Introducing New Products via Social Media Influencers
Speaker: Liping LIANG
Lingnan University Hong Kong, HGK
DATE: Wednesday 13 September 2023
TIME: 13.00 – 14.00
Language: English
Location:
Campus Kirchberg
6, Rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi
L-1359 Luxembourg
Registration:
– Free seminar
– Invitation link
Contact:
dem@uni.lu
Tel: +352 46 66 44 6283
Abstract:
Firms are increasingly using social media influencers to generate sales and increase customer awareness of their products. We develop a two-period model to investigate a firm’s strategy for introducing a product via an influencer, where there may exist uncertainty in the influencer-product match. For the promotional campaign in the first period, the influencer exerts an effort to sell the product to her followers, who may spread the product information to non-followers via word-of-mouth (WOM). In the second period, the firm sells the product to non-followers. We investigate the firm’s pricing, production, and commission contract decisions, and examine how the decisions are affected by influencer-related factors. Our results indicate that firms may not be better off employing influencers with a larger follower base, and should not always offer a higher commission and a lower price to influencers with a larger follower base.
About Liping Liang:
Liping Liang is a Professor of Operations Management at the Faculty of Business and the Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Business Studies of Lingnan University, Hong Kong. She developed the Doctor of Business Administration in Global Digital Economy and Governance Program for the University and was the Director of the Program.
Liping’s main research interests include operations and supply chain management, incentive mechanism design, cooperative game theory, and the interface between operations and other disciplines. She has published papers in journals including Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Naval Research Logistics, IIE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research.
Liping holds a PhD in management science and an MSc in business administration from the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia, and a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from South China University of Technology.
Supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) 17931929