Marketing Pitch
More Ads, More Viewers? Analyzing Behavioral Shifts from Advertising Permissions to Live Streaming Consumption
Michael Wu & Sung Ham
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
There has been little exploration on how audience content consumption may change in response to advertising permissions on live streaming platforms. Ads are utilized by brands to generate revenue through ad exposure, but is this benefit thwarted by the reduction of audience consumption of content? Using a dataset containing over 12 million observations in the live streaming space and a difference-in-differences estimation approach, we study the effects of a policy intervention by a live streaming platform which provided (some) streamers the ability to display mid-roll advertisements (MRAs). Although the ad avoidance literature infers that ad-supported content should be viewed unfavorably by audiences, our results indicate that providing the mere ability to introduce MRAs has a notable positive effect on live streaming content consumption (average viewership and total hours watched). We discover that a viable explanation for this response is through increases in broadcasting airtime, stream frequency (somewhat) and quality by streamers after the intervention, as these adjustments are drastically easier to implement in a live streaming setting when compared to more "traditional" forms of media. We further explore heterogeneity in these effects in relation to initial success, streaming tenure, content activity, culture (of the streamer), and impact across time.
The Influential Solo Consumer: When Engaging in Activities Alone (vs. Accompanied) Increases the Impact of Recommendations
Yuechen Wu & Rebecca Ratner
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Information about the social context of consumption is often seen on review websites or social media when consumers sharing word-of-mouth about an experience indicate whether they engaged in the activity solo or with companions. Across a secondary dataset scraped from Tripadvisor.com, five main experiments, and one supplemental experiment, the current research finds that individuals who engage in consumption activities alone can be a more influential source of recommendations than people who engage in these same activities with others. The results support an attribution-based process, such that people are more likely to attribute a solo (vs. accompanied) review to the quality of the activity itself, leading the solo (vs. accompanied) person's review to be particularly influential. Further, the studies test the theorizing that perceived interest on the part of the solo (vs. accompanied) consumer leads to the stronger attribution to quality, and therefore that additional cues to intrinsic interest (e.g., presence of a cue to intrinsic or extrinsic motivation) attenuate the influence of solo (vs. accompanied) word-of-mouth. This work has theoretical and managerial relevance for those who seek to understand how the social context of consumption influences other consumers.
People overshoot when choosing resource pools
Christopher Hsee, Xilin Li & Ying Zeng
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, September 2025
Abstract:
This paper studies a pool-choice dilemma, in which two or more resource-seekers decide independently whether to seek resources from a larger pool or a smaller pool. This dilemma mimics many real-life problems, such as firms or vendors deciding whether to enter a market with more potential buyers or one with fewer potential buyers. Across ten studies (five are incentive-compatible), we document a systematic overshooting bias, whereby the resource-seekers in the pool-choice dilemma are more likely to choose the large pool than normatively warranted, thereby sacrificing their own earnings. This research is a major extension of the prior work by Hsee et al. (2021) who found an opposite, undershooting effect in a similar dilemma. The current work offers a new look at the dilemma, with a more comprehensive theory that not only explains the overshooting effect found in this research, but also identifies its moderators and reconciles the opposite findings between this and the prior work. Contrary to what the prior work found, we predict and find that people in the dilemma generally overshoot rather than undershoot, unless they are explicitly prompted to predict the choice of their counterparts or the dilemma is framed in such a way that naturally prompts the players to consider the choice of their counterparts. This research carries theoretical implications for strategic thinking, and practical implications for resource competition.
Disclosing Low Product Availability: An Online Platform's Strategy for Mitigating Stockout Risk
Benjamin Knight & Dmitry Mitrofanov
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Ensuring product availability and successful order fulfillment are critical priorities for any retail company. In this paper, we explore how sharing information about low-availability items (LAIs) can influence customer purchase decisions both in preventing stockouts and mitigating their negative effects. The net impact of sharing information on LAIs is difficult to predict ex ante because multiple effects may act in opposite directions. On the one hand, sharing information could discourage LAI purchases from customers who are averse to stockouts. On the other hand, such information might increase the demand for LAIs because of cognitive biases that make scarce items seem more appealing. In a field experiment with more than 840,000 Instacart customers, we first find that customers are 25% less likely to purchase LAIs when item availability information is disclosed. This effect is not uniform; it is more pronounced when customers shop at new stores, when they have previously encountered lower found rates on the platform, and when they have less experience using the platform. Importantly, LAI disclosure has a positive impact on the platform's performance in both the short and long term. Specifically, this innovative and extremely low-cost policy results in a 5.8% increase in customer spending and a 5.7% increase in order frequency over the long term. Our analysis suggests that this positive effect is driven by several factors: the improved service quality experienced by customers, as evidenced by a 3.7% reduction in refunds, a 2.9% decrease in product replacements, and a 7.5% reduction in poor product replacement ratings when replacements do occur; increased customer exploration of different stores; and higher spending per order because of fewer refunds and the exploration of potentially more expensive product substitutes. In the context of online retail, a policy of disclosing LAIs can improve customer decision-making by providing stock information, reduce stockouts, enhance satisfaction by managing expectations and transparency, and promote exploration of more platform options.
The Power of Star Creators: Evidence from the Live Streaming Industry
Kun Qian & Ying Xie
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, the authors examine the impact of star creator exits on digital content markets, leveraging exogenous events on Twitch.tv. Using a Synthetic DiD approach, they estimate the causal effects of star creators' exits from the live streaming platform. Their findings reveal that, at the live streaming category level, the exit of a star creator leads to a sizable decrease in both content provision and consumption within the star creator's focal category. At the individual creator level, the effects are heterogeneous, varying by the creator's audience size and contractual status with the platform. Major creators reduce their content provision, while micro creators maintain their streaming activity, though both groups experience a decline in viewership. Additionally, contracted creators tend to sustain their content provision levels following a star creator's exit, whereas non-contracted creators exhibit a significant decline. Lastly, the authors find that the impact of a star creator's departure persists for several months, indicating a lasting effect at both the category and individual levels.