IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v54y2020ics0969698919307532.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reducing information asymmetry in the auctioning of non-perishable experience goods: The case of online wine auctions

Author

Listed:
  • Onur, Ilke
  • Bruwer, Johan
  • Lockshin, Larry

Abstract

We highlight the importance of reducing the perceived risk associated with information asymmetry for experience goods. We analyse a major online non-perishable experience good, wine, from the seller's perspective. The mechanism for lowering information asymmetry is the verification service offered by the auctioneer. By focusing on unsold items/lots, the wine and auction characteristics affecting the probability of a sale are identified. Results show that the verification of the wine's provenance increases the probability of sale by 5.7 percent and leads to an expected increase of 5.1 percent in the auction price. When both effects are combined, the increase in the expected revenue of the seller is 7.3 percent. We test and find no evidence of selection bias. Given the heterogeneity in wine prices, a quantile regression analysis shows how the results differ for high-priced wines compared to lower priced wines. Results highlight how the mechanisms to lower the degree of information asymmetry work both in attracting bidders to online auctions and encouraging bidders to submit higher bids.

Suggested Citation

  • Onur, Ilke & Bruwer, Johan & Lockshin, Larry, 2020. "Reducing information asymmetry in the auctioning of non-perishable experience goods: The case of online wine auctions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:54:y:2020:i:c:s0969698919307532
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102060
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698919307532
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102060?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajay Kalra & Shibo Li, 2008. "Signaling Quality Through Specialization," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 168-184, 03-04.
    2. Denton Marks, 2009. "Who pays brokers' commissions? Evidence from fine wine auctions," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 761-775, October.
    3. In-Koo Cho, 2007. "Perishable Durable Goods," Economics Working Papers 0077, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science.
    4. Sanning, Lee W. & Shaffer, Sherrill & Sharratt, Jo Marie, 2008. "Bordeaux Wine as a Financial Investment," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 51-71, April.
    5. Robert Zeithammer & Christopher Adams, 2010. "The Sealed-Bid Abstraction in Online Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 964-987, 11-12.
    6. Arthur Korteweg & Roman Kräussl & Patrick Verwijmeren, 2016. "Does it Pay to Invest in Art? A Selection-Corrected Returns Perspective," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 1007-1038.
    7. Sanjeev Dewan & Vernon Hsu, 2004. "Adverse Selection In Electronic Markets: Evidence From Online Stamp Auctions," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 497-516, December.
    8. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    9. Klein, Lisa R., 1998. "Evaluating the Potential of Interactive Media through a New Lens: Search versus Experience Goods," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 195-203, March.
    10. Utpal M. Dholakia & Itamar Simonson, 2005. "The Effect of Explicit Reference Points on Consumer Choice and Online Bidding Behavior," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 206-217, October.
    11. Michaël Dewally & Louis Ederington, 2006. "Reputation, Certification, Warranties, and Information as Remedies for Seller-Buyer Information Asymmetries: Lessons from the Online Comic Book Market," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(2), pages 693-730, March.
    12. Amar Cheema & Peter Leszczyc & Rajesh Bagchi & Richard Bagozzi & James Cox & Utpal Dholakia & Eric Greenleaf & Amit Pazgal & Michael Rothkopf & Michael Shen & Shyam Sunder & Robert Zeithammer, 2005. "Economics, Psychology, and Social Dynamics of Consumer Bidding in Auctions," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 401-413, December.
    13. Dubois, Pierre & Nauges, Céline, 2010. "Identifying the effect of unobserved quality and expert reviews in the pricing of experience goods: Empirical application on Bordeaux wine," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 205-212, May.
    14. David Lucking-Reiley, 1999. "Using Field Experiments to Test Equivalence between Auction Formats: Magic on the Internet," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1063-1080, December.
    15. Dass, Mayukh & Reddy, Srinivas K. & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2014. "A Network Bidder Behavior Model in Online Auctions: A Case of Fine Art Auctions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(4), pages 445-462.
    16. Hu, Ye & Wang, Xin, 2010. "Country-of-Origin Premiums for Retailers in International Trades: Evidence from eBay's International Markets," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 200-207.
    17. Kourtis, Apostolos & Markellos, Raphael N. & Psychoyios, Dimitris, 2012. "Wine price risk management: International diversification and derivative instruments," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 30-37.
    18. Eiichiro Kazumori & John Mcmillan, 2005. "Selling Online Versus Live," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 543-569, December.
    19. James Joseph Fogarty, 2006. "The return to Australian fine wine," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 33(4), pages 542-561, December.
    20. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    21. Héla Hadj Ali & Céline Nauges, 2007. "The Pricing of Experience Goods: The Example of en primeur Wine," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(1), pages 91-103.
    22. Kevin Hasker & Robin Sickles, 2010. "eBay in the Economic Literature: Analysis of an Auction Marketplace," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(1), pages 3-42, August.
    23. Girard, Tulay & Dion, Paul, 2010. "Validating the search, experience, and credence product classification framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1079-1087, September.
    24. Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Qiu, Chun & He, Yongfu, 2009. "Empirical Testing of the Reference-Price Effect of Buy-Now Prices in Internet Auctions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 211-221.
    25. Veronika Grimm, 2007. "Sequential versus Bundle Auctions for Recurring Procurement," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 1-27, January.
    26. Haruvy, Ernan & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2016. "Measuring the Impact of Price Guarantees on Bidding in Consumer Online Auctions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 96-108.
    27. Bajari, Patrick & Hortacsu, Ali, 2003. "The Winner's Curse, Reserve Prices, and Endogenous Entry: Empirical Insights from eBay Auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(2), pages 329-355, Summer.
