Gajendran, Ravi S."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-01-21T19:58:57Z","date_published":"2015-01-21T19:58:57Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:07Z","subjects":["Marketing strategy","Product positioning","Social media"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2014 Xuefeng Liu"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73054","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Fang, Eric","Qualls, William J.","Shavitt, Sharon","Gajendran, Ravi S."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Liu, Xuefeng"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2015-01-21T19:58:57Z","2017-01-22T10:15:32Z","2014-12","2015-01-21"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Business Administration"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Marketing strategy","Product positioning","Social media"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2014 Xuefeng Liu"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73054"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This dissertation consists of two essays on product positioning and social media. 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Through three empirical studies, I find that the inconsistency of user reviews and that of expert reviews substitute each other, thus mitigating the negative influences of the inconsistency of user reviews and increasing sales. In addition, product quality could moderate these effects. I also identify the customer breadth effect and the customer depth effect as the underlying mechanisms.","Item withdrawn by Laura Spradlin (lspradl2@illinois.edu) on 2014-11-18T19:55:25Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 1 Liu_Xuefeng.pdf: 625853 bytes, checksum: 74d79fdf39b93f79356ced2f9412e9ad (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2015-01-21T19:58:57Z (GMT). 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I propose that firms can either improve upon one important attribute significantly (the dominant attribute design strategy) or enhance as many important attributes as possible moderately (the general improvement strategy), given that firms’ R&D resources are limited. Results from three empirical studies suggest that when the expected product quality is low or the marketing competition is high, the dominant attribute design strategy is more effective in increasing sales and product evaluations, whereas the general improvement strategy is more effective when the market conditions are the opposite. In chapter 2, I study how online user reviews and online expert reviews jointly affect sales. Although numerous studies have examined their effects separately, their joint effects have been largely neglected. 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