Journal Guide

Alarge body of research in economics, information systems, and marketing has sought to understand sources of price dispersion. Previous empirical work has mainly offered consumer- and/or product-based explanations for this phenomenon. In contrast, our research explores the key role played by vendors' price-format adoption in explaining price dispersion. We empirically analyze over a half-million online and offline prices offered by major U.S. airlines in the top 500 domestic markets. Our study shows that a vendor's price format remains an important source of price dispersion in both channels even after accounting for other factors known to impact dispersion in airline ticket prices. Importantly, this finding is true for both transacted and posted tickets. We document several other interesting empirical findings. First, the lower variance in the prices of "everyday low price" (EDLP) firms serves to reduce the market-level dispersion in prices when such firms are present. Moreover, the price variance of non-EDLP firms in these markets is also lower than in those markets in which EDLP competitors are absent. Second, we also find that dispersion in offered prices increases closer to the departure date, which is consistent with theoretical assertion that price dispersion increases with reservation prices. Finally, we continue to observe dispersion of online prices even after accounting for vendor strategy and other known sources of dispersion, suggesting that the prices are unlikely to converge even in the presence of sophisticated online search mechanisms.

Information and Computer Security aims to cover the human aspects of security, looking at the impact of user and business behaviours when dealing with security issues. It communicates fresh ideas and cutting-edge research to academics and practitioners.

Information & Management serves researchers in the information systems field and managers, professionals, administrators and senior executives of organizations which design, implement and manage Information Systems Applications. The major aims are:• To collect and disseminate information on new and advanced developments in the field of information systems;• To provide material for training and education in information systems;• To encourage further progress in information systems methodology and applications;• To cover the range of information system development and usage in their use of managerial policies, strategies, and activities for business, public administration, and international organizations.Benefits to authorsWe also provide many author benefits, such as free PDFs, a liberal copyright policy, special discounts on Elsevier publications and much more. Please click here for more information on our author services.Please see our Guide for Authors for information on article submission. If you require any further information or help, please visit our support pages: http://support.elsevier.com