IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v30y2011i5p851-865.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Learning and Dynamic Pricing of Durable Goods

Author

Listed:
  • Bing Jing

    (Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Beijing 100738, People's Republic of China)

Abstract

We analyze the impacts of social learning (SL) on the dynamic pricing and consumer adoption of durable goods in a two-period monopoly. Consumers can make either early, uninformed purchases or late but potentially informed purchases as a result of social learning. Several results are derived. First, we identify the market conditions under which ex ante homogeneous consumers may choose to purchase at different times. Second, equilibrium adoption may demonstrate inertia (where all adopt late) or frenzy (where all adopt early). In particular, adoption inertia appears when SL intensity is reasonably high but may vanish when SL intensity exceeds a certain threshold. Third, firm profits and social welfare first weakly decrease in SL intensity and may then jump up by a lump-sum amount at the threshold SL intensity level mentioned above. Last, we show that the firm potentially benefits from informative advertising or investing to cultivate more social learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Bing Jing, 2011. "Social Learning and Dynamic Pricing of Durable Goods," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 851-865, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:30:y:2011:i:5:p:851-865
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1110.0649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1110.0649
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.1110.0649?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. Farrell, Joseph & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "Installed Base and Compatibility: Innovation, Product Preannouncements, and Predation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 940-955, December.
    2. Joe A. Dodson, Jr. & Eitan Muller, 1978. "Models of New Product Diffusion Through Advertising and Word-of-Mouth," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(15), pages 1568-1578, November.
    3. J. Miguel Villas-Boas, 2004. "Consumer Learning, Brand Loyalty, and Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 134-145, December.
    4. Carl Shapiro, 1983. "Optimal Pricing of Experience Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 497-507, Autumn.
    5. Zsolt Katona & Miklos Sarvary, 2008. "Network Formation and the Structure of the Commercial World Wide Web," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 764-778, 09-10.
    6. Gene M. Grossman & Carl Shapiro, 1984. "Informative Advertising with Differentiated Products," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(1), pages 63-81.
    7. Daniel A. Levinthal & Devavrat Purohit, 1989. "Durable Goods and Product Obsolescence," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 35-56.
    8. Christopher J. Easingwood & Vijay Mahajan & Eitan Muller, 1983. "A Nonuniform Influence Innovation Diffusion Model of New Product Acceptance," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 273-295.
    9. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2009. "Comparative advertising: disclosing horizontal match information," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 558-581, September.
    10. Eyal Biyalogorsky & Eitan Gerstner & Barak Libai, 2001. "Customer Referral Management: Optimal Reward Programs," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 82-95, August.
    11. Glenn Ellison & Drew Fudenberg, 1995. "Word-of-Mouth Communication and Social Learning," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(1), pages 93-125.
    12. Alan T. Sorensen, 2006. "Social learning and health plan choice," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 929-945, December.
    13. J. Miguel Villas‐Boas, 2006. "Dynamic Competition with Experience Goods," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 37-66, March.
    14. Nancy L. Stokey, 1981. "Rational Expectations and Durable Goods Pricing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(1), pages 112-128, Spring.
    15. Meurer, Michael & Stahl, Dale II, 1994. "Informative advertising and product match," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, March.
    16. John Conlisk & Eitan Gerstner & Joel Sobel, 1984. "Cyclic Pricing by a Durable Goods Monopolist," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(3), pages 489-505.
    17. Frank M. Bass, 1969. "A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(5), pages 215-227, January.
    18. Ellison, Glenn & Fudenberg, Drew, 1993. "Rules of Thumb for Social Learning," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(4), pages 612-643, August.
    19. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1993. "The Economics of Rumours," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(2), pages 309-327.
    20. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin, 2004. "Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 545-560, June.
    21. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    22. Jeremy Bulow, 1986. "An Economic Theory of Planned Obsolescence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 729-749.
    23. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12478 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. McFadden, Daniel L & Train, Kenneth E, 1996. "Consumers' Evaluation of New Products: Learning from Self and Others," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 683-703, August.
    25. Alan T. Sorensen, 2006. "Social learning and health plan choice," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 929-945, December.