    28. Judy E. Scott & Dawn G. Gregg & Jae Hoon Choi, 2015. "Lemon complaints: When online auctions go sour," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 177-191, February.
    29. Korgaonkar, Pradeep & Becerra, Enrique & O’Leary, Bay & Goldring, Deborah, 2010. "Product classifications, consumer characteristics, and patronage preference for online auction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 270-277.
    30. Walley, Matthew J.C. & Fortin, David R., 2005. "Behavioral outcomes from online auctions: reserve price, reserve disclosure, and initial bidding influences in the decision process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1409-1418, October.
    31. Lee, Min-Young & Kim, Youn-Kyung & Fairhurst, Ann, 2009. "Shopping value in online auctions: Their antecedents and outcomes," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 75-82.
    32. Preyas S. Desai, 2000. "Multiple Messages to Retain Retailers: Signaling New Product Demand," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 381-389, August.
    33. Günter Schamel, 2007. "Auction markets for specialty food products with geographical indications," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(2‐3), pages 257-264, September.
    34. Bradley J. Rickard & Jill J. McCluskey & Richard W. Patterson, 2015. "Reputation tapping," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 42(4), pages 675-701.
    35. Nawata, Kazumitsu, 1994. "Estimation of sample selection bias models by the maximum likelihood estimator and Heckman's two-step estimator," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 33-40, May.
    36. Ramanathan Subramaniam & R. Venkatesh, 2009. "Optimal Bundling Strategies in Multiobject Auctions of Complements or Substitutes," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 264-273, 03-04.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Masset, Philippe & Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe & Cardebat, Jean-Marie & Faye, Benoît & Le Fur, Eric, 2021. "Analyzing the risks of an illiquid and global asset: The case of fine wine," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1-25.
    2. Tong, Tingting & Xu, Xun & Yan, Nina & Chen, Zhineng, 2023. "Examining the impact of information provision on E-tailers’ pricing strategies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    3. Sohani, Sahar & Barman, Tuli & Sarkar, Biswajit & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Pareek, Sarla, 2024. "Retail management policy through firefly algorithm under uncertainty using Dempster-Shafer theory for production firm," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Anna Carbone, 2021. "From Flasks to Fine Glasses: Recent Trends in Wine Economics," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 7(2), pages 187-198, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dass, Mayukh & Reddy, Srinivas K. & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2014. "A Network Bidder Behavior Model in Online Auctions: A Case of Fine Art Auctions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(4), pages 445-462.
    2. Judy E. Scott & Dawn G. Gregg & Jae Hoon Choi, 2015. "Lemon complaints: When online auctions go sour," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 177-191, February.
    3. Han, Jidong & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Zhang, Zelin, 2021. "Empirical Analyses of Nonlinear Effects of Reserve Prices on Ending Prices in Online Auctions," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 86-102.
    4. Eric Le Fur & Jean-François Outreville, 2019. "Fine wine returns: a review of the literature," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 196-214, May.
    5. Cong Feng & Scott Fay & K. Sivakumar, 2016. "Overbidding in electronic auctions: factors influencing the propensity to overbid and the magnitude of overbidding," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 241-260, March.
    6. Eric Fur, 2023. "Risk and return of classic car market prices: passion or financial investment?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 59-68, February.
    7. Genti Kostandini & Elton Mykerezi & Eftila Tanellari & Nour Dib, 2011. "Does Buyer Experience Pay Off? Evidence from eBay," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 39(3), pages 253-265, November.
    8. Philippe Jehiel & Laurent Lamy, 2015. "On absolute auctions and secret reserve prices," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(2), pages 241-270, June.
    9. B. Faye & E. Le Fur & S. Prat, 2015. "Dynamics of fine wine and asset prices: evidence from short- and long-run co-movements," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(29), pages 3059-3077, June.
    10. Tibert Verhagen & Daniel Bloemers, 2018. "Exploring the cognitive and affective bases of online purchase intentions: a hierarchical test across product types," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 537-561, September.
    11. Amar Cheema & Dipankar Chakravarti & Atanu R. Sinha, 2012. "Bidding Behavior in Descending and Ascending Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(5), pages 779-800, September.
    12. Liu, Xiaotian & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2023. "The reference price effect of historical price lists in online auctions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Paul Resnick & Richard Zeckhauser & John Swanson & Kate Lockwood, 2006. "The value of reputation on eBay: A controlled experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(2), pages 79-101, June.
    14. Ramo Barrena & Mercedes Sánchez, 2011. "Abstraction and product categories as explanatory variables for food consumption," Post-Print hal-00712382, HAL.
    15. Jason Shachat & Lijia Wei, 2012. "Procuring Commodities: First-Price Sealed-Bid or English Auctions?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 317-333, March.
    16. Aytaç, Beysül & Hoang, Thi-Hong-Van & Mandou, Cyrille, 2016. "Wine: To drink or invest in? A study of wine as an investment asset in French portfolios," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 591-614.
    17. Pecchioli, Bruno & Moroz, David, 2023. "Do geographical appellations provide useful quality signals? The case of Scotch single malt whiskies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    18. Tristan Gagnon-Bartsch & Marco Pagnozzi & Antonio Rosato, 2021. "Projection of Private Values in Auctions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(10), pages 3256-3298, October.
    19. Liran Einav & Theresa Kuchler & Jonathan Levin & Neel Sundaresan, 2015. "Assessing Sale Strategies in Online Markets Using Matched Listings," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 215-247, May.
    20. repec:wyi:journl:002158 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Dokyun Lee & Kartik Hosanagar, 2021. "How Do Product Attributes and Reviews Moderate the Impact of Recommender Systems Through Purchase Stages?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 524-546, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:54:y:2020:i:c:s0969698919307532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.