1. 消费者如何与数字专家建议互动？医疗保险的实验证据

原标题：How Do Consumers Interact with Digital Expert Advice? Experimental Evidence from Health Insurance

期刊：Management Science

作者：M. Kate Bundorf, Maria Polyakova, Ming Tai-Seale

出版时间：2024-01-09

DOI：10.1287/mnsc.2020.02453

摘要：消费者在做出购买决策时越来越多地使用数字建议。这些工具如何改变消费者行为，以及哪些类型的消费者可能会使用它们？我们在处方药保险的背景下，通过数字专家建议的随机对照试验来检验这些问题。我们研究的干预措施有效地改变了消费者的选择。我们提出，从概念上讲，专家建议可以通过两个截然不同的渠道影响消费者的选择：通过更新消费者对产品特征的信念（学习）和通过影响消费者对产品特征的重视程度（解读）。使用我们的试验数据来估计消费者需求模型，我们发现这两个渠道在数量上都很重要。数字专家咨询工具不仅为消费者提供信息，还改变了消费者对产品功能的重视程度。例如，消费者愿意为最受欢迎品牌的计划少支付14%，为额外的星级评级少支付37%，因为他们在计划选择上纳入了数字专家建议，而不是只拥有关于产品特征的信息。此外，我们还记录了在两个边际上使用数字建议的大量选择。那些天生就不那么活跃的购物者，以及那些我们预测会对建议做出更多反应的消费者，就不太可能要求建议。我们的研究结果引发了人们对数字建议改变消费者偏好的能力的担忧，以及更多地获得数字专家建议对分配的影响。

Abstract: Consumers increasingly use digital advice when making purchasing decisions. How do such tools change consumer behavior and what types of consumers are likely to use them? We examine these questions with a randomized controlled trial of digital expert advice in the context of prescription drug insurance. The intervention we study was effective at changing consumer choices. We propose that, conceptually, expert advice can affect consumer choices through two distinct channels: by updating consumer beliefs about product features (learning) and by influencing how much consumers value product features (interpretation). Using our trial data to estimate a model of consumer demand, we find that both channels are quantitatively important. Digital expert advice tools not only provide consumers with information, but also alter how consumers value product features. For example, consumers are willing to pay 14% less for a plan with the most popular brand and 37% less for an extra star rating when they incorporate digital expert advice on plan choice relative to only having information about product features. Further, we document substantial selection into the use of digital advice on two margins. Consumers who are inherently less active shoppers and those who we predict would have responded to advice more were less likely to demand it. Our results raise concerns regarding the ability of digital advice to alter consumer preferences as well as the distributional implications of greater access to digital expert advice.

2. 帮助小企业变得更加数据驱动：eBay上的实地实验

原标题：Helping Small Businesses Become More Data-Driven: A Field Experiment on eBay

期刊：Management Science

作者：Sagit Bar-Gill, Erik Brynjolfsson, Nir Hak

出版时间：2024-01-03

DOI：10.1287/mnsc.2021.02026

摘要：随着数字化席卷行业和市场，分析和数据驱动决策（DDD）变得越来越重要。与大公司相比，中小企业采用分析和DDD的速度较慢，而且缺乏对分析工具对小企业影响的可靠因果估计。我们对分析工具对中小企业结果的影响进行了基于实验的估计，分析了eBay卖家中心（SH）的随机引入，这是一个数据丰富的卖家仪表板。我们发现，SH的采用与DDD的增加有关，随着交易项目的增加和服务质量的提高，而平均价格没有上涨，使用SH平均会使电子零售商的收入增加3.6%。我们的研究结果表明，分析和DDD有助于中小企业建立竞争优势。管理实践在从分析仪表板中获益方面发挥着重要作用，因为超过三分之一的SH影响是由积极的绩效监控驱动的。因此，数字平台应嵌入分析工具，以支持中小企业增加进入和收入。此外，支持小企业向数据时代过渡的政策应通过确保获得SH等工具和适当的管理培训来解决分析和DDD差距。

Abstract: As digitization sweeps across industries and markets, analytics and data-driven decision making (DDD) are becoming increasingly important. The adoption of analytics and DDD has been slower in small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) compared with large firms, and reliable causal estimates of the impacts of analytics tools for small businesses have been lacking. We derive experiment-based estimates of the impact of an analytics tool on SME outcomes, analyzing the randomized introduction of eBay’s Seller Hub (SH), a data-rich seller dashboard. We find that SH adoption is associated with increased DDD and that access to SH increases e-retailers’ revenues by 3.6% on average, as more items are transacted and service quality increases, without increases in average prices. Our results suggest that analytics and DDD help SMEs establish a competitive advantage. Managerial practices play an important role in reaping the benefits from the analytics dashboard, as more than a third of the SH impact is driven by active performance monitoring. Digital platforms should therefore embed analytics tools to support SMEs to increase entry and revenues. Furthermore, policies to support small businesses’ transition to the data era should address analytics and DDD gaps by ensuring access to both tools like SH and to appropriate managerial training.

