Pinar Yildirim

For up-to-date information on Professor Yildirim’s research, visit www.pinaryildirim.com

• Yi Liu, Pinar Yildirim, Z. John Zhang (2024), Consumer Preferences and Firm Technology Choice, IJRM. Abstract

  Advances in intelligent technologies change the way consumers search and shop for products. Emerging is the trend of home-shopping devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, which allow consumers to search or order products using voice commands. We study the impact of such artificial intelligence (AI) enabled devices on a brand’s channel strategy and its price discrimination across these channels. After making a theoretical breakdown of the functionalities of the AI-enabled shopping devices into (1) adding convenience in ordering procedure (“OC”) and (2) providing support in purchase decision-making (“DS”), we document via a set of experiments that consumers who have strong (weak) shopping preferences are less-inclined to shop through AI-enabled devices with the functionality of DS (OC) compared to their existing shopping heuristics. The hesitation of the group to adopt AI-enabled shopping devices makes it efficient for a brand operating in a competitive environment to price discriminate across distribution channels. In the second part of the paper, we build an analytical model and derive the equilibrium distribution and pricing strategies for competing brands conditional on the heterogeneity of consumers with respect to their willingness to adopt AI-enabled devices. We also analyze the welfare impact of the introduction of AI technology as a new possible distribution channel.

• Gorkem Bostanci and Pinar Yildirim, Does Negative Advertising Pay Off for Consumer Brands? in The Wall Street Journal,.
• Maria Petrova, Ananya Sen, Pinar Yildirim, “New technologies and political competition: The impact of social media communication on political contributions”. In The Political Economy of Social Media,” Filipe Campante, Ruben Durante and Andrea Tesei, eds. edited by, (CEPR, 2024)
• Pinar Yildirim, Maria Petrova, Ricardo Perez Truglia, Andrei Simonov (2024), Are Political and Charitable Giving Substitutes? Evidence from the United States, Management Science . Abstract

  We provide evidence that individuals substitute between political contributions and charitable contributions, using micro data from the American Red Cross and Federal Election Commission. First, we find that foreign natural disasters, which are positive shocks to charitable giving, crowd out political giving. Second, we show that political advertisement campaigns, which are positive shocks to political giving, crowd out charitable giving. Our evidence suggests that individuals give to political and charitable causes to satisfy similar needs, and some of the drivers of charitable giving, such as other-regarding preferences, may be driving political giving too.

• Mustafa Dogan, Pinar Yildirim, Alexandre Jacquillat (2024), Strategic Automation and Decision-making Authority, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 33 (1), pp. 203-246. Abstract

  This paper studies adoption and utilization of automation within firms of different organizational structures. We develop a theoretical model of organizational design with embedded cheap-talk. Specifically, we study a firm with a principal and two divisional managers, where production tasks can be automated in each division. Our findings show that there exists heterogeneity among firms in how they utilize automation based on their organizational structure. In specific, while more centralized firms may automate divisions facing higher risk and uncertainty, more decentralized firms choose to do the opposite. Moreover, as the overall automation capacity increases, firms follow distinctly different strategies to adapt to changing market conditions. With higher automation capacity, a firm is more likely to centralize decision-making at the top, rather than having a decentralized decision-making structure. This suggests that, the structure of firms and the role of managers may change as well, altering the allocation of decision-making rights within organizations. In consequence, as firms automate more and more tasks, mid-level managers become more focused on day-to-day operations and less involved in strategic decision-making on behalf of the firm. Finally, the paper shows that automation can be a strategic substitute to monetary contracts.

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• Gorkem Bostanci, Pinar Yildirim, Kinshuk Jerath (2023), Negative Advertising and Competitive Positioning, Management Science . Abstract

  Negative advertising provides information about the weaknesses of a competitor’s product. We study negative advertising with a focus on how it impacts product positioning for profit-maximizing firms. We build a model of informative advertising competition, where product positioning is endogenous and consumers have rational expectations. We show that despite the informational benefits of negative advertising, permitting it (as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States does) may lead to reduced product differentiation and lower consumer welfare, even in markets where firms do not utilize negative advertising in equilibrium. We then extend our model to political competition, where a candidate’s objective is to obtain a larger share of votes than the competitor. We show that political competition supports higher positional differentiation, along with more negative advertising than product competition, in line with observed high use of negative advertising in political races and their rarer use in product competition.

