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Product Recommendation Strategy and Seller-Biased Recommendations We now segue from bundling economics to the theory of strategic product recommendation, and the nuances that arise when a product or service provider rethinks its approach about how to push a more profitable product to consumers, who exhibit heterogeneity with respect to their fit with it. The optimal strategy depends both on the search cost faced by consumers as well as the accuracy of information the seller possesses about consumer preferences. Using a recommendation system, for example, a seller can nudge potential consumers to a high-margin product, instead of simply recommending the product that would have offered them the highest utility [[28]]. In a two-channel scenario, a larger bundle discount entices more consumers to buy both channels but also results in a higher lost revenue as consumers who would have purchased both in any case can now do so at a lower price. [Extracted from the article]

We characterized the acute B cell response in adults with cholera by analyzing the repertoire, specificity, and functional characteristics of 138 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) generated from single-cell-sorted plasmablasts. We found that the cholera-induced responses were characterized by high levels of somatic hypermutation and large clonal expansions. A majority of the expansions targeted cholera toxin (CT) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Using a novel proteomics approach, we were able to identify sialidase as another major antigen targeted by the antibody response to Vibrio cholerae infection. Antitoxin MAbs targeted both the A and B subunits, and most were also potent neutralizers of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin. LPS-specific MAbs uniformly targeted the O-specific polysaccharide, with no detectable responses to either the core or the lipid moiety of LPS. Interestingly, the LPS-specific antibodies varied widely in serotype specificity and functional characteristics. One participant infected with the Ogawa serotype produced highly mutated LPS-specific antibodies that preferentially bound the previously circulating Inaba serotype. This demonstrates durable memory against a polysaccharide antigen presented at the mucosal surface and provides a mechanism for the long-term, partial heterotypic immunity seen following cholera.ImportanceCholera is a diarrheal disease that results in significant mortality. While oral cholera vaccines are beneficial, they do not achieve equivalent protection compared to infection with Vibrio cholerae Although antibodies likely mediate protection, the mechanisms of immunity following cholera are poorly understood, and a detailed understanding of antibody responses to cholera is of significance for human health. In this study, we characterized the human response to cholera at the single-plasmablast, monoclonal antibody level. Although this approach has not been widely applied to the study of human bacterial infection, we were able to uncover the basis of cross-reactivity between different V. cholerae serotypes and the likely impact of prior enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli exposure on the response to cholera, as well as identify novel antigenic targets. In addition to improving our understanding of the repertoire and function of the antibody response to cholera in humans, this study has implications for future cholera vaccination efforts.

The second article in this Special Section reflects the actions of not one AI firm, but instead 1,387 publicly-traded companies in the People's Republic of China from 2007 to 2018. An interesting, empirically testable implication of the authors' theoretical analysis is whether different enforcement regimes, which result in differences of piracy cost, do result in the nuanced prevalence (or not) of product bundles on the local markets for information goods as it would be predicted by the model. The authors report that they found evidence for a causal link in the presence of higher-intensity AI investments proxied by the estimated AI applications of individual firms with their overall employment as well as higher employment of nonacademically-trained workers. The authors' results are developed as a function of product similarity (amounting to a valuation discount factor between 0 and 1) and (expected per-product) piracy cost, which provides a somewhat new perspective, as the set of parameters where bundling dominates becomes nonconvex - due to the newly discovered "wedge" of intermediate piracy costs and sufficiently high product similarity. [Extracted from the article]

Rewards-based crowdfunding presents an information asymmetry for participants due to the funding mechanism used. Campaign-backers trust creators to complete projects and deliver rewards as outlined prior to the fundraising process, but creators may discover better opportunities as they progress with a project. Despite this, the all-or-nothing (AON) mechanism on crowdfunding platforms incentivizes creators to set meager funding-targets that are easier to achieve but may offer limited slack when creators wish to simultaneously pursue emerging opportunities later in the project. We explore the related issues of how funding targets seem to be selected by the creators, and how dissatisfaction with the rewards outcomes may arise for the backers. We constructed a quasi-experimental (QE) research design based on an extensive dataset from Kickstarter with nearly 390,000 campaigns. Our findings show that creators who set particularly meager funding-targets for their campaigns are more likely to receive sufficient funds but are less likely to satisfy backers with the project outcomes they deliver. We also test the moderating roles of creator and campaign characteristics. Overall, this study provides evidence that the funding mechanism used in rewards-based crowdfunding may be unsustainable in its current form, unless new mechanisms are introduced to realign the diverging incentives for creators and backers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective market mechanisms are important for supporting the high performance and profitability of digital commerce firms, just as they have been for traditional buyer-seller exchange networks that maximize overall welfare and optimize the distribution of goods and services so firms can sustain viable businesses [[5], [12]]. Interestingly however, there is no evidence that more post-campaign comments (suggesting ongoing creator-backer alignment) led to higher backer satisfaction, nor were experienced campaign creators likely to moderate the effects of low funding targets on backer satisfaction. [Extracted from the article]