Prof. Dr. Alexa Burmester

The success of entertainment products such as movies or books varies tremendously, and managers strive to increase the odds by deciding on the right marketing input. Aiming to improve managerial decision making, we suggest and test a quantile regression framework to detect outcome heterogeneity effects of marketing inputs in the entertainment industry. By analyzing the spread of the .9 and the .1 conditioned quantile to the .5 (median) conditioned quantile, we study how much an increase (decrease) of an input factor (star power and quality) changes the spread of the expected outcome (revenues and sales). The spread serves as an indicator for the heterogeneity effect of the input factor regarding the outcome. In two empirical studies, we show how marketing instruments increase (or decrease) outcome heterogeneity by estimating quantile regressions and provide generalizable findings regarding the outcome heterogeneity effects of star power (increases outcome heterogeneity) and quality evaluations (reduces outcome heterogeneity) in the entertainment industry.

Sustainability has become a critical concern of many societies worldwide. The need for a more sustainable mode of producing and consuming goods and services while balancing related environmental, social, and economic consequences (i.e., the triple bottom line) is evident. Although research offers insights into many aspects of this necessary transformation, little is known about the extent to which firms and consumers stress environmental, social, and economic sustainability in their communication. This research addresses these questions by conceptualizing the interplay between sustainability-related firm-generated and user-generated content as a signaling phenomenon. In addition, the authors develop a custom dictionary that enables researchers and practitioners to identify and analyze sustainability-related textual data. An illustrative application based on major data sources (corporate websites, Amazon, and YouTube) indicates significant divergence in how firms and consumers communicate about sustainability. Building on this first conceptual and empirical foray into sustainability-related firm-generated and user-generated content, this research outlines open research questions and potential use cases for the provided analytical tool.

How does advertising affect supply and demand in the entertainment industry? Different advertising and distribution mechanisms and unique product characteristics limit the transferability of findings from other industries to the entertainment industry. This meta-analysis focuses on 290 documented elasticities, drawn from 59 studies of movies and video games, and establishes new findings and empirical generalizations. First, the average advertising elasticity in the entertainment industry is .33 (method bias-corrected .20), approximately three times higher than the average identified for other industries. Second, average advertising elasticities are higher for demand (e.g., revenue) than for supply (e.g., screens). Third, elasticities of pre-launch advertising are higher than those of overall advertising budgets, but with respect to the success period, elasticities are higher for later periods, and in total, compared to the launch period. Fourth, elasticities tend to be rather recession-proof and consistent across geographic regions but decreased after the rise of social media platforms.

COVID-19 induced restrictions ordered by governments around the world have been an exogenous shock to the music industry, which we divide into two affected groups: 1) live music events and 2) recorded music. While the impact on live music events is rather obvious, it is unclear how the current pandemic is affecting the recorded music market. Hence, we study consumers’ pre- and post-pandemic shifts in consumer spending (in euros) and music consumption (in hours) across live music events, as well as the digital and physical submarkets of recorded music, in the world’s fourth largest music market, Germany. Relying on an online bi-annual panel capturing five waves between winter 2018/19 and winter 2020/21, we find that the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the continuous trend towards digitalization of the music landscape with premium streaming being the biggest beneficiary. However, total monthly consumer spending on music decreased by more than 45% compared to pre-pandemic, with live music events and physical sales being the most severely affected. Surprisingly, music consumption in hours also decreased during the lockdown even though consumers spent more time at home.

When companies launch new products, they need to understand the impact of publicity and advertising on sales. What is their relative effectiveness? Do they strengthen each other (have a positive interaction effect) or weaken each other (have a negative interaction effect)? Further, does the timing of these activities (before or after launch) affect their impact on sales? This paper develops hypotheses regarding the elasticities of pre- and post-launch publicity and advertising on sales. The hypotheses are tested on a large-scale empirical data set that tracks sales, publicity, and advertising for 3336 video games across 52 weeks covering the pre- and post-launch phases. The results demonstrate that pre-launch publicity is more effective than pre-launch advertising but that the reverse is true post-launch. Surprisingly, the analysis reveals a negative interaction effect between pre-launch advertising and publicity, which means that publicity becomes less effective when it is accompanied by higher levels of advertising for the same product. Simulations indicate that companies can gain most sales by focusing on publicity pre-launch, and that there is little benefit from increasing publicity and advertising during the same phase, which is consistent with negative (pre-launch) and zero (post-launch) interaction effects.