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• Camilo Garcia-Jimeno and Pinar Yildirim (Draft), Matching Pennies on the Campaign Trail: An Empirical Study of Senate Elections and Media Coverage. Abstract

  We study empirically the strategic interaction between the media and candidates in a bipartisan election. We suggest that the relationship between the media and candidates in a campaign is shaped by both a dimension of alignment of preferences, and a dimension of misalignment, which leads to a strategic environment resembling a matching pennies game. As a result, making inferences about politicians’ ideologies or policy stances based on media reports is not possible without taking explicit account of how each player’s behavior affects the other. Based on this observation we develop a simple structural model of bipartisan races where the media makes reports about the candidates, and candidates make decisions along the campaign trail regarding the type of constituencies to target with their statements and speeches. We show how data on media reports, electoral results, and poll results, together with the behavioral implications of the model, can be used to estimate its structural parameters. We implement this methodology on US Senatorial races for the period 1980-2012. These parameters are useful, among other things, to predict the evolution of races during the campaign trail, and to understand the forces shaping candidates speech during campaigns. Moreover, our results suggest a novel interpretation for how the media constrains politicians’ behavior in an democracy.

• Camilo Garcia-Jimeno, Pinar Yildirim, Angel Iglesias-Diaz (2022), Information Networks and Collective Action: Evidence from the Women’s Temperance Crusade, American Economic Review, 41–80. Abstract

  How do social interactions shape collective action, and how are they mediated by networked information technologies? We answer these questions studying the Temperance Crusade, a wave of anti-liquor protest activity spreading across 29 states between 1873 and 1874. Relying on exogenous variation in network links generated by railroad accidents, we provide causal evidence of social interactions driving the diffusion of the movement, mediated by rail and telegraph information about neighboring activity. Local newspaper coverage of the crusade was a key channel mediating these effects. Using an event-study methodology, we find strong complementarities between rail and telegraph networks in driving the movement’s spread.

• Yi Liu, Pinar Yildirim, Z. John Zhang (2022), Implications of Revenue Models and Technology for Content Moderation Strategies, Marketing Science. Abstract

  This paper develops a theoretical model to study the economic incentives for a social media platform to moderate user-generated content. We show that a self-interested platform can use content moderation as an effective marketing tool to expand its installed user base, to increase the utility of its users, and to achieve its positioning as a moderate or extreme content platform.
  For the purpose of maximizing its own profit, a platform will balance pruning some extreme content, thus losing some users, with gaining new users because of a more moderate content on the platform. This balancing act will play out differently depending on whether users will have to pay to join (subscription vs advertising revenue models) and on whether the technology for content moderation is perfect.

  We show that when conducting content moderation optimally, a platform under advertising is more likely to moderate its content than one under subscription, but does it less aggressively compared to the latter when it does. This is because a platform under advertising is more concerned about expanding its user base, while a platform under subscription is also concerned with users’ willingness-to-pay. We also show a platform’s optimal content moderation strategy depends on its technical sophistication. Because of imperfect technology, a platform may optimally throw away the moderate content more than the extreme content. Therefore, one cannot judge how extreme a platform is by just looking at its content moderation strategy. Furthermore, we show that a platform under advertising does not necessarily benefit from a better technology for content moderation, but one under subscription does, as the latter can always internalize the benefits of a better technology. This means that platforms under different revenue models can have different incentives to improve their content moderation technology. Finally, we draw managerial and policy implications from our insights.

• Jessie Liu, Pinar Yildirim, Z. John Zhang (2022), A Theory of Maximalist Luxury, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. Abstract

  The availability of high-quality, low-price counterfeits in many luxury markets threatens the role of luxury goods as a status symbol. If those counterfeits look and feel the same as the authentic counterparts, as many professional authenticators observe, and they are available at a fraction of the price of authentic goods, why would self-interested consumers purchase authentic luxury goods? Then, the future of luxury goods is called into question. In this paper, we propose that the presence of high-quality, low-price counterfeits can, surprisingly, motivate the wealthy consumers to pursue what we term as the “maximalist luxury” strategy. In the presence of these counterfeits, the wealthy can resort to signaling their status by purchasing the maximum number of luxury goods available and put their copious consumption on display, while in the absence of such counterfeits, the wealthy consumers only need to purchase the minimum number of luxury goods to stand out. This new signaling mechanism then highlights the importance of product line decisions by a luxury brand in combating counterfeits and provides a number of managerial insights about how to maintain the role of luxury goods as a status symbol through pricing, adjusting the product line, and limiting its products’ functionality.

