批发市场中电子中间商问题的分析

随着网络经济的迅速发展 ,出现了许多基于网络基础的提供信息服务的具有中介功能的电子中间商。批发市场中产品的质量存在不确定性 ,电子中间商能提高市场交易的效率 ,但物流和市场交易的分离也给市场的买卖双方带来了新的交易风险。电子中间商可以采用拍卖交易方式 ,并建立一个能降低交易风险的信用机制。信用机制的建立会促使电子市场的交易集中于高质量的产品 ,且产品的价格要高于传统市场产品价格。     

A Multi-Attribute Negotiation Support System with Market Signaling for Electronic Markets

Despite the rapid growth of technology and Internet-based markets, many of the current systems limit themselves to price as the single dimension variable and offer, if at all, only minimal negotiation support to the consumer. In the real world, commercial transactions take into account many other parameters both quantitative and qualitative such as product quality, speed, reputation, after sales service, etc. This paper discusses how these multiple attributes can be captured to augment standard negotiation processes in order to support electronic market transactions. Using a combination of utility theory and multicriteria decision-making, we propose heuristic algorithms to discover potential trades. In addition, the approach is included within a larger framework that incorporates market-signaling mechanisms. This not only allows for the systematic evolution of negotiation positions among buyers and sellers but can ultimately lead towards improving both market transparency and efficiency. To illustrate the multiple criteria model coupled with the dynamic market signaling framework, we report in this paper the implementation of a Web-based clearinghouse that serves the real estate market.     

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.     

Talent Management Practices in IT Companies from Emerging Markets: A Comparative Analysis of Russia,India, and China

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors review talent management practices in information technology (IT) companies from Russia, India, and China, discussing their differences and similarities. Using the emerging market context, the authors debate the factors influencing talent management, specifically in IT companies. The article examines the relevant research on the main talent management issues in Russia, India, and China, and offers one of the first intercountry comparative analyses of talent management practices in IT companies from emerging markets. The authors argue that although talent management practices are influenced by different institutional and cultural factors, there are similarities and differences that can be explained by the emerging market and industry-specific contexts.     

How Verifiable Cheap-Talk Can Communicate Unverifiable Information

This study describes a “cheap-talk” model in which sellers can credibly convey unverifiable information by choosing whether or not to exaggerate verifiable information. We find that unexaggerated claims can communicate favorable unverifiable information if buyers are not too likely to verify claims, and sellers with better information care more about future prices than sellers with worse information. However, there is always another equilibrium in which sellers exaggerate all verifiable claims. Laboratory tests show that when buyers infrequently verify the sellers' claims, players converge to the equilibria close to the example provided in instructions. When buyers are very likely to verify claims, players fail to converge to any equilibrium. Both of these results are consistent with an evolutionary learning model, but inconsistent with the intuitive criteria of Cho and Kreps (1987). We discuss the implications of our results for both consumer and financial markets. Helpful comments were received by an anonymous reviewer, Mark Nelson, many doctoral students at Cornell University, and Accounting workshop participants at the University of Texas at Austin. JEL Classification: C73, C92, G14, M3     

Relationship Quality in Cross-Border Exchanges: A Temporal Perspective

Purpose: This article seeks to understand how relationship quality dimensions develop in cross-border relational exchanges and explores their determinants, including the role of cultural sensitivity, in each relationship phase. By mobilizing the multidimensional meta-concept of relationship quality and its forms, this research captures the evolution of relationship quality between French buyers and foreign sellers. The improved understanding of relationship quality’s dynamics under cultural sensitivity influences in turn offers a more accurate, active form of relationship management.

Methodology: Thirty-nine semistructured, in-depth interviews with business buyers located in France, representing a range of sectors, reveal the nature, transformations, and determinants of relationship quality. Qualitative methods are more appropriate to elucidate processes and the fundamental transformation of constructs over time. Because relationship quality is a property of a specific buyer–supplier, cross-border interaction, this multiphase study provides insights into the nature and the fundamental transformation of concepts.

Findings: The multiphase qualitative analysis shows that as relationships evolve, fundamental transformations take place in the components and antecedents of relationship quality. Cultural sensitivity has a key role during the most advanced relationship phases. The primacy of economic logic dominates the exploration phase; cognitive aspects receive the emphasis in the expansion phase; and relationship quality, in the maintenance phase, results from a combination of affective and emotional factors. As emotional ties deepen, relationship quality exceeds what might have been expected on the basis of the cognitive elements actually exchanged.

Originality: The key contributions of this article are the multiform conceptualization of the constituent elements of relationship quality and the phase-specific study of this meta-construct. The article argues and empirically supports how relationship quality is changing in the context of cross-border exchanges—French buyers with international sellers. The innovative study addresses simultaneously concepts that constitute relationship quality and its determinants, as well as revealing their importance in different relationship phases. Prior research does not consider

the differentiated standpoint on relationship quality forms within a temporal perspective. However, this study also is limited by the multisectoral nature of the sample and the monadic character of the research.     

