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.     

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。     

Strategic compliments in sales

Salespersons often spend time and money giving prospective buyers compliments such as kind words, meals and gifts. Though prior research has shown that compliments will influence a prospective buyer’s decision, it is unknown the extent to which salespersons should make these investments. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to examine how seller and buyer characteristics affect the equilibrium provision of compliments by the seller. We establish that the optimal magnitude of compliments is non-monotonic in the buyer’s sensitivity to compliments. We identify conditions for when a seller of a high-quality product will offer greater (or lesser) compliments than a seller of a lower quality product. We show that, under certain conditions, an uninformed buyer earns greater utility than a buyer who knows the quality of the seller’s product. The findings have implications for sellers in their choice of compliments and buyers in the inferences they draw from the compliments received.     

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.     

逆向选择与中国电子商务市场声誉机制的本土性研究——以淘宝网为例

目前关于电子商务市场下声誉问题的研究更多地停留在对一般网络市场声誉评价机制设计以及声誉评价系统的效率研究上,对于网络环境下逆向选择问题对声誉机制的影响还缺乏系统的分析。文章以淘宝网香水市场交易数据为样本,对逆向选择环境下网络市场声誉机制的作用进行了实证分析,结果显示：具有本土性特征的淘宝网声誉机制能够有效抵消网络市场逆向选择问题,但是,电子商务市场逆向选择仍然在一定程度上影响到了声誉评价系统作用的发挥。文章还基于声誉机制模型在解决逆向选择时的缺陷,提出了声誉机制的改进模型,试图能有效地激励卖家与买家以诚实的交易来获取声誉度。     

Collaborative orientation to advance value co-creation in buyer–seller relationships

This study extends the theory of value co-creation by investigating how collaborative orientation advances value co-creation drivers that benefit both buyers and sellers in competitive markets. With direct field research, conducted in a real-life context, the authors interviewed (using a mirrored, semi-structured protocol) buyer–seller respondents at multiple levels in 1 seller and 10 buyer firms. Ten cases developed from these data reflect how buyers and sellers develop value and share resources to advance value co-creation during a formal buyer–seller relationship effort. Our findings suggest four propositions and identify four drivers that may advance value co-creation in buyer–seller relationships: (a) mutual understanding of industry problems through continuous interactions during the relationship period; (b) ability to develop and leverage knowledge and resources; (c) share asset-specific investments; and (d) shared long-term goals. This article extends previous resource-based models and provides novel insights into value co-creation.     

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.     

Factors influencing suppliers’ participation in private electronic markets

This study is intended to identify factors, which influence suppliers’ participation in the private electronic market (PEM). The results of this study show that many suppliers do not recognize the potential benefits that PEM could offer and they do not believe their off-line relationships with a buyer could be transferred to on-line. Thus, buyers need to convince their suppliers that PEM is not just a price based marketplace but instead a business model where mutual benefits can be achieved based on existing trust relationships between a buyer and limited number of qualified suppliers.     

Betrayal in buyer–seller relationships: Exploring its causes,symptoms, forms,effects, and therapies

Building on literature in social psychology that discussed betrayal in interpersonal relationships, this article explored betrayal in buyer–seller relationships using data collected from a survey conducted among 109 buyers and 115 sellers in the United States. The results indicated that betrayal was a complex, multifarious, and dynamic phenomenon, consisting of a sequence of phases, namely causes, symptoms, forms, consequences, and therapies, with multiple issues being involved at each phase. Our study also revealed that the views of buyers differed from those of sellers in terms of how various relational characteristics contributed to the emergence of betrayal episodes, what behavior and attitudes helped to diagnose partner betrayal, in which forms the betrayal acts were manifested, how the victims of betrayal felt, and how betrayal problems could be handled in a working relationship. In fact, the various dimensions in each of the betrayal phases examined were consistently more frequently mentioned by buyers than sellers.     

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.     

