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This dissertation studies the evolution of consumer taste on digital platforms and its implication on consumers' searching behaviors, firms' product feature design and pricing strategies. Chapter 1 analyzes the clickstream point-of-sale data from a hotel searching website and empirically finds that consumers have different hidden states in the searching process and their price and quality sensitivity changes over the purchase funnel. Chapter 2 assumes that consumers tend to prefer the feature design of their previous consumption and theoretically discovers that this consumer taste shift enhances firms' competition, opposite to the strategic impact of most first-mover advantages like switching costs. When the service suppliers are also consumers for the digital platforms in sharing economy, Chapter 3 analytically searches for the optimal pricing and compensation design from the perceptive of the platforms. We offer significant contribution to the literature in Marketing and Information Systems and provide useful managerial implications to product searching platforms, digital product feature design and the debate of identifying workers as independent contractors or employees in sharing economy.

This dissertation studies the evolution of consumer taste on digital platforms and its implication on consumers' searching behaviors, firms' product feature design and pricing strategies. Chapter 1 analyzes the clickstream point-of-sale data from a hotel searching website and empirically finds that consumers have different hidden states in the searching process and their price and quality sensitivity changes over the purchase funnel. Chapter 2 assumes that consumers tend to prefer the feature design of their previous consumption and theoretically discovers that this consumer taste shift enhances firms' competition, opposite to the strategic impact of most first-mover advantages like switching costs. When the service suppliers are also consumers for the digital platforms in sharing economy, Chapter 3 analytically searches for the optimal pricing and compensation design from the perceptive of the platforms. We offer significant contribution to the literature in Marketing and Information Systems and provide useful managerial implications to product searching platforms, digital product feature design and the debate of identifying workers as independent contractors or employees in sharing economy.

The cornea is the outermost layer of the eye and is a vital component of focusing incoming light on the retina. Central corneal thickness (CCT) is now recognized to have a significant role in ocular health and is a risk factor for various ocular diseases, such as keratoconus and primary open angle glaucoma. Most previous genetic studies utilized European and Asian subjects to identify genetic loci associated with CCT. Minority populations, such as Latinos, may aid in identifying additional loci and improve our understanding of the genetic architecture of CCT. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in Latinos, a traditionally understudied population in genetic research, to further identify loci contributing to CCT. Study participants were genotyped using either the Illumina OmniExpress BeadChip (∼730K markers) or the Illumina Hispanic/SOL BeadChip (∼2.5 million markers). All study participants were 40 years of age and older. We assessed the association between individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and CCT using linear regression, adjusting for age, gender and principal components of genetic ancestry. To expand genomic coverage and to interrogate additional SNPs, we imputed SNPs from the 1000 Genomes Project reference panels. We identified a novel SNP, rs10453441 (P = 6.01E-09), in an intron of WNT7B that is associated with CCT. Furthermore, WNT7B is expressed in the human cornea. We also replicated 11 previously reported loci, including IBTK, RXRA-COL5A1, COL5A1, FOXO1, LRRK1 and ZNF469 (P < 1.25E-3). These findings provide further insight into the genetic architecture of CCT and illustrate that the use of minority groups in GWAS will help identify additional loci.

PurposeDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness in working age adults. Studies have observed that Latinos have a higher prevalence of DR than whites. The purpose of this study is to test the association between genetic admixture and severe DR in Latinos with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).MethodsWe conducted a case-control study using 944 T2DM subjects from the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study. Cases (n = 135) were defined as proliferative or severe nonproliferative DR subjects. Controls (n = 809) were other diabetic subjects in the cohort. Genotyping was performed on the Illumina OmniExpress BeadChip. We estimated genetic ancestry in Latinos using STRUCTURE with the HapMap reference panels. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to test the relationship between the proportions of genetic ancestry and severe DR.ResultsNative American ancestry (NAA) in Latino T2DM subjects is associated significantly with severe DR (P = 0.002). The association remained significant (P = 0.005) after adjusting for age, sex, duration of diabetes, hemoglobin A1c, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, education, and income. We also validated the NAA estimates in Latinos using ADMIXTURE with the 1000 Genomes Project reference panels and obtained consistent results.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge that NAA is a significant risk factor for severe DR in Latinos.

PurposeDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness in working age adults. Studies have observed that Latinos have a higher prevalence of DR than whites. The purpose of this study is to test the association between genetic admixture and severe DR in Latinos with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).MethodsWe conducted a case-control study using 944 T2DM subjects from the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study. Cases (n = 135) were defined as proliferative or severe nonproliferative DR subjects. Controls (n = 809) were other diabetic subjects in the cohort. Genotyping was performed on the Illumina OmniExpress BeadChip. We estimated genetic ancestry in Latinos using STRUCTURE with the HapMap reference panels. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to test the relationship between the proportions of genetic ancestry and severe DR.ResultsNative American ancestry (NAA) in Latino T2DM subjects is associated significantly with severe DR (P = 0.002). The association remained significant (P = 0.005) after adjusting for age, sex, duration of diabetes, hemoglobin A1c, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, education, and income. We also validated the NAA estimates in Latinos using ADMIXTURE with the 1000 Genomes Project reference panels and obtained consistent results.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge that NAA is a significant risk factor for severe DR in Latinos.