Abstract Consumers often have heterogeneous valuations for a product. However, no study has analyzed how this heterogeneity impacts firms’ profit, particularly when consumers’ purchase decisions depend on not only their own valuation but also their peers’ product choices. This study fills that gap by theoretically examining the role of consumer valuation heterogeneity in a firm’s profit. We demonstrate that when there is no peer influence among consumers, a firm’s profit decreases when consumers are more variant in their product valuations. However, when peer influence is strong, a certain level of valuation heterogeneity can increase the firm’s profit. This is because valuation heterogeneity gives the firm an opportunity to charge a higher price when it can rely consumers who highly value the product to influence the remaining consumers’ purchase intention. Although this higher price will initially result in a lower adoption rate, the firm will eventually achieve a higher profit with intense peer influence.

中文翻译：

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消费者估值异质性如何影响公司利润：同行影响有所作为

摘要 消费者通常对产品有不同的评价。然而，没有研究分析这种异质性如何影响公司的利润，特别是当消费者的购买决定不仅取决于他们自己的估值，而且还取决于同行的产品选择时。本研究通过从理论上检验消费者估值异质性在公司利润中的作用来填补这一空白。我们证明，当消费者之间没有同行影响时，当消费者的产品估值差异更大时，公司的利润会下降。然而，当同行影响力很强时，一定程度的估值异质性可以增加公司的利润。这是因为估值异质性让公司有机会收取更高的价格，因为它可以依靠高度评价产品的消费者来影响剩余消费者的购买意愿。虽然这个较高的价格最初会导致较低的采用率，但该公司最终将在强大的同行影响下获得更高的利润。