Research Commentary— Long Tails vs. Superstars: The Effect of Information Technology on Product Variety and Sales Concentration Patterns

Abstract

The Internet and related information technologies are transforming the distribution of product sales across products, and the effects are likely to grow in coming years. Both the Long Tail and the Superstar effect are manifestations of these changes, yet researchers lack consistent metrics or models for integrating and extending their insights and predictions. In this paper, we begin with a taxonomy of the technological and non-technological drivers of both the Long Tails and Superstars and then define and contrast the key metrics for analyzing these phenomena. While significant research has already been done, the core the paper describes a large and promising set of questions forming a research agenda. Important opportunities exist for understanding future changes in product distribution; its impact on supply chains (including crosschannel competition, competition within the Internet channel, implications for the growth of firms, and the balance of power within the supply chain); implications for pricing, promotion and product design; and ultimately potential effects on society more generally. Our approach provides an introduction to some of the relevant research findings and allows us to identify opportunities for cross-pollination of methods and insights from related research topics.

Bookselling Online: An Examination of Consumer Behaviour Patterns

“…Brynjolfsson et al [10] note that Amazon.com can easily afford the consumer access to approximately 2.3 million books in print, contrasted with approximately 40,000 to 100,000 books stocked in a typical large high street store [10]. There is also cause to believe that consumers may develop a 'taste' for niche products which may be further developed by producers of these products realising the scope for further sales and further development of 'niche-supporting' technologies such as search tools and recommendation tools [11]. These might feasibly lead to an even longer long tail with a wider spread of sales of obscure titles.…”

Examining the power-law distribution among eWOM communities: a characterisation approach of the Long Tail

“…In that respect, the distribution of product sales is changing due to the increment of product assortment available to consumers (Brynjolfsson, Hu, and Smith 2010a). Actually, the Long Tail phenomenon is a manifestation of such transformations (Anderson 2004).…”

“…Research methodology Brynjolfsson, Hu, and Smith (2010a) made in their paper a review of the literature about the Long Tail. They found that the Long Tail could be defined and measured in three different ways: (1) Absolute Long Tail (2), Relative Long Tail and (3) exponent based, 'because the ordinal rank to cardinal sales relationship often follows a power-law distribution, the exponent provides an indication of the relative importance of the head versus the tail of the sales distribution'.…”

An Empirical Analysis on Long Tail Patterns with Online Daily Deals

“…Brynjolfsson et al, present supply and the demand-side factors that may drive the Long Tail effect [4,5]. Meanwhile Elberse and…”