A Business by Any Other Name: Firm Name Choice as a Signal of Firm Quality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: McDevitt, Ryan C.
• 署名单位: Duke University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/676333
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 909-944
• 关键词: consumer; price; CONSEQUENCES; reputation; MODEL

摘要

This paper considers when a firm's deliberately chosen name can signal meaningful information. The average plumbing firm whose name begins with A or a number receives five times more service complaints than other firms and also charges higher prices. Relatedly, plumbers with A names advertise more in the Yellow Pages and on Google, and doing so is positively correlated with receiving complaints. As the use of A names is more prevalent in larger markets, I reconcile these findings with a simple model in which firms have different qualities and consumers have heterogeneous search costs.