Observational Learning in the Product Configuration Process: The Effect of Information Presentation Format With the booming of ecommerce, online product configurators have been applied in various industries to elicit customer needs and transform them into product variants. To facilitate customersu0027 choice navigation during configuration process, some configurators provide extra information about product, such as best seller options. Previous study shows that these kinds of information significantly affect consumer decision making process, a phenomenon often referred to as observational learning. This paper attempt to study the format of the information provided in configurators affects observational learning effect. Specifically, two kinds of information are investigated, namely, the best seller choice and customersu0027 choice distribution among all the attribute alternatives. We empirically investigate how different kinds of factors affect customers choices when the best seller and choices distribution information are provided. Our experiment shows that motivation to customize the product is significant in customersu0027 choices. While purchasing intention is significant only when best seller information is provided. We further notice that there is no much difference between peopleu0027s choices when best seller and the choice distribution information are provided.

Decision Bias in the Newsvendor Problem: On the Comparison of Managers and Students as Newsvendors with Decision Support System as Debiasing Strategy A growing number of studies in the newsvendor problem provided evidence that subjectsu0027 ordering behavior deviates from the optimal order quantity. Furthermore, almost all existing studies only engage students as subjects, and it leaves an essential question of whether the insights of those studies can be applied in real business practices. In this empirical study, we experimented with investigating decision biases in the newsvendor setting and presenting a structured comparison of the order decisions made by managers and students. We also proposed a Decision Support System as a debiasing strategy to prevent the order decision bias. To provide a piece of evidence about the effectiveness of the proposed DSS, we experimented with comparing the ordering behavior, before and after DSS implementation. This study found that both managers and students showed demand chasing bias, but the magnitude of the bias differed significantly. This study also showed that an informational DSS generally improved inventory decisionmaking performance in terms of adjustment behavior and longterm profitability.