DOES INFORMATION UNDERMINE BRAND? INFORMATION INTERMEDIARY USE AND PREFERENCE FOR BRANDED WEB RETAILERS*

Joel Waldfogel and Lu Chen

Journal of Industrial Economics, 2006, vol. 54, issue 4, 425-449

Abstract: Investments in brand, and third‐party information, provide alternative methods for convincing potential customers that vendors will deliver as promised. This study uses a 13‐month panel dataset on 1998–99 Internet shopping behavior and use of information intermediaries by over 30,000 households to examine whether information use undermines brand. Individuals using price comparison sites substantially increase their level of shopping at unbranded retail sites, while they shop less at Amazon. The results have possible implications for both firm strategy and the evolution of market structure. If information weakens the pull of brand, then Internet retailing may grow less concentrated over time.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6451.2006.00295.x

Related works:
Working Paper: Does Information Undermine Brand? Information Intermediary Use and Preference for Branded Web Retailers (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jindec:v:54:y:2006:i:4:p:425-449

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0022-1821

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Economics is currently edited by Pierre Regibeau, Yeon-Koo Che, Kenneth Corts, Thomas Hubbard, Patrick Legros and Frank Verboven

More articles in Journal of Industrial Economics from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().