Profit for friends,fairness for strangers: Social distance reverses the endowment effect in proxy decision making

Buyers often price a product lower than sellers do, a pricing discrepancy known as the endowment effect. We investigated the way buyers and sellers change their pricing decisions as a function of social distance when making decisions on behalf of another person. In Study 1, the pricing discrepancy persisted when making a decision for a close social contact whereas the pattern was reversed when making a decision for a distant social contact. Study 2 replicated this reversed pattern using a social proximity manipulation, and this effect was mediated by participants’ prioritizing of fairness over immediate profit of the transaction. The current work suggests that people allocate different value to objects depending on the subjective closeness towards another for whom they make the pricing decision.     

Loyalty or lethargy? Keeping sellers committed,not entrenched

While business sellers frequently enjoy long-term relationships with their buyers, not every extended association is based on a genuine sense of customer loyalty. Many organizations remain in relationships with providers for too long; while the seller has stopped providing value, the buyer sticks to the routine. Building from empirical research and theory on buyer-seller relationships, this research extends our understanding of customer complacency and seller entrenchment and introduces the concept of customer lethargy. Synthesizing theory from multiple domains with exploratory interviews conducted with business customers, this article offers insight into the functioning of organizational buying centers, the evolution of business exchanges over time, and how some exchanges can be undermined by various forms of relational dysfunction. I define customer lethargy, explore its root causes and offer business buyers a strategy which aims to help them self-audit their loyalty, avoid complacency and lethargy, and keep sellers committed, not entrenched.     

The Achilles’ heel of the platform business model: Disintermediation

Multisided marketplaces have become fixtures in many contemporary industries. From Amazon to Google, platforms dominate entire markets and have become some of the world’s most valuable companies. Despite their success, these companies have a subtle but potentially fatal weakness: disintermediation. This occurs when buyers and sellers find each other on the platform and then bypass that very platform—and its commission—to complete their transaction directly, off of the platform. This article compiles and illustrates the causes of and remediations to platform disintermediation.     

Contractual Completeness: A Comparison of Two Heterogeneous Emerging Markets

ABSTRACT

Interfirm contractual relations form an essential part of firms' survival. Such relations will likely differ across markets due to country-specific factors. Despite this understanding, there are few studies that examine interfirm contractual relations across markets. This article examines determinants of contractual completeness in two heterogeneous emerging markets (Tanzania and Poland). The terms “advanced” (Poland) and “less advanced” (Tanzania) are used to distinguish these two emerging markets and in the development of the hypotheses. The findings indicate that the dimensions involving weaker relational ties among firms have a stronger positive effect on contractual completeness in the relatively advanced emerging market than in the less advanced one, while stronger relational dimensions had a stronger positive effect in the less advanced emerging market.     

Manipulation in Conditional Decision Markets

Conditional decision markets concurrently predict the future and decide on it. These markets price the impact of decisions, conditional on them being executed. After the markets close, a principal decides which decisions are executed based on the prices in the markets. As some decisions are not executed, the respective outcome cannot be observed, and the markets predicting the impact of non-executed decisions are void. This allows ex-post costless manipulation of such markets. We conduct two versions of an online experiment to explore scenarios in which a principal runs conditional decision markets to inform her choice among a set of a risky alternatives. We find that the level of manipulation depends on the simplicity of the market setting. When a trader is alone, has the power to move prices far enough, and the decision is deterministically tied to market prices or a very high correlation between prices and decision is implied, only then manipulation occurs. As soon as another trader is present to add risk to manipulation, manipulation is eliminated. Our results contrast theoretical work on conditional decision markets in two ways: First, our results suggest that manipulation may not be as meaningful an issue. Second, probabilistic decision rules are used to add risk to manipulation; when manipulation is not a meaningful issue, deterministic decisions provide the better decision with less noise. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental analysis isolating the effects of the conditional nature of decision markets.     

Bargaining in distribution channels

This study empirically assesses the impact two fundamental dimensions of distribution channels have on channel member bargaining behavior, namely, (1) the expected duration of the channel bargaining relationship and (2) the channel member dependence on the bargaining. The following findings were observed from a laboratory study using 160 business students: low dependence produced fewer bargaining sessions ending in agreement compared to high dependence among buyer-seller dyads. Low dependence bargainers made more extreme initial offers, conceded less, and used the pronoun we less than did high dependence bargainers. The sellers emerged better off than the buyers from the negotiations. Sellers achieved this advantage by making more extreme initial offers than buyers, conceding more than buyers, but emerging with the better deal.     

A Comparison of Bundling and Sequential Pricing in Competitive Markets: Experimental Evidence

Technological advances enable sellers to identify relationships among offered goods. Sellers can leverage this information through pricing strategies such as bundling and sequential pricing. While these strategies have primarily been studied under monopoly assumptions, the strategies are available to competitive firms as well. This paper reports on a series of laboratory experiments comparing bundling and sequential pricing while varying the underlying relationship between the goods in markets where a fraction of buyers comparison shop. The results indicate that sequential pricing is generally as profitable to the seller; however, there is evidence that sequential pricing may be more harmful to consumers than bundling when the goods have complementary values or the buyer’s values are positively correlated.     