3. 效用代币、网络效应和定价能力

原标题：Utility Tokens, Network Effects, and Pricing Power

期刊：Management Science

作者：Kirill Shakhnov, Luana Zaccaria

出版时间：2023-10-22

DOI：10.1287/mnsc.2023.4917

摘要：我们研究了数字产品市场，在这些市场中，消费者与其他用户积极互动的倾向是异质的，估值随着活跃用户（例如社交网络平台）的份额而增加。我们提出了一个模型，在该模型中，企业家可以发行数字索赔（代币），以承诺独家获得专门提高活跃用户效用的福利。这使得企业家能够通过价格歧视来获取消费者剩余。因为有动机事后违背“排他性”承诺，扩大活跃用户网络，所以这一承诺的可信度在于一种昂贵的技术（区块链），该技术在出售的代币中嵌入了自动合同，并限制了创业自由裁量权。我们发现，代币销售的盈利能力随着创业能力和网络效应的强度而增加。

Abstract: We examine digital product markets in which consumers are heterogeneous in their propensity to actively interact with other users and valuations increase with the share of active users (e.g., social network platforms). We propose a model in which entrepreneurs can issue digital claims (tokens) to promise exclusive access to benefits that specifically enhance the utility of active users. This allows entrepreneurs to extract consumer surplus through price discrimination. Because there is an incentive to renege on the "exclusivity" promise ex post and expand the network of active users, the credibility of this commitment resides in a costly technology (blockchain) that embeds automatic contracts in the tokens sold and limits entrepreneurial discretion. We show that the profitability of token-based sales increases with entrepreneurial ability and the intensity of network effects.

4. 获得组织认可：战略性地调整数字创新的地位

原标题：Gaining Organizational Adoption: Strategically Pacing The Position Of Digital Innovations

期刊：Academy Of Management Journal

作者：Karp, R (Karp, Rebecca)

出版时间：2023-08-12

DOI：10.5465/amj.2020.0548

摘要：长期以来，学者们一直建议，为了促进创新成果的采用，企业家应与客户接触，更好地了解他们尚未满足的需求。然而，客户往往居住在组织中，而组织成员对创新带来的好处可能持不同意见。组织内部的决策很少由单一的高管掌握，不同的成员都可能具有影响力。在这种多元化的情况下，创业公司如何让组织采纳其创新成果？我探讨了参与数字健康加速器的 54 家创业公司如何为组织采纳其创新成果而努力。我的研究表明，当创业者追求嵌入式流程时，他们会通过新的使用案例，为新客户开发出扩大创新相关性的方法，但也会战略性地调整创新的节奏，保留创新的破坏性方面，以安抚客户组织内的不同受众。采用以市场为中心的流程的公司也扩大了创新的相关性。尽管以市场为中心的方法激发了企业高管的兴趣，但并未获得采纳。通过解读一些企业家发现如何战略性地加快数字创新部署的过程，我提供了一个解释数字创新如何获得组织采纳的机制。

Abstract: Scholars have long suggested that, to foster adoption for their innovations, entrepreneurs should engage with customers to better understand their unmet needs. Yet, customers frequently reside in organizations, and organizational members may not be aligned in their views regarding the benefits an innovation offers. Decision-making within organizations is rarely under the purview of a single executive and various members can wield influence. Given this plurality, how do entrepreneurial firms gain organizational adoption for their innovations? I explore how 54 entrepreneurial firms, all participating in a digital health accelerator, attempted to gain organizational adoption for their innovations. I show that, when entrepreneurs pursued an embedded process, they developed ways to expand the relevance of their innovations for new customers through new use cases, but strategically paced and withheld disruptive aspects of their innovations to appease different audiences within customer organizations. Firms that leveraged a market-centric process also expanded the relevance of their innovations. Despite sparking the interest of executives, firms using a market-centric approach did not gain adoption. By unpacking the process by which some entrepreneurs discovered how to strategically pace the deployment of their digital innovations, I contribute a mechanism that explains how digital innovations gain organizational adoption.