The interaction of reward contingencies and causality orientation on the introduction of cooperative tactics in buyer–seller negotiations

This article reports results of an experiment designed to see if reward contingencies and individual differences in causality orientation can interact to affect the frequency with which buyers and sellers introduce cooperative tactics into a sales negotiation. A face‐to‐face simulation is employed to consider these effects. A 2 × 2 ANOVA (task‐contingent/task‐noncontingent rewards × control/autonomy orientation) tests this interaction. These two factors interact to affect cooperation. A buyer or seller with an autonomous causality, in a situation with task‐noncontingent rewards, is most likely to introduce cooperative negotiation tactics. Task‐noncontingent rewards are more effective than task‐contingent rewards for autonomous causality buyers and sellers, but not for control causality buyers and sellers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Seller-Financing of Homes: A Consumer Economic Perspective

In recent years, the proportion of home purchases financed by lending institutions has declined and the use of alternative financing methods has increased. This paper examines the costs, risks and benefits associated with seller-financing, a popular alternative financing method. The topic is discussed from the perspectives of the buyer and the seller. An empirical analysis is also conducted of condominium sales in Hawaii to gauge the impact of seller-financing upon the housing market as well as its economic effects upon buyers and sellers. Overall, it is concluded that buyers are the primary beneficiaries of seller-financing.     

Credibility and price premium-based competitiveness for industrial brands

Extant research on brand competitiveness concentrates on the B2C contexts, yet it remains poorly understood in the B2B contexts, especially for industrial brands. This current research aims to investigate how seller credibility potentially drives organizational buyers' willingness to pay price premiums (WTPP) through customer-company identification and buyer long-term orientation. In particular, we argue that buyer WTPP represents the industrial brands' competitiveness since buying firms express such strong preferences for the industrial sellers’ products and services compared to competitors that they are willing to pay price premiums. Based on data from 454 US-based industrial buyers, our findings generally support the proposed hypotheses. Our research sheds light on how industrial sellers can build their brand competitiveness. Actionable insights for research and managerial practice are provided.     

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.     

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.     

A Relationship Governance Perspective of Organizational Buyers' Supplier Choice Decisions

Although the transaction cost analysis (TCA) has long been used by marketing and management scholars to study organizational buyers' make-or-buy decisions, it sheds limited light on their choice behavior beyond the make-or-buy trade-off. In the meantime, many organizational purchase decisions are structured around which independent supplier to buy from, rather than a typical make-or-buy decision. This study extends existing research on TCA by applying this theoretical framework to explore why organizational buyers make purchases from among independent suppliers. The article posits that (1) two forms of relationship governance—buyer trust and market (i.e., the relative dependence between the buyer and supplier)—help explain the differences in buyer decision-making uncertainty involving independent suppliers, which further influences the buyers' propensity to purchase; and that (2) trust further influences the buyers' propensity to purchase due to its effect on customer perceived value. The empirical study based on organizational purchasing decisions lends support to the predictions of the relationship governance theory.     

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.     

Relationship Value in Thai Business-to-Business Marketing

This study focuses on value in the business-to-business relationship among buyers and sellers. Relationship value has long been one of the key research areas in marketing for business to business. By examining from the perspective of the buyers, this research identifies how business buyers can use marketing benefits, product benefits, technical benefits, logistics benefits, financial benefits, risk-reduction benefits, information benefits, and strategic benefits to predict buyer–seller relationship. The study confirms significant relationships among marketing benefits, product benefits, and value in retailer–supplier relationship. The analysis from this study supports that benefit in a business-to-business relationship can be created if suppliers work on mutual benefits with customers. The results also confirm that Thai business customers will look for business partners who can provide risk reduction and marketing benefits for their business.     

The Effect of Online Shopping Platform Strategies on Search,Display, and Membership Revenues

Most online shopping platform firms generate revenue from three sources: pay-per-click search advertising, pay-per-impression display advertising, and membership fees. The strategies that influence these revenue sources typically are studied individually, rather than in a holistic fashion. In response, this study uses time-series data with 18 million buyers and sellers from 2010 to 2011 and undertakes a quasi-experiment to analyze how the distinct effects of buyer- and seller-side strategies on revenues (1) vary across all three revenue sources and (2) depend differentially on a platform’s upmarket repositioning strategy. The results show that buyers that purchase through direct traffic (e.g., typing in the site address) yield more display advertising and membership fee revenues than those gained through organic traffic (e.g., landing from a search engine). Engagement strategies that appeal to established sellers (i.e., value-added services) yield more search advertising and membership revenue than those that appeal to new sellers (i.e., social forums). An upmarket repositioning strategy (i.e., eliminating low quality sellers) enhances the revenue effects of buyer traffic generation and seller engagement strategies. Post hoc analyses suggest that a 1% increase in direct traffic generates an additional $151,506 in display advertising revenue after (vs. before) the repositioning.     

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。