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• All Research from Pinar Yildirim »

Professor Yildirim teaches a variety of courses in MBA, Executive MBA, and Executive Education programs focused on technology and media markets. Penn students can take a look at the current offerings at Syllabi@Wharton.

Past Courses

• AMCS5999 - Independent Study

  Independent Study allows students to pursue academic interests not available in regularly offered courses. Students must consult with their academic advisor to formulate a project directly related to the student’s research interests. All independent study courses are subject to the approval of the AMCS Graduate Group Chair.

• AMCS9999 - Ind Study & Research

  Study under the direction of a faculty member.

• MKTG2470 - Mktg Strgy Tech Platform

  This course focuses on the unique aspects of creating effective marketing and management strategies for technology-intensive on-line and off-line businesses. It addresses the effective competitive marketing strategies for winning in markets which are powered by technology: specifically, how firms create value for customers and how they can integrate technology in delivering a better consumer experience. While competitive marketing strategy is important for all managers, this course will be particularly useful to students who are planning to accept a position in leading technology companies, and marketing firms in which technology is likely to play an important role. In addition, the course will provide value to those who expect to work in consulting or investing in technology industries, and must analyze firm strategies. Course open to sophomores, juniors and seniors.

• MKTG2770 - Marketing Strategy

  This course views marketing as both a general management responsibility and an orientation of an organization that helps one to create, capture and sustain customer value. The focus is on the business unit and its network of channels, customer relationships, and alliances. Specifically, the course attempts to help develop knowledge and skills in the application of advanced marketing frameworks, concepts, and methods for making strategic choices at the business level.

• MKTG7470 - Mktg Strgy Tech Platform

  This course focuses on the unique aspects of creating effective marketing and management strategies for technology-intensive on-line and off-line businesses. It addresses the effective competitive marketing strategies for winning in markets which are powered by technology: specifically, how firms create value for customers and how they can integrate technology in delivering a better consumer experience. While competitive marketing strategy is important for all managers, this course will be particularly useful to students who are planning to accept a position in leading technology companies, and marketing firms in which technology is likely to play an important role. In addition, the course will provide value to those who expect to work in consulting or investing in technology industries, and must analyze firm strategies.

• MKTG7770 - Marketing Strategy

  This course views marketing as both a general management responsibility and an orientation of an organization that helps one to create, capture and sustain customer value. The focus is on the business unit and its network of channels, customer relationships, and alliances. Specifically, the course attempts to help develop knowledge and skills in the application of advanced marketing frameworks, concepts, and methods for making strategic choices at the business level.

• MKTG8990 - Independent Study

  A student contemplating an independent study project must first find a faculty member who agrees to supervise and approve the student's written proposal as an independent study (MKTG 899). If a student wishes the proposed work to be used to meet the ASP requirement, he/she should then submit the approved proposal to the MBA adviser who will determine if it is an appropriate substitute. Such substitutions will only be approved prior to the beginning of the semester.

• MKTG9950 - Dissertation

  Dissertation

• MKTG9990 - Independent Study

  Requires written permission of instructor and the department graduate adviser.

• Meritorious Service Award, Management Science, 2023
• Marketing Science Institute, Scholar Award, 2023 Description

  The MSI Scholars Program was established to bring together a select group of mid-career level academics, with the purpose of recognizing individuals’ excellence in scholarship, developing a cohort across marketing disciplines, and strengthening ties between scholars and MSI.

• Marketing Science, Service Award, 2022
• Research Award, Facebook, 2021
• Dean's Teaching Excellence Award, Wharton School, 2021
• Best Paper Award, ZEW, 2021
• Erin Anderson Award for an Emerging Female Marketing Scholar and Mentor, 2020 Description

  The Erin Anderson Award recognizes emerging female marketing scholars and mentors, while honoring and celebrating the life of Erin Anderson.  Erin was a widely respected mentor and scholar whose research made significant contributions to the marketing discipline.

  To honor Erin and support her passion for encouraging women in academe, the Erin Anderson Award recognizes a female marketing scholar we anticipate becoming a leading marketing academic in the mold of Erin Anderson.

• V. Seenu Srinivasan Young Scholar Award in Quantitative Marketing, 2019 Description

  This award recognizes important contributions by a young scholar to methodology development in quantitative marketing.