    26. Dan Horsky, 1990. "A Diffusion Model Incorporating Product Benefits, Price, Income and Information," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 342-365.
    27. Trichy V. Krishnan & Frank M. Bass & Dipak C. Jain, 1999. "Optimal Pricing Strategy for New Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(12), pages 1650-1663, December.
    28. Shlomo Kalish, 1985. "A New Product Adoption Model with Price, Advertising, and Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(12), pages 1569-1585, December.
    29. Bruce Robinson & Chet Lakhani, 1975. "Dynamic Price Models for New-Product Planning," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(10), pages 1113-1122, June.
    30. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    31. Dan Horsky & Karl Mate, 1988. "Dynamic Advertising Strategies of Competing Durable Good Producers," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(4), pages 356-367.
    32. Vijay Mahajan & Eitan Muller & Frank M. Bass, 1995. "Diffusion of New Products: Empirical Generalizations and Managerial Uses," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 79-88.
    33. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    34. Dirk Bergemann & Juuso Välimäki, 2006. "Dynamic Pricing of New Experience Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(4), pages 713-743, August.
    35. Puneet Manchanda & Ying Xie & Nara Youn, 2008. "The Role of Targeted Communication and Contagion in Product Adoption," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 961-976, 11-12.
    36. Sobel, Joel, 1991. "Durable Goods Monopoly with Entry of New Consumers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(5), pages 1455-1485, September.
    37. Preyas Desai & Devavrat Purohit, 1998. "Leasing and Selling: Optimal Marketing Strategies for a Durable Goods Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(11-Part-2), pages 19-34, November.
    38. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Juanjuan Zhang, 2010. "The Sound of Silence: Observational Learning in the U.S. Kidney Market," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 315-335, 03-04.
    2. Bing Jing, 2011. "Exogenous Learning, Seller-Induced Learning, and Marketing of Durable Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(10), pages 1788-1801, October.
    3. Sreekumar R. Bhaskaran & Stephen M. Gilbert, 2005. "Selling and Leasing Strategies for Durable Goods with Complementary Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1278-1290, August.
    4. Xinxin Li & Lorin M. Hitt, 2008. "Self-Selection and Information Role of Online Product Reviews," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 456-474, December.
    5. Wei-yu Kevin Chiang, 2012. "Supply Chain Dynamics and Channel Efficiency in Durable Product Pricing and Distribution," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 327-343, April.
    6. Hiroshi Kitamura, 2010. "Capacity Expansion In Markets With Inter‐Temporal Consumption Externalities," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 127-148, June.
    7. Grant Miller & A. Mushfiq Mobarak, 2015. "Learning About New Technologies Through Social Networks: Experimental Evidence on Nontraditional Stoves in Bangladesh," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 480-499, July.
    8. Barnes, Belinda & Southwell, Darren & Bruce, Sarah & Woodhams, Felicity, 2014. "Additionality, common practice and incentive schemes for the uptake of innovations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 43-61.
    9. Yi Xiang & David Soberman & Hubert Gatignon, 2022. "The Effect of Marketing Breadth and Competitive Spread on Category Growth," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(2), pages 622-644, February.
    10. Hung-Ken Chien & C. Y. Cyrus Chu, 2008. "Sale or Lease? Durable-Goods Monopoly with Network Effects," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 1012-1019, 11-12.
    11. Blackburn, Keith & Bose, Niloy, 2003. "Information, imitation and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 201-223, February.
    12. Hong, Jungsik & Koo, Hoonyoung & Kim, Taegu, 2016. "Easy, reliable method for mid-term demand forecasting based on the Bass model: A hybrid approach of NLS and OLS," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 681-690.
    13. H. Peyton Young, 2009. "Innovation Diffusion in Heterogeneous Populations: Contagion, Social Influence, and Social Learning," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 1899-1924, December.
    14. Philipp Kircher & Andrew Postlewaite, 2008. "Strategic Firms and Endogenous Consumer Emulation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 621-661.
    15. Engström, Per & Forsell, Eskil, 2018. "Demand effects of consumers’ stated and revealed preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 43-61.
    16. Banerjee, Abhijit & Fudenberg, Drew, 2004. "Word-of-mouth learning," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-22, January.
    17. Sridhar Narayanan & Harikesh S. Nair, 2011. "Estimating Causal Installed-Base Effects: A Bias-Correction Approach," Working Papers 11-22, NET Institute.
    18. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Katherine L. Milkman, 2015. "The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(3), pages 1161-1201, June.
    19. Andrea Galeotti & Sanjeev Goyal, 2009. "Influencing the influencers: a theory of strategic diffusion," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 509-532, September.
    20. Michel Grabisch & Agnieszka Rusinowska, 2020. "A Survey on Nonstrategic Models of Opinion Dynamics," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-29, December.

    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:30:y:2011:i:5:p:851-865. 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.