Protocols for automated negotiations with buyer anonymity and seller reputations

In many Internet commerce applications buyers can easily achieve anonymity, limiting what a seller can learn about any buyer individually. However, because sellers need to keep a fixed web address, buyers can probe them repeatedly or pool their information about sellers with the information obtained by other buyers; hence, sellers' strategies become public knowledge. Under assumptions of buyer anonymity, publicly‐known seller strategies, and no negotiation transaction costs for buyers, we find that take‐it‐or‐leave‐it offers will yield at least as much seller profit as any attempt at price discrimination could yield. As we relax those assumptions, however, we find that sellers, and in some cases buyers as well, may benefit from a more general bargaining protocol. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Understanding product migration to the electronic marketplace: A conceptual framework

We present a conceptual framework that organizes current thinking regarding increased interactivity in the electronic marketplace and its implications for product migration. Product migration refers to the extent of reliance by buyers and sellers on the electronic marketplace for activities pertaining to information search, purchase, acquisition, use, and disposal of a product. We posit that value outcomes derived by buyers and sellers from increasing interactivity mediate the relationship between interactivity and product migration. The relationship between interactivity and value outcomes for buyers and sellers is moderated by three sets of product-related characteristics: the core characteristics of the product, its purchase and use-related characteristics, and market characteristics. Inertia and resistance exhibited by buyers and sellers negatively impact product migration to the electronic marketplace and also attenuate the impact of value outcomes on product migration. In addition to guiding theoretical and empirical work in this emerging area, the proposed framework can also be employed to structure a firm's strategic discussions related to the electronic marketplace.     

我国网络支付平台下买卖双方利益保护机制研究

互联网交易存在着信用、法律、技术和安全等方面的风险,通过建立第三方网络支付平台可以减少这方面的风险,可以在诚信、支付和物流方面对买卖双方的利益进行保护。但我国目前第三方网络支付平台的建设还存在着监管不足、与银行合作不理想、自身缺乏统一性和规范性、账务管理能力和平台稳定性不高、收费混乱等问题,解决这些问题既要从政府、银行等外部环境入手,更应重视平台自身制度的建设和完善,提高平台的公信度,对商家和消费者的利益进行切实的保护。     

Business Buyer Relationship Management Through Seamless Internet Integration

Abstract

There is a growing need to look specifically at Internet integration into business relationship management tactics, beyond sustaining current customers. The Internet enables active implementation of a business buyer relationship management (BBRM) orientation through the facilitation of information sharing and buyer connectivity across various buying conditions. Using Internet tools, the goal of merely sustaining present buyers now appears insufficient. BBRM takes into account that these tools must be effectively utilized across a variety of buying situations including how sellers and buyers come together, stay together and inevitably remake their business relationships endure. BBRM makes effective use of Internet technologies despite various buying situations to enable seller-buyer relationship formation, maintenance and long-term continuation.     

基于技术视角的电子商务安全保障策略研究

互联网是电子商务的基石,开放的互联网络使得网上交易面临多种危险.安全问题是电子商务的核心和关键问题,总的来说涉及网络安全和商务交易安全两方面,针对这两点本文指出了一些电子商务安全中存在的问题及提出了一些相关解决方法.     

国际货款支付中L/C风险规避的实证分析

在信用证（L/C）支付方式下,银行充当了进口方和出口方之间的支付中介和保证人,它使银行信用介入商业信用,在很大程度上缓解了买卖双方互不信任的矛盾,满足了买卖双方加速资金周转的愿望。由于L/C业务的复杂性和L/C自身存在的缺陷,交易中的各个当事人都要面对一定的风险。L/C交易一般涉及三方当事人,即开证申请人（在国际贸易中一般为买方或进口商）、开证银行、受益人（国际贸易中的卖方或者出口商）,在这三方当事人中,任何一方不作为都可能给其他两方带来风险,需要采取相应的风险防范措施。     