5. 前沿：哪些公司从数字广告中获益？野外实验的证据

原标题：Frontiers: Which Firms Gain from Digital Advertising? Evidence from a Field Experiment

期刊：Marketing Science

作者：Weijia Dai, Hyunjin Kim, Michael Luca

出版时间：2023-04-06

DOI：10.1287/mksc.2023.1436

摘要：衡量广告机会的回报仍然是许多企业面临的挑战。我们在一个大型评论平台上设计并运行了一项实地实验，涉及餐饮业的18294家公司，以了解哪些类型的企业从数字广告中获得更多收益。我们随机分配了7209家餐厅，在三个月内免费接收平台的标准广告包。实验的规模为我们提供了一个独特的机会来评估各种商业属性的广告效果的异质性。我们发现，收到广告的餐厅在各种购买意向结果上平均增加了7%-19%，顾客评价也增加了5%。我们发现，不同公司的收益是异质的，独立和评级更高的企业观察到了更大的收益，以及那些拥有更多评论和更高实验前有机流量的企业。

Abstract: Measuring the returns of advertising opportunities continues to be a challenge for many businesses. We design and run a field experiment on a large review platform across 18,294 firms in the restaurant industry to understand which types of businesses gain more from digital advertising. We randomly assign 7,209 restaurants to freely receive the platform’s standard ads package for three months. The scale of the experiment gives us a unique opportunity to assess the heterogeneity in advertising effectiveness across a variety of business attributes. We find that restaurants that receive advertising observe on average a 7%–19% increase in a wide range of purchase intention outcomes, as well as a 5% increase in customer reviews. We find that gains are heterogeneous across firms, with independent and higher-rated businesses observing larger gains, as well as those with more reviews and higher pre-experiment organic traffic.

6. 疫情重开中的中小企业：数字边缘与转型

原标题：Small and Medium Enterprises Amidst the Pandemic and Reopening: Digital Edge and Transformation

期刊：Management Science

作者：Lin William Cong, Xiaohan Yang, Xiaobo Zhang

出版时间：2024-03-12

DOI：10.1287/mnsc.2023.02424

摘要：我们利用行政通用商业登记数据以及对中国小企业（包括未注册的自营职业）的主要线下和线上调查，研究（i）数字化是否有助于中小企业（SME）更好地应对新冠疫情，以及（ii）疫情是否刺激了数字技术的采用。我们记录了数字化在增强中小企业抵御如此巨大冲击的韧性方面的显著经济效益，从需求下降缓解、可持续的现金流、快速重新开放的能力以及积极的增长前景可以看出。2020年1月封锁后，公司入驻呈现V型格局，电商公司入驻立即下跌不明显，反弹较快。此外，新冠疫情加速了现有企业和行业多维度数字化转型（例如，改变经营范围纳入电商，允许远程办公，采用电子信息系统）。这种影响在重新开放一年多后持续存在，对于某些行业、产业集群中的企业以及数字包容程度更高但金融效率更低的地区，这种影响更为明显，构成了疫情长期影响和所谓暂时缓解政策的初步证据。

Abstract: Using administrative universal business registration data as well as primary offline and online surveys of small businesses (including unregistered self-employments) in China, we examine (i) whether digitization helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) better cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and (ii) whether the pandemic has spurred digital technology adoption. We document significant economic benefits of digitization in increasing SMEs’ resilience against such a large shock, as seen through mitigated demand decline, sustainable cash flow, ability to quickly reopen, and positive outlook for growth. After the January 2020 lockdown, firm entries exhibited a V-shaped pattern, with entries of e-commerce firms experiencing a less pronounced immediate drop and a quicker rebound. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of existing firms and the industry in multiple dimensions (e.g., altering operation scope to include e-commerce, allowing remote work, and adopting electronic information systems). The effect persists more than one year after reopening, and it is more pronounced for certain sectors, firms in industrial clusters, and areas with more digital inclusion but less financial efficiency, constituting initial evidence for the long-term impact of the pandemic and the supposedly transitory mitigation policies.

7. 数字支付与消费：来自印度2016年去货币化的证据

原标题：Digital Payments and Consumption: Evidence from the 2016 Demonetization in India

期刊：The Review of Financial Studies

作者：Agarwal, S; Ghosh, P; Li, J; Ruan, TY

出版时间：2024-03-09

DOI：10.1093/rfs/hhae005

摘要：我们研究消费者支出对数字支付的反应，使用2016年印度突然停止货币化导致的消费者之间的数字支付差异切换进行识别。数字支付使用率上升2.94个百分点，月度支出增长2.38%，此前现金依赖增加10个百分点。即使现金可用性恢复，支出仍保持高位。稳健性分析表明，支出响应不受购买替代、收入冲击、信贷供给或价格变化的驱动。我们提供了因果关系证据，表明数字支付因捐赠效应减弱而增加了消费者支出。

Abstract: We study how consumer spending responds to digital payments, using the differential switch to digital payments across consumers induced by the sudden 2016 Indian Demonetization for identification. Usage of digital payments rose by 2.94 percentage points and monthly spending increased by 2.38% for an additional 10 percentage points in prior cash dependence. Spending remained elevated even when cash availability recovered. Robustness analyses show that the spending response is not driven by income shocks, credit supply, price changes, or consumers' moving to the formal market. We provide evidence that digital payments increase consumer spending due to subdued salience.