基于在线评论的提供免费版移动应用社会福利分析  

Social Welfare Analysis of Mobile Apps with Free Version Based on Online Reviews

作　　者：曹欢欢[1,2] 姜锦虎[2] 

机构地区：[1]浙江工业大学经贸管理学院,杭州310023 [2]西安交通大学管理学院,西安710049

出　　处：《管理科学》2016年第2期42-51,共10页Journal of Management Science

基　　金：国家自然科学基金(71172118)~~

摘　　要：在线评论是消费者为进一步评估产品并获取产品信息的重要信息源,提供免费版也是向消费者提供更多产品信息的一种方式。因此,探索在线评论提供的产品信息与免费版提供的产品信息对消费者产品购买决策和商家营销策略的共同影响是一个值得研究的问题,但是目前相关的学术研究相对较少。基于垂直化产品差异理论,采用霍特林线对免费版与付费版的质量差异进行建模。在霍特林线的基础上,考虑到在线评论信息性对消费者获得的感知产品质量不确定性信号与真实产品质量不确定性一致的概率的提高,将网络外部性和在线评论信息性与霍特林模型相结合,建立在免费版与在线评论共同存在下的移动应用的最优定价模型,得出移动应用的免费版提供策略,讨论在线评论信息性作用下提供免费版对移动应用商剩余、消费者剩余和社会福利的影响。研究结果表明,提高在线评论信息性并不一定总是对提供免费版的移动应用商利润有帮助,只有当网络外部性强度足够低的情况下,越高的在线评论信息性才会导致越高的移动应用商利润。同时,不论网络外部性强度如何,当免费版与付费版之间的质量差异足够大时,免费版移动应用商的最优决策都是提供免费版。另外,当网络外部性强度相对较低时,提供质量较低的免费版可以同时增加移动应用商剩余和消费者剩余,从而导致社会福利增加;当网络外部性强度相对较高时,提供质量中等的免费版可以同时增加移动应用商剩余和消费者剩余,从而导致社会福利增加。研究结果对移动应用商有实践启示,免费版与在线评论存在情况下的最优定价模型对移动应用商有一定的帮助,提供网络外部性较低移动应用的移动应用商需要激励消费者发布高信息性的在线评论。当免费版的质量足够低,提供免费版对移动应用商更有利�Online reviews are important information sources for consumers to obtain product information for further evaluating the product,whereas offering free version is also a way to provide more product information for consumers. Therefore,it’s an interesting research topic to explore the interaction effects of online reviews and the free version on consumers. However,little research has been done on the interaction effects of online reviews and free version on the pricing strategy of the paid version.Based on vertical product differentiation theory,Hotelling line is adopted to model the quality difference between the free version and the paid version. On the basis of Hotelling line,considering the improvement of the match of consumers’ perceived product quality uncertainty and the real product quality uncertainty brought by the informativeness of online reviews,and combining the network externality of the free version and the informativeness of online reviews with the Hotelling Model,the optimal pricing model for mobile app firms with the free version and online reviews is built,the providing strategy of the free version for mobile app firms is presented,and the effects of providing the free version under the informatioveness of online reviews on surplus of mobile app firms,consumer surplus and social welfare are discussed.The results show that increasing the informativeness of online reviews isn’t always helpful to the profits of mobile app firms with free version. Only when the intensity of network externality is low enough,higher informativeness of online reviews will result in higher profits of mobile app firms. Moreover,regardless of the intensity of network externality,the optimal decision for mobile app firm is to provide free version when the quality difference between the free version and the paid version is large enough. In addition,when the intensity of network externality is relatively low,providing free version of low quality can increase the surplus of mobile app firms and consumer surplus simultane

关 键 词：在线评论 免费版 社会福利分析 移动应用 定价 

分 类 号：F713.36[经济管理—产业经济]