平台经济视域下的商家投机行为治理——基于平台主动治理视角

平台型网络市场的虚拟性与隐蔽性导致商家隐瞒、欺骗消费者的行为愈演愈烈，衍生了新的治理难题。基于交易成本理论和社会交换理论，立足平台主动治理视角，文章探索平台主动治理中的事前商家规范机制、事中交易保障机制和事后争议处理机制对商家强、弱投机行为的影响，以及平台声誉对其影响的调节作用。基于消费者视角开展问卷调查，对数据进行结构方程模型分析和分层回归分析，结果表明：弱投机行为对强投机行为具有显著正向影响；商家规范机制和争议处理机制对强、弱投机行为均具有抑制作用；而交易保障机制对弱投机行为具有促进作用；平台声誉对交易保障机制、争议处理机制和弱投机行为之间的关系具有负向调节作用。     

林业期权的二叉树定价以及交易策略分析

目前,林权改革已在我国如火如荼地展开了,但是作为林权改革核心的林权流转仍缺少定量化的研究,尤其是林权流转方面还存在着诸多问题,如林权流转起步晚,规模小;林农对流转缺乏积极性,供给不足;市场信息不对称,地方政府失范;森林资源评估体系缺乏,流转受到技术限制。将实物期权理论应用于林权流转的过程,将林权流转买卖双方即收即付的交易进行改良,将其分解为两个期权的交易,综合运用实物期权理论和二叉树定价模分析买卖双方的交易策略研究结果发现,交易机制在设计时必须对砍伐率进行控制,而预期对买卖双方的交易策略起着决定性的作用。     

You get what you give: theory and evidence of reciprocity in the sharing economy

We develop an analytical framework of peer interaction in the sharing economy that incorporates reciprocity, the tendency to increase (decrease) effort in response to others’ increased (decreased) effort. In our model, buyers (sellers) can induce sellers (buyers) to exert more effort by behaving well themselves. We demonstrate that this joint increased effort can improve the utility of both parties and influence the market equilibrium. We also show that bilateral reputation systems, which allow both buyers and sellers to review each other, are more responsive to reciprocity than unilateral reputation systems. By rewarding reciprocal behavior, bilateral reputation systems generate trust among strangers and informally regulate their behavior. We test the predictions of our model using data from Airbnb, a popular peer-to-peer accommodation platform. We show that Airbnb hosts that are more reciprocal receive higher ratings and that higher rated hosts can increase their prices. Therefore, reciprocity affects equilibrium prices on Airbnb through its impact on ratings, as predicted by our analytical framework.     

The (Dis)Advantage of Friendship on Information Search and Satisfaction

Across four experiments, and focusing on consumer behaviour in a high uncertainty market (i.e., a used car market), this research shows that prior to a purchase, buyers are less motivated to search for information when they purchase a product from a friend (compared to someone they do not know). We also show that buyers are more willing to search for information after a transaction when sellers are their friends, a reversal in search behaviour due to the greater social risk that buyers bear when dealing with a friend. Finally, this research shows that both the transaction outcome (i.e., positive versus negative) and the buyer–seller relationship determine the degree to which people are satisfied or dissatisfied with a seller. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Competition,Transparency, and Reciprocity: A Comparative Study of Auctions and Negotiations

The paper discusses experiments aimed at comparing multi-attribute reverse auctions and multi-bilateral negotiations for procuring goods with multiple attributes. Both exchange mechanisms involve a buyer purchasing from one of several sellers. Two types of negotiations are considered: verifiable and non-verifiable. They differ in the sellers’ knowledge of the current best offer on the table; in verifiable negotiations the best offer is automatically shown to every participant, which makes it similar to auctions. Online auctions and negotiation systems were used to study auction and negotiation processes, and the mechanisms’ efficiency. The results show that buyers did best using auctions, followed by non-verifiable and verifiable negotiations. We also looked into the differences between auctions and negotiations in terms of their duration, sellers’ and buyers’ involvement, and efficiency and conclude that the behavior of buyers and sellers cannot be explained solely on the grounds of traditional economics. It can, however, be explained on the grounds of social exchange theory and behavioral economics. In multi-bilateral negotiations competition and social behavior coexist. When transparency is introduced the social effect becomes stronger, weakening the impact of competition.     

