Suchergebnisse

In vier Kapiteln beschreibe ich, wie Qualitätssignale die Wahrnehmung der Produkte im Kaufentscheidungsprozess beeinflussen. Aus meinen Ergebnissen leite ich Managementimplikationen und Vorschläge für die weitere Forschung ab. Ich konzentriere mich bei meinen Studien auf die Analyse und den Vergleich von Expertenmeinungen und Mundpropaganda und die Untersuchung des kommerziellen Erfolgs von Markenerweiterungsprodukten und Franchise-Titeln. Die vier Forschungsstudien des Entertainment-Marktes unterscheiden sich dabei in zwei Gesichtspunkten. Zum einen werden zwei verschiedene Branchen, genauer die Film- und Videospielindustrie untersucht. Zum anderen werden klassische ökonometrische Analysemethoden um neue qualitativ vergleichende Analyseansätze erweitert.Die klassischen ökonometrischen Analysemethoden konzentrieren sich auf die Ermittlung der marginalen Effekte der unabhängigen Variablen auf eine oder mehrere abhängige Variablen anhand von Korrelationen. Die qualitativ vergleichenden Studien basieren hingegen nicht auf Korrelationsbeziehungen sondern auf mengentheoretischen Beziehungen. Im Gegensatz zu klassischen ökonometrischen Methoden ist die qualitativ vergleichende Analyse in der Lage nicht nur einen Kausalitätspfad zu untersuchen, sondern simultan verschiedene Kausalitätspfade und -bedingungen zu modellieren, die zur gewünschten Zielvariable führen.Zusammenfassend untersucht diese Arbeit mit Hilfe von ökonometrischen und qualitativ vergleichenden Analyseansätzen die Einflusswirkung von Qualitätssignalen auf den Kaufentscheidungsprozess unter asymmetrischer Information. Anhand von proprietären Daten aus der Film- und Videospielindustrie wird gezeigt, dass insbesondere Markenerweiterungsprodukte, Expertenmeinungen und Mundpropaganda zu hohen Verkaufszahlen und damit zu einem großen Markterfolg führen.. - In four different chapters, I describe how signals of quality affect consumer perceptions and derive managerial implications and suggestions for future research. However, I focus on the analysis and the comparison of expressed opinions of professional critics and word-of-mouth and on the study of the commercial success of brand extension products and franchise titles. The four analyses of the entertainment market do not only differ in terms of the film and video game industry but also by the econometric approaches combining classical variable-oriented analyses and novel qualitative comparative analyses of signals. Variable-oriented analysis focuses on the empirical identification of the net effects of independent variables on one or more dependent variables. In variable-oriented analyses, linear, additive models test causality and are primarily based on correlation relationships. In contrast, qualitative comparative analysis studies causation with set-theoretic relationships. Whereas variable-oriented analysis is based on linear, additive models and thus on single paths that lead to the outcome of interest, qualitative comparative analysis is able to model multiple distinct causal paths to the outcome. In conclusion, this research introduces two different approaches for quantifying signaling effects that influence the purchase decisions of customers under asymmetric information. Using proprietary data from the motion-picture and video game industry, we specifically show that brand extension strategies and critical reviews from both professional critics and word-of-mouth may lead to high market performance.

AbstractExperience goods are characterised by information asymmetry and a lack of ex ante knowledge of product quality, such that reliable external signals of quality are likely to be highly valued. Two potentially credible sources of such information are reviews from professional critics and 'word of mouth' from other consumers. This paper makes a direct comparison between the relative influences and interactions of reviews from both of these sources on the sales performance of video game software. In order to empirically estimate and separate the effects of the two signals, we analyze a sample of 1480 video games and their sales figures between 2004 and 2010. We find evidence to suggest that even after taking steps to control for endogeneity, reviews from professional critics have a significantly positive influence on sales which outweighs that from consumer reviews. We also find evidence to suggest that reviews from professional critics also interact significantly with other signals of product quality. Consequently, we contend that professional critics adopt the role of an influencer, whereas word‐of‐mouth opinion acts more as a predictor of sales in the market for video games. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose
This study aims to identify and explain a possible gender pay gap in the creative industry. By using the salary information of Hollywood actors, this paper restricts the analysis to a relatively homogenous group of workers. In addition, actors' human capital endowments and past performance can be measured precisely. The factors that impact the salaries of movie stars are likely to influence the pay of other high-wage employees, such as athletes and executives.


Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a rich panel data set including 178 female and male actors in 973 movies released between 1980 and 2019. Using a random-effects model and the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition approach, this paper distinguishes between a fraction of the gender pay gap that can be explained and another fraction that cannot be explained. Hence, only the unexplained residual typically obtained by estimating two standard Mincer-type earnings functions is due to discriminatory pay practices.


Findings
This study reveals a pay difference between female and male actors. Gender-specific representation in leading roles and systematic differences in performance measures can explain this pay difference. While female actors' underrepresentation in leading roles reflects consumer tastes and, therefore, reflects discriminatory attitudes, no evidence can be found for direct pay discrimination in Hollywood's movie business.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first Hollywood study to relying on a rich panel data set that includes various measures of the human capital characteristics of the different individual actors. This paper's theoretical contribution lies in applying classic labor economics reasoning to explain pay determination in Hollywood's movie business.

AbstractDespite the enormous revenues generated by the video game industry in recent years, relatively little research has been undertaken into consumer preferences and the determinants of video game consumption. This study addresses this deficiency through the analysis of data from a popular online video game that includes historic behavioural information for 1,408 consumers participating in 728,811 unique rounds of gameplay. We analyse these data with the goal of estimating determinants of the aggregate amount of time that a consumer spends playing the game. Through the estimation of duration models, we show that less experienced consumers are less likely to continue playing the game at any given point, possibly due to having achieved mastery and becoming bored. However, we also find that consumers tend to play the game for longer periods when using a wider range of character roles and vehicles, implying that a consumer's interest can be maintained through exposure to greater variety. Our results represent the first such evidence on in‐game consumer preferences, which has important implications for video game consumption through optimisation of gameplay experiences to satisfy these preferences.