The use of information as a competitive advantage. Since
the advent of the Internet, firms have enjoyed
unprecedented flexibility to reveal information to
competitors, customers, and suppliers. In this new
technological environment, firms can implement
transparency strategies by using information
strategically to compete. In the online travel sector,
for example, the business strategy of meta-search travel
agents like Kayak is to provide a comprehensive view of
products and prices to travelers. Other companies, like
Priceline, use opaque mechanisms to conceal product
features until after purchase. This article offers
foundations and guidelines for sound transparency
strategies that are the result of over six years of
field observations and empirical research. 2008