基于供应链管理的供需双方经济批量模型实证分析

本文认为,供应链中的每个节点既是后一节点的供应商,又是前一节点的顾客,供需关系始终贯穿于整个供应链。传统经济批量模型中,订货商仅从自身利益出发追求成本最低的订货批量,这对供应商而言并非最优,供应商和订货商是矛盾对立的。在现代供应链管理中,供需双方应是一种战略合作伙伴关系,合作博弈的结果理应达到双赢。因此,为在竞争中取胜,应形成以顾客为中心的供应链管理,一方面,供应商应提高生产系统的柔性,对顾客需求作出快速反应;另一方面,供应商应与订货商建立战略联盟,追求优化、高效的供应链管理。本文建立的订货商的经济批量模型、订货商已作决策条件下的供应商最优生产批量模型以及供需双方合作博弈条件下的价格折扣模型可以优化供应链管理,促使供需双方达到双赢,从而实现供应链效益的最大化。     

From wheel of fortune to wheel of misfortune: Financial crises,cycles, and consumer predation

Predator–prey dynamics are widely used in ecology but seldom utilized in economics and marketing, despite their ability to express financial market agents' behaviors when considered in combination with economic cycles and financial crises. This multidisciplinary article presents a stylized framework of a market cycle that combines the notions of supply and demand and predator–prey interactions between buyers and sellers of housing mortgages. We illustrate our framework using data from the Global Financial Crisis and a Lotka-Volterra predator–prey model. We find that with our framework we can capture the dynamics of the market, particularly the peak and decline in the number of sellers and sold subprime mortgages. Our framework sheds a new light on consumer behaviors, pinpointing how they can put themselves into vulnerable prey positions. This article is one of the first of its kind to propose market phases and predator–prey dynamics nested in economic cycles and consumer buying trends.     

Market Model-Based Channel Selection in B2B E-Commerce: Exploring a Buyer's Adoption Decisions

Companies that seek to exploit the cost advantages of business-to-business (B2B) e-Commerce face a variety of strategic options. By analyzing the demand and cost functions for sellers, intermediaries, and buyers, this research develops an economic framework that clarifies the relative advantages of four common B2B e-Commerce channels: private exchange, web-based procurement, public aggregation, and public exchange. This research focuses on addressing two important questions: (1) How does a buyer select a suitable B2B e-Commerce channel (or an e-Marketplace structure) given a variety of market conditions, different levels of product substitution, and a range of purchasing patterns? (2) How does a buyer successfully manage a B2B e-Commerce channel for gaining the highest transaction-level buyer surplus? The analytic and numeric results of our study show that a company's product offerings, the market conditions it faces, and the purchase patterns it implements are all important determinants in the selection of B2B e-Commerce setting. For custom products, private networks (such as the private exchange or web-based procurement models) are more attractive than the public aggregation or exchange models. However, taking market conditions and purchasing behavior into consideration, the web-based procurement model is more suitable for spot purchasing, while the public exchange model is more suitable for systematic purchasing and fragmented markets. On the other hand, the aggregation model is preferable in concentrated markets while the exchange model is more suitable in fragmented markets. These results provide important implications for industrial development of B2B e-Commerce.     

