Seeding the Herd: Pricing and Welfare Effects of Social Learning Manipulation
Published Online:18 Feb 2021https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3849
References
- (2011) Bayesian learning in social networks. Rev. Econom. Stud. 78(4):1201–1236.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) Amazon is cracking down on more fake reviews. Fortune (October 27), https://fortune.com/2016/10/27/amazon-lawsuit-fake-reviews/.Google Scholar
- (1992) A simple model of herd behavior. Quart. J. Econom. 107(3):797–817.Crossref, Google Scholar
- BBC (2017) Celebrities warned over Instagram ads. Accessed July 1, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39650580.Google Scholar
- (1992) A theory of fads, fashion, custom, and cultural change as informational cascades. J. Political Econom. 100(5):992–1026.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Information disclosure in service platforms: Optimizing for supply. Working paper, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.Google Scholar
- (2020) Signaling to the crowd: Private quality information and rewards-based crowdfunding. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management, ePub ahead of print April 3, https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2019.0833.Google Scholar
- (2018) Recommender systems as mechanisms for social learning. Quart. J. Econom. 133(2):871–925.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Innovative online platforms: Research opportunities. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 22(3):430–445.Link, Google Scholar
- (1987) Signaling games and stable equilibria. Quart. J. Econom. 102(2):179–221.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Combating strategic counterfeiters in licit and illicit supply chains. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 17(3):273–289.Link, Google Scholar
- (2017) Monopoly pricing in the presence of social learning. Management Sci. 63(11):3586–3608.Link, Google Scholar
- (2017) Social-media stars are turning heads—of regulators. Wall Street Journal (December 15), https://www.wsj.com/articles/social-media-influencers-get-noticed-by-regulators-1513342801.Google Scholar
- (2012) Signaling quality via queues. Management Sci. 58(5):876–891.Link, Google Scholar
- (2020) Signaling quality via long lines and uninformative prices. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 22(3):513–527.Link, Google Scholar
- (2013) On learning with finite memory. IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 59(10):6859–6872.Crossref, Google Scholar
- Federal Trade Commission (2016) Lord & Taylor settles FTC charges it deceived consumers through paid article in an online fashion magazine and paid Instagram posts by 50 “fashion influencers.” Press Release, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- Federal Trade Commission (2019) FTC brings first case challenging fake paid reviews on an independent retail website. Press Release, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- (2016) China’s ecommerce sites try to sweep away “brushing.” Financial Times (November 22), https://www.ft.com/content/735722e6-aca6-11e6-9cb3-bb8207902122.Google Scholar
- (2019) Social learning and the design of new experience goods. Management Sci. 65(4):1502–1519.Google Scholar
- (2014) Incentivizing exploration. Technical report, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.Google Scholar
- (2016) Entry of copycats of luxury brands. Marketing Sci. 36(2):272–289.Link, Google Scholar
- (2017) Product policy in markets with word-of-mouth communication. Management Sci. 63(1):267–278.Link, Google Scholar
- (2011) Aggregate information cascades. Games Econom. Behav. 73(1):167–185.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2013) Biased social learning. Games Econom. Behav. 80:131–146.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2015) Liking and following and the newsvendor: Operations and marketing policies under social influence. Management Sci. 62(3):867–879.Link, Google Scholar
- (2017) Social media stars face crackdown over money from brands. The Guardian (September 15), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/16/social-media-stars-face-crackdown-over-money-from-brands.Google Scholar
- (2019) Bayesian social learning from consumer reviews. Oper. Res. 67(5):1209–1221.Link, Google Scholar
- (2019) To brush or not to brush: Product rankings, customer search and fake orders. NET Institute Working Paper 19-02, NET Institute, New York.Google Scholar
- (2020) Understanding AI collusion and compliance. Sokol DD, van Rooij B, eds. Cambridge Handbook of Compliance (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK). Forthcoming.Google Scholar
- (2015) Inferring quality from wait time. Management Sci. 62(10):3023–3038.Link, Google Scholar
- (2015) JD.com fires employee for encouraging ‘brushing’ fake orders to inflate sales. Forbes (April 11), https://www.forbes.com/sites/jlim/2015/04/11/jd-com-brushing-fake-orders-to-inflate-sales/#550222ca5cea.Google Scholar
- (2016) Fake it till you make it: Reputation, competition, and yelp review fraud. Management Sci. 62(12):3412–3427.Link, Google Scholar
- (1993) Belief-based refinements in signalling games. J. Econom. Theory 60(2):241–276.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2014) Promotional reviews: An empirical investigation of online review manipulation. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(8):2421–2455.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Amazon prime day: Beware, fake reviews may run rampant. Fortune (July 15), https://fortune.com/2019/07/15/amazon-prime-day-fake-reviews/.Google Scholar
- (2020a) Fake news propagation and detection: A sequential model. Management Sci. 66(5):1826–1846.Link, Google Scholar
- (2020b) Newsvendor decisions with two-sided learning. Management Sci. ePub ahead of print May 13, https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3470.Link, Google Scholar
- (2018) Crowdsourcing exploration. Management Sci. 64(4):1727–1746.Link, Google Scholar
- (2016) Dynamic pricing in the presence of social learning and strategic consumers. Management Sci. 63(4):919–939.Link, Google Scholar
- (2017) Competing with copycats when customers are strategic. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 19(3):403–418.Link, Google Scholar
- (2018) Blockchain adoption for combating deceptive counterfeits. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise Research Paper 18-18, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Chapel Hill, NC.Google Scholar
- (2014) Untangling searchable and experiential quality responses to counterfeits. Marketing Sci. 34(4):522–538.Link, Google Scholar
- (2015) Signaling to partially informed investors in the newsvendor model. Production Oper. Management 24(3):383–401.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Dynamic pricing and learning with online product reviews. Working paper, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
- (2000) Pathological outcomes of observational learning. Econometrica 68(2):371–398.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2009) Joining longer queues: Information externalities in queue choice. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 11(4):543–562.Link, Google Scholar
- (2011) Herding in queues with waiting costs: Rationality and regret. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 13(3):329–346.Link, Google Scholar
- Wall Street Journal (2015)They call it “brushing”: The dark art of Alibaba sales fakery. Wall Street Journal (March 3), https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-CJB-26089.Google Scholar
- (2019) Amazon’s fake review problem is getting worse. Forbes (April 16), https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2019/04/16/amazons-fake-review-problem-is-getting-worse/#43f6bd34195f.Google Scholar
- (2015) Strategic waiting for consumer-generated quality information: Dynamic pricing of new experience goods. Management Sci. 62(2):410–435.Link, Google Scholar

