A standard "solution" offered to the deleterious effects of all-out price competition is for firms to engage in differentiation strategies. This solution, however, depends critically on the inability of rivals to imitate a successful differentiation strategy. With imitation, we show how "Red Queen" pricing effects can arise: All firms have an incentive to vertically differentiate and increase markups, yet imitation by rivals drives prices down toward pre-differentiation levels. Thus, the price premia arising from differentiation strategies in e-retailing critically depend on the number of other firms that imitate the strategies. Based on data from Shopper.com, we find that an online firm that unilaterally differentiates itself from its rivals by participating in CNet's Certified Merchant program enjoys a 5 to 17 percent price premium. However, when other firms also follow this strategy, the price premium vanishes.

This book considers: how innovation through technological change is transforming the service sector; how changing consumer needs and behaviors are forcing firms to alter operations; how firms need competitive strategies and new modes of implementation to respond to this changing landscape; and how public policy will need to adapt.

This book considers how innovation through technological change has been transforming the retail sector in different markets, and how such change has been accelerated through the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The book is inspired by Alice's encounters of the Red Queen's race in the classic novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll (1871), where 'it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place'. This metaphor is illustrative of the service sector, which is in a transition from 'a slow world' towards a Red Queen Race, where running faster is not enough by itself. This is creating a revolution in how a consumer society operates, replacing investment in the physical confines of products, stores, and geographical areas with investment in the apparently unbounded digital universe of information, relationships, and social networks. Online and mobile services enable new entrants to bypass investments in fixed assets and to avoid regulatory issues by employing new business models. By leveraging such advantages, technologically driven international competition has created substantial challenges for established retailers and service providers in markets across the globe. The result is a recognition of the importance of place in a digital world. The core research for this book was carried out by the faculty at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Aalto University, and the University of Jyväskylä. The authors thank TEKES, the Finnish Innovation Agency, now Business Finland, for its support in funding the main research.

This advanced dictionary of marketing focuses on leading-edge terminology for use by people who are serious about the theory and practice of marketing. With over 1,000 entries ranging in length and depth, it is the ideal reference guide for researchers, directors, managers, and anyone studying marketing for a professional or academic qualification.

The Red Queen Retail Race: An Innovation Pandemic in the Era of Digitization, considers how innovation through technological change has been transforming the retail sector in different markets, and how such change has been accelerated through the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The book is inspired by Alice's encounters of the Red Queen's race in the classic novel Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (1871), where 'it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place'. This metaphor is illustrative for the service sector that is in a transition from 'a slow world' towards a Red Queen race, where running faster is not enough by itself. It is changing how a consumer society operates, replacing investment in the physical confines of products, stores, and geographical areas, with investment in the apparently unbounded digital universe of information, relationships, and social networks. Online and mobile services enable new entrants to bypass investments in fixed assets and avoid regulatory issues by employing new business models. By leveraging such advantages, technologically-driven international competition has created substantial challenges for established retailers and service providers in domestic markets across the globe. The result is a reconsideration of the role of place in a digital world.

This research handbook provides a comprehensive, integrative, and authoritative resource on the main strategic management issues for companies within the e-business context. It covers an extensive set of topics, dealing with the major issues which articulate the e-business framework from a business perspective. The handbook is divided into the following e-business related parts: background; evolved strategic framework for the management of companies; key business processes, areas and activities; and, finally, emerging issues, trends and opportunities, with special attention to diverse Social Web-related implications. The articles are varied, timely and present high-quality research; many of these unique contributions will be especially valued and influential for business scholars and professionals interested in e-business. Many of the contributors are outstanding business scholars who are or have been editors-in-chief of top-ranked management and business journals or have made significant contributions to the development of their respective fields.

This text is an invaluable source of information for anybody setting up a new business or managing an existing business, as well as those studying IT or business studies, or managing the delivery of an IT service to new or established e-business customers.