Sharing Economy, Platforms and Crowds

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Paper Number

2618

Paper Type

Completed

Description

Recently, some e-commerce platforms have started to provide advertising attribution tools for sellers, claiming to help them measure the effectiveness of multichannel advertising and optimize their budget allocation. It is unclear, however, what impact the attribution tools will have on key stakeholders involved in attribution, due to potential credibility concerns (e.g., the platform may underestimate the effectiveness of other publishers' ads). Through the lens of a game-theoretic model, we analyze whether the platform, sellers, and other publishers can benefit from the adoption of attribution tools. Our results show that adopting the attribution tools can sometimes be detrimental to sellers. Another interesting finding is that sellers’ adoption of attribution tools can benefit regular publishers even when the platform understates the effectiveness of their ads. Moreover, we find that introducing the attribution tools can sometimes hurt the platform. Our findings provide important implications for the key stakeholders involved in the attribution.

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Dec 12th, 12:00 AM

Economics of Advertising Misattribution on E-commerce Platforms

Recently, some e-commerce platforms have started to provide advertising attribution tools for sellers, claiming to help them measure the effectiveness of multichannel advertising and optimize their budget allocation. It is unclear, however, what impact the attribution tools will have on key stakeholders involved in attribution, due to potential credibility concerns (e.g., the platform may underestimate the effectiveness of other publishers' ads). Through the lens of a game-theoretic model, we analyze whether the platform, sellers, and other publishers can benefit from the adoption of attribution tools. Our results show that adopting the attribution tools can sometimes be detrimental to sellers. Another interesting finding is that sellers’ adoption of attribution tools can benefit regular publishers even when the platform understates the effectiveness of their ads. Moreover, we find that introducing the attribution tools can sometimes hurt the platform. Our findings provide important implications for the key stakeholders involved in the attribution.

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