• Distinguished Service Award, Management Science, 2018
• Teaching Excellence Award, Wharton School, 2018
• MSI Young Scholar, 2017
• Distinguished Service Award, Management Science, 2016
• Mack Institute Research Grant, 2014
• Zicklin Center Research Support, 2014
• Dean's Research Grant, 2014
• ISMS Doctoral Consortium - Faculty Fellow, 2013
• Wharton- Dean's Research Fund Recipient, 2013
• Wharton Mack Center Research Funding Support, 2013
• Wharton Public Policy Initiative Summer Research Program Grant, 2013
• Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society, 2012
• Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, American Red Cross Grant, 2012
• AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 2008 Description

   

   

   
• INFORMS Future Academician Colloquium Fellow, 2008 Description

   

   

   
• University of Pittsburgh Honoree, 2008 Description

   

   

   

• Redefining Modern Luxury Consumption, Knowledge@Wharton - 11/07/2023
• Elon Musk polls Twitter users on whether he should step down as chief executive, Financial Times - 12/19/2022
• Elon Musk wants paid subscribers to account for 50% of Twitter's revenue, but half of its users won't pay to use the site, data shows, Business Insider - 11/26/2022
• A diminished Twitter faces a World Cup test for hate speech moderation, The Washington Post - 11/19/2022
• Candidates rely on social media, but platforms are changing, News Nation - 11/16/2022
• Twitter and Free Speech: What Is Musk’s Plan?, Knowledge at Wharton - 11/15/2022
• Is Twitter too ‘sticky’ to leave, or will Elon Musk’s chaos undo the glue?, Grid News - 11/09/2022
• Social media has evolved as a crucial tool during election cycles — but it can also be misused, NPR - 11/09/2022
• Newsletter: Essential Politics: Let’s talk about those White House student loan tweets, Los Angeles Times - 08/31/2022
• Social Media Usage Is At An All-Time High. That Could Mean A Nightmare For Democracy, NPR - 05/27/2022
• Elon Musk Agrees to Buy Twitter, The New York Times - 04/25/2022
• Political and Charitable Giving: One Rises, the Other Falls, UCLA Anderson Review - 06/30/2020
• The Surprising Similarity Between Charitable and Political Giving, Wall Street Journal - 01/01/2020 Description

  Why do people donate money to political campaigns? This question has vexed many scholars, especially because donations are often small and unlikely to affect the outcome of a race or curry influence with politicians.

  A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research has a possible answer: The paper’s findings suggest that the main motivation for political giving is the same as it is for charitable giving—the donor is driven by his or her desire for the positive feeling that comes from doing something good.

  The researchers noticed that the two kinds of giving often act like substitutes. When someone gives more to a political campaign, in other words, they are likely to give less to charity. The converse was also found to be true.

  “Political contributions and charitable giving may satisfy the same psychological needs,” says Pinar Yildirim, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school and co-author of the study. Maria Petrova, Ricardo Perez-Truglia and Andrei Simonov are the study’s other authors.

  To test whether charitable and political giving are interchangeable, the paper looked at contributions to the American Red Cross after a foreign natural disaster. The authors chose to focus on foreign catastrophes because they generate a lot of press coverage, which encourages people to donate, and, unlike domestic natural disasters, have little effect on Americans’ financial ability to donate.

  The authors found that within six weeks of a foreign disaster, the American Red Cross tends to receive about a 27% increase in the amount of donations. After looking at data from the Federal Election Commission, the authors also found that in the same six-week period after a natural disaster, political donations decline by about 3.75%.

  “That may seem small, but it’s statistically significant and could translate into a big loss over a campaign period for politicians, equating to about $562 million in political contributions,” says Dr. Yildirim.

  The authors also tested whether upticks in political giving reduced charitable giving. They looked at political ads on TV, which encourage people to give to certain candidates. Television viewers often see different advertisements, depending on their market. The authors found that viewers in counties that saw more political ads increased their political giving by about 9.2% relative to an adjoining county that saw fewer political ads, and decreased charitable giving by about 0.7%. While the second number is small, it does illustrate that there is a relationship between the two, the authors say.

  The authors looked to see if other explanations, like household budget constraints, could explain their results. But more charitable or political giving had no effect on spending on groceries, retail items or even lottery tickets.

  “Past economic research has found that people tend to make mental buckets for groceries and other expenditures. It seems that charitable and political giving are often put in the same bucket,” says Dr. Yildirim.