Habits,Motivations, and Barriers by Users and Non-Users of Quebec Public Markets

Users and non-users of Quebec public markets were asked questions about their habits and motivations for shopping at markets and the barriers that keep them from going. Eight discussion groups (n = 52) were held in Montreal and an online survey completed data collection in two other regions in the province (n = 923). Primary results are presented and then analyzed based on seven aspects: ambiance and social interactions, freshness, variety, price, managing quantity, buying local, and seasonality. Profile types of public market users and non-users are revealed. Concrete courses of action are identified to promote public markets and make them more convenient to use. Further research must be conducted to gain a better understanding of public markets, their potential, and those who use them.     

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.     

The Montreal Taxonomy for Electronic Negotiations

Research in the domain of electronic negotiations is a rather new and very interdisciplinary field, which gains more and more attention due to the industry hype and momentum regarding electronic commerce and electronic markets. Negotiations in a narrow sense (not taking into account simple forms such as hit and take) have been identified as an advantageous coordination mechanism for the interaction of buyers and sellers in electronic markets that transcend the selling of commodities or uniform goods. Hence, support for negotiations may become a critical success factor for electronic markets, especially regarding the recent failures of many industrial ventures. This paper presents the Montreal Taxonomy, which allows not only for the exact characterisation and comparison of a broad variety of electronic negotiation designs and systems, ranging from auctions to bilateral bargaining tables, but could also lead towards a more structured approach for the design of electronic negotiations.     

Transforming Business Models in Fast-Emerging Markets–Lessons from India

There is a need for understanding the entrepreneurship and business models in the emerging economies, especially the fast-expanding ones, from a different perspective as compared to the developed economies. The consistent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, significant socioeconomic potential, untapped needs of the population, and economic growth potential in the fast-expanding emerging economies like the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have changed the paradigm for investment, thereby creating a new economic development reality and focus for the global companies. However, achieving success in these emerging markets has its own unique mix of challenges. This requires a transformative and innovative mind-set toward conceptualization of a working business model that can fit into the reality of the socioeconomic and cultural challenges of these emerging markets. Further, the business model changes and alignment in these emerging markets require closer analysis and understanding of the global trends as well as ability to leverage the emerging technologies and linkages. The objective of this article is to explore the magnitude of opportunities and emerging business models transforming the socioeconomic landscape in fast-expanding emerging markets. In doing so, the article attempts to provide an overview of the emerging business model typologies and patterns that will enable the global companies to make better-informed decisions and build their presence in the fast-expanding emerging markets. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Evaluating the Factors Influencing the Number of Visits to Farmers’ Markets

The primary objective of this article was to determine key factors affecting the frequency of consumer visits to farmers’ markets. Data were obtained from in-person surveys administered in two farmers’ markets locations in Texas, and used to determine consumer factors, market factors, and socio-demographic characteristics of shoppers influencing frequency of visits. The results of the model showed that travel distance, number of adults in the household, market promotional activities such as entertainment and education, food events, and, to a lesser degree, some demographic variables were all determinants of frequency of visits to farmers’ markets. The negative effect of the distance to the market highlights the importance of farmers’ market location and influences the demographic profile of buyers as most visitors tend to shop in nearby markets. Thus, results also suggest that demographics characteristics are a weak predictor of farmers’ markets interest.     

The Business Ethics of Short Selling and Naked Short Selling

The controversy over short selling has continued unabated from the introduction of modern equity trading in Amsterdam in 1610 to the present day. Nevertheless, the business ethics literature has not really addressed short selling. Short sellers not only profit from the misery of others, they also create it through their selling activities. However, they also provide a socially useful service by making prices better reflect true values, protecting other investors from purchasing overpriced securities. Short sellers can also help to provide liquidity in the markets. Recently, there has been a hue and cry against so called “naked” short selling, which involves not delivering the shares that have been sold. This gives manipulators a tool for depressing stock prices and deprives purchasers of voting rights and potential stock lending revenue. Naked short selling creates ethical issues for short sellers, buyers, brokers, market makers, and regulators. Is it ethical to exploit a legal loophole that permits sellers to sell stock and delay delivering shares indefinitely?     

订单驱动机制下买卖价差构成分析——兼论以买卖价差度量流动性的可靠性

买卖价差是金融市场微观结构理论研究的重要组成部分。在报价驱动交易机制下,买卖价差由指令处理成本、存货成本和非对称信息成本构成。而在订单驱动交易机制下,若不考虑订单处理成本,买卖价差则主要取决于投资者对资产预期价值的差异、买卖双方投资者间的比例和逆向选择成本。经研究发现,买卖价差随投资者对资产预期与逆向选择成本的增加而增加,当买卖双方力量对比相当时,买卖价差达到最大;而在单边买方或卖方市场,买卖价差则达到最小,这一点与通常对流动性的理解是相矛盾的。由此,在订单驱动机制下,以买卖价差作为流动性度量指标是不可靠的。