Shopbot Market Representativeness

Gove N. Allen

Jianan Wu

A. B. Freeman School of Business

Tulane University

Do all shopbots represent markets equally?

What attributes to shopbots’ market

representativeness? What are the implications of shopbot market representativeness for Internet

research?

Research Questions

Research Using Shopbots

Study Shopbots

Clay, Kirshnan, and Wolff (2001) 2

Smith and Brynjolfsson (2001) 1

Pan, Shankar, and Ratchford (2002) 1

Baye, Morgan, and Scholten (2001) 1

Kaufmann and Wood (2000) 2

Baylis and Perloff (2002) 1

Ellison and Ellison (2001) 1

Clemons, Hahn, and Hitt (2002) 5

Current Study

450+ Books

120 days

8 shopbots (Addall, Bizrate, Dealtime, ISBN.nu, Mysimon, Pricegrabber,

Pricescan, shopping.yahoo)

84 different vendors

2.2 million price observations

Are Shopbots Created Equal?

Are Shopbots Created Equal?

What Attributes to Shopbot Representativeness?

What Attributes to Shopbot Representativeness?

Regression Model

Regression Results

Does It Really Matter?Combining Shopbots

ConclusionsAll Shopbots are not created equal.

Both market coverage and vendor affiliation determine how representative a shopbot is.

When selecting shopbots for academic research, “Choose Wisely”