  It remains unclear how the substitution effect is likely to play out this fall as the U.S. faces a pandemic and an intense election season, says Dr. Yildirim.

• Big advertisers still shunning Ingraham’s Fox News show months after boycotts, Politico - 10/16/2018
• Why big spenders shun luxury brands when counterfeits hit market, World Trademark Review - 10/11/2018
• What does the end of net neutrality actually mean?, World Economic Forum - 06/15/2018
• Facebook's Value Rose by $17 Billion During Zuckerberg's 11 Hours of Testimony, The Street - 04/11/2018
• What Heavier Regulation Could Wind Up Costing Facebook, The Street - 03/28/2018
• Trump's fondness for Twitter no help to the company, San Francisco Chronicle - 01/11/2017
• Trump’s fondness for Twitter no help to the company, San Francisco Chronicle - 01/11/2017
• Big Data’s Big Muscle, IMF F&D - 11/01/2016
• How Facebook could affect your chances of getting a loan, Toronto Star - 08/10/2015
• The Consequences of Using Social Network Data for Credit Scores, Badcredit.org - 10/20/2014
• Rest in Peace: Planning for Your Demise, Digitally, Knowledge@Wharton - 03/26/2014
• Body Slams, Vicious Dogs, Tidal Waves: How Effective Are Today’s Violent Ads?, Knowledge@Wharton - 02/25/2014
• Technology Can Save the News -- If Readers Change How They Consume It, Forbes - 11/26/2013
• Technology Can Save the News — If Readers Change How They Consume It, Knowledge@Wharton - 11/22/2013
• Twitter for Dummies, Marketplace - 11/07/2013
• Twitter: What’s It Worth?, Knowledge@Wharton - 11/06/2013
• Fric et Fric et Instagram: Qui va profiter des photos que vous partagez sur Internet?, Fisheye (France) - 09/10/2013
• Upset about Political Bias in the Media? Blame Economics, Knowledge@Wharton - 05/22/2013
• Google Glass: Can 'Tech Cool' Become 'Market Cool'?, Knowledge@Wharton - 05/22/2013
• Cloud 9, Penn News Today - 05/22/2013
• Adobe's Shift to the Cloud: Is This the Start of a Trend?, Knowledge@Wharton - 05/08/2013
• Today's Forecast for the Weather Business: Increased Revenues and a Focus on Innovation, Knowledge@Wharton - 04/10/2013
• From Nike to marriage equality, controversy can be a good thing, OregonLive - 03/30/2013
• What’s the Deal with Groupon?, Knowledge@Wharton Today - 03/11/2013
• Facebook has New Competition, The Fiscal Times - 02/14/2013
• What Defines Success in Mobile Race?, Knowledge@Wharton - 02/13/2013
• How Instagram Can Make Money — Without Alienating Users, Knowledge@Wharton - 01/02/2013
• Twitter and Instagram: The Current Skirmish, Unfiltered, Knowledge@Wharton - 12/14/2012
• Facebook’s New ‘Social Jobs’ App — Like or Dislike?, Knowledge@Wharton - 11/20/2012
• Is Back-to-school Spending Making the Grade?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 08/30/2012
• Money from Friends: Finding the Right Revenue Model for Social Media, Knowledge @ Wharton - 08/29/2012
• Customer Analytics: A New Lifeline for the Red Cross and Other Nonprofits?, Forbes - 02/02/2012
• Customer Analytics: A New Lifeline for the Red Cross and Other Nonprofits?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/01/2012
• Media Bias and Advertising, Insead Blog - 01/26/2012
• Academic literature on new media, Insead Blog - 01/16/2012

Knowledge @ Wharton

• How Dynamic Electricity Pricing Can Improve Market Efficiency, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/12/2024
• Is Algorithmic Management Too Controlling?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/12/2024
• The Hidden Cost of AI Energy Consumption, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/12/2024
• Charitable and Political Giving | Pinar Yildirim, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/12/2024
• The Future of Banking, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/11/2024
• Election Statistics, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/06/2024
• Robots Are Taking Over Low-skilled Jobs — and Changing Votes, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/05/2024
• Crypto Politics: Liberals’ and Conservatives’ Confidence in Cryptocurrencies, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/05/2024
• Leadership and Elections | Mike Useem, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/05/2024
• Automation Is Harming Low-skilled Workers and Possibly Their Voting Preferences, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/01/2024