2026-09-20T19:59:57Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/73054 2023-07-11 col_2142_14791 col_2142_5131 com_2142_14790 com_2142_9216 com_2142_5130

Fang, Eric Fang, Eric Qualls, William J. Shavitt, Sharon Gajendran, Ravi S. Liu, Xuefeng 2015-01-21T19:58:57Z 2015-01-21T19:58:57Z 2017-01-22T10:15:32Z 2014-12 2015-01-21 2014-12 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. Item withdrawn by Laura Spradlin (lspradl2@illinois.edu) on 2014-11-18T19:55:25Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of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). No. of bitstreams: 1 Xuefeng_Liu.pdf: 619607 bytes, checksum: ffbc534e04f9fc8dea6acdedf9b0b9a8 (MD5) Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 73243 Lift date: 2017-01-21T19:59:39Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 73243 on 2017-01-22T10:15:32Z. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73054 en Copyright 2014 Xuefeng Liu Marketing strategy Product positioning Social media Two essays on product positioning and social media text Business Administration 1902 Business Administration 0079 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dissertation Ph.D. PHD:Business Administrtn -UIUC 10KS0079PHD