Though the mobile app market is substantial and growing fast, most app providers struggle to monetize apps profitably. Monetizing apps is done in two ways: a) selling advertising space within a free version of the app, and b) selling a paid version, termed freemium or in-app purchase strategy. In this paper, we present a framework for monetization of mobile apps, using two central empirical regularities concerning the relationship between users and their mobile apps: a) Sampling: While consumers have some prior knowledge of their fit with the app, they remain uncertain regarding their exact utility until they are using it; and b) Satiation: The utility of using the app may decrease with time. While work on the monetization of digital goods has largely overlooked the role of satiation and the consequent retention issues, we show that in combination with uncertainty, it elucidates the role of the segments of consumers that download the free vs. paid version of the app, and how to balance these two segments so as to monetize mobile apps. We encounter two distinct scenarios: In the first, advertising drives most of the revenues; while in the second, revenues are driven by the paid version of the app. We explain how uncertainty and satiation affect the prevalence of the respective scenarios and impact the share of revenues from the paid vs free version of the app. We also demonstrate that an app provider can profit from offering a free version with ads even if advertisers are not paying for these ads. In other words, the app provider benefits from offering a “damaged good” version of the app that includes ads, even if this version is free to consumers, and the advertisers are not paying for the ads.

Selection process:

The winning article was chosen from two rounds of voting open only to the members of the IJRM Editorial Board. In the first round, each voter nominated up to three (3) papers from the 48 that were published in IJRM in 2020. Four (4) papers received the most nominations. In the second/final round, the Board Members voted for one paper from this shortlist of five papers. The winning paper is the one that received the most votes.

Four Finalists (in order of appearance):

•

On the monetization of mobile apps. Gil Appel, Barak Libai, Eitan Muller, Ron Shachar. (Vol 37, Issue 1, Pages 93-107)

•

Virtual and augmented reality: Advancing research in consumer marketing. Michel Wedel, Enrique Bigne, Jie Zhang. (Vol 37, Issue 3, Pages 443-465)

•

Age differences in children's happiness from material goods and experiences: The role of memory and theory of mind. Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Tina M. Lowrey, Ayalla A. Ruvio, L.J. Shrum, Kathleen D. Vohs. (Vol 37, Issue 3, Pages 572-586)

•

The impact of online display advertising and paid search advertising relative to offline advertising on firm performance and firm value. Emanuel Bayer, Shuba Srinivasan, Edward J. Riedl, Bernd Skiera. (Vol 37, Issue 4, Pages 789-804)

尽管移动应用市场规模庞大且增长迅速，但大多数应用提供商都在努力通过应用获利。应用货币化有两种方式：a) 在应用的免费版本中销售广告空间，以及 b) 销售付费版本，称为免费增值或应用内购买策略。在本文中，我们提出了一个移动应用货币化框架，使用关于用户与其移动应用程序之间关系的两个中心经验规律：a) 抽样：虽然消费者对他们与应用程序的匹配度有一些先验知识，但他们仍然不确定在他们使用之前，他们的确切效用；b) 满足：使用该应用程序的效用可能会随着时间的推移而下降。虽然关于数字商品货币化的工作在很大程度上忽略了饱腹感的作用和随之而来的保留问题，我们表明，结合不确定性，它阐明了下载免费版和付费版应用的消费者细分的作用，以及如何平衡这两个细分以通过移动应用获利。我们遇到两种截然不同的情况：第一种是广告驱动了大部分收入；而在第二种情况下，收入是由应用程序的付费版本驱动的。我们解释了不确定性和满足感如何影响各个场景的流行，并影响付费版与免费版应用程序的收入份额。我们还证明，即使广告商不为这些广告付费，应用程序提供商也可以通过提供带有广告的免费版本而获利。换句话说，即使该版本对消费者免费，应用程序提供商也可以从提供包含广告的“损坏好的”应用程序版本中受益，

评选过程：

获奖文章是从仅对IJRM编辑委员会成员开放的两轮投票中选出的。在第一轮投票中，每位选民从2020 年IJRM发表的 48 篇论文中最多提名三 (3) 篇论文。四 (4) 篇论文获得最多提名。在第二/最后一轮，董事会成员投票支持一个从这个名单的五份文件纸。获胜的论文是获得最多选票的论文。

四位入围者（按出场顺序）：

•

关于移动应用程序的货币化。吉尔·阿佩尔、巴拉克·利白、艾坦·穆勒、罗恩·沙查尔。（第 37 卷，第 1 期，第 93-107 页）

•

虚拟和增强现实：推进消费者营销研究。米歇尔·韦德尔、恩里克·比格尼、张杰。（第 37 卷，第 3 期，第 443-465 页）

•

物质财富和经验对儿童幸福的年龄差异：记忆和心理理论的作用。Lan Nguyen Chaplin、Tina M. Lowrey、Ayalla A. Ruvio、LJ Shrum、Kathleen D. Vohs。（第 37 卷，第 3 期，第 572-586 页）

•

在线展示广告和付费搜索广告相对于线下广告对公司业绩和公司价值的影响。伊曼纽尔·拜尔、舒巴·斯里尼瓦桑、爱德华·J·里德尔、伯恩德·斯基拉。（第 37 卷，第 4 期，第 789-804 页）