契约选择与食品的安全供给:基于交易成本的视角

食品生产供应链中,各个阶段、各交易节点之间的契约模式选择在交易成本的约束下,最终会对食品的质量安全水平产生影响。本文以交易成本的三个维度为研究视角,从理论上分析了食品供应链上的交易主体在交易成本约束下的契约选择行为,进而考察其对食品安全供给的影响。研究表明:首先,专用性资产投资越多,交易契约越倾向于紧密型,有利于食品的安全供给;其次,不确定性(质量、价格等)程度越高,下游企业越倾向于生产契约形式,有利于食品的安全供给;第三,交易频率越高,交易双方对彼此的信任程度越高,企业越倾向于采取生产契约模式,有利于食品的安全供给。     

The effect of buyer feedback scores on internet auction prices

One of the major roles of Internet intermediaries is to help build trust between buyers and sellers for efficient and safe transactions. The buyer feedback system started in online auctions as one of the trust‐building mechanisms on the Internet. As the buyer feedback system is becoming a standard trust‐building mechanism in other e‐commerce sites as well as in online auction, there is an increasing interest about the impact of the buyer feedback system. On the top of recent studies investigating the effects of buyer feedback scores on auction prices, we provide empirical validations using more sophisticated methods. In this study, we tested the relationship between buyer feedback scores and bidding prices using an empirical data set from a leading consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C) Internet auction site. Data analysis results show a strong empirical validation of previous studies. Negative feedback is a significant price discount factor in the final auction price on the C2C Internet auction market. The results also show that potential buyers are more sensitive to negative feedback when they are considering buying inherently risky products such as used or refurbished products.     

Emergent Internet Technology Applications for Relationship Marketing

Abstract

In this paper we bring together the concepts of Relationship Marketing (RM) in the marketing literature and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Information Systems (IS) literature to identify and assess emergent Internet-based Information Technologies (IT) that add value for consumers. We focus on the customer's perspective by identifying the key benefits consumers seek when they enter into IT-mediated interactions with sellers. We review the IS-CRM literature and identify 8 critical IT categories that have the potential for changing how buyers and sellers establish and maintain relationships in the Internet era. Subsequently, we introduce a conceptual model, which considers the nature of the consumer's involvement with sellers through emergent Internet-based technologies in juxtaposition to potential technology-based benefits to consumers. We then discuss the implications of this proposed direction. Finally, we discuss a future research agenda, which considers the use of IT in relationship management.     

探究电子商务生态系统中第三方电子商务平台角色定位及价值

在中国电子商务生态系统的发展中,第三方电子商务平台起着举足轻重的作用.它能够为中小型企业客户提供开放的交易平台,使得卖家能够通过较小的成本向更多的消费者推销自己的产品.它提供了一个在线的"集市",买家和卖家都可以通过这个在线"集市"来沟通、交流或者完成交易.本文旨在探索第三方交易平台在电子商务生态系统中的角色定位,并分析第三方电子商务平台的价值所在.     

IT supporting supplier relationships: The role of electronic commerce

The paper discusses how electronic commerce may be used to support a portfolio of supplier relationships and considers a case study based on BT Supply Management (SM) who have developed a supplier relationship framework to categorise suppliers and select appropriate procurement strategies. Electronic Commerce applications may be mapped to the framework to support different types of supplier relationships. The case study also examines the opportunities of utilising the Internet to support procurement-related processes. The impact of electronic commerce on the supply chain is considered in terms of customer service, lower costs, more efficient processes and improved supplier relationships.     

Effect of Reputation Mechanisms and Ratings Biases on Traders’ Behavior in Online Marketplaces

Rating mechanisms are becoming an essential tool for online shoppers. There have been many reputation mechanisms proposed in the literature that try to mitigate the sometimes adverse effects of strategic behavior of the traders to alter their true reputation scores. At the same time, several studies have shown the presence of bias (often unintentional) in product ratings and their harmful effect on buyers and product sales. To date, there has not been any work done that studies the effect of reputation mechanisms and ratings biases on the behavior of buyers and sellers in an online marketplace. In this article, we use the concept of replicator dynamics to study the evolution of different types of sellers and buyers who use three different reputation mechanisms. We also study the evolution of different types of sellers in the presence of four types of ratings biases. Our results indicate that, over time, buyers gravitate toward using the adaptive model and, in most scenarios, strategic and dishonest sellers are replaced by honest sellers.