IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v33y2022i4p1264-1286.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing the Impact of Public Buyer–Seller Engagement During Online Auctions

Author

Listed:
  • Arvind K. Tripathi

    (Information Systems and Operations Management, University of Auckland Business School, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand)

  • Young-Jin Lee

    (Business Information and Analytics, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80210)

  • Amit Basu

    (Information Technology and Operations Management, Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275)

Abstract

Seller and product authentication problems are inherent in online markets, particularly in the time-constrained setting of online auctions. Although trust-building mechanisms such as seller feedback can mitigate these problems, they are retrospective, providing information about a transaction only after it is completed. Also, they have only indirect effects on buyers’ trust in sellers because they are not based on direct interactions between a trustor (buyer) and a trustee (seller). On the other hand, direct engagement between transacting parties during an online auction, particularly open and public engagement, reduces information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and has a direct effect on buyers’ trust. In this paper, we analyze how public buyer–seller engagement via question and answer (Q&A) during online auctions impacts bidding behavior. Analyzing auction data from a large auction platform that supports public Q&A between buyers and sellers, we show that the seller’s engagement with buyers during an auction can significantly impact the behavior of both buyers who ask questions and lurkers who passively observe the engagement (spillover effect). Our analysis also shows that the impact of the seller’s engagement depends on features such as product type and seller reputation. A key insight from our study is that the impact of seller engagement on bidding behavior is moderated by seller feedback ratings, which indicates that trust-building mechanisms in online markets interact in their effects on buyers’ decision making. As sellers gain positive (negative) feedback, the impact of buyer–seller engagement on bidding behavior increases (decreases). Furthermore, the cost of an additional negative feedback rating outweighs the benefit of a positive one. Overall, this study provides valuable insights for online auction platforms and their stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Arvind K. Tripathi & Young-Jin Lee & Amit Basu, 2022. "Analyzing the Impact of Public Buyer–Seller Engagement During Online Auctions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 1264-1286, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:33:y:2022:i:4:p:1264-1286
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.1114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1114
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.2022.1114?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dirk Bergemann & Alessandro Bonatti, 2019. "Markets for Information: An Introduction," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 85-107, August.
    2. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    3. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    4. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    5. Wongkitrungrueng, Apiradee & Assarut, Nuttapol, 2020. "The role of live streaming in building consumer trust and engagement with social commerce sellers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 543-556.
    6. Gregory Lewis, 2011. "Asymmetric Information, Adverse Selection and Online Disclosure: The Case of eBay Motors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1535-1546, June.
    7. Jennifer Edson Escalas, 2007. "Self-Referencing and Persuasion: Narrative Transportation versus Analytical Elaboration," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(4), pages 421-429, December.
    8. Iacus, Stefano & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2009. "cem: Software for Coarsened Exact Matching," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 30(i09).
    9. 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.
    10. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    11. Chrysanthos Dellarocas, 2003. "The Digitization of Word of Mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(10), pages 1407-1424, October.
    12. Gupta, Pranjal & Yadav, Manjit S. & Varadarajan, Rajan, 2009. "How Task-Facilitative Interactive Tools Foster Buyers’ Trust in Online Retailers: A Process View of Trust Development in the Electronic Marketplace," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 159-176.
    13. Gary Bolton & Ben Greiner & Axel Ockenfels, 2013. "Engineering Trust: Reciprocity in the Production of Reputation Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 265-285, January.
    14. Robert Zeithammer & Christopher Adams, 2010. "The Sealed-Bid Abstraction in Online Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 964-987, 11-12.
    15. Paulo B. Goes & Gilbert G. Karuga & Arvind K. Tripathi, 2010. "Understanding Willingness-to-Pay Formation of Repeat Bidders in Sequential Online Auctions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 907-924, December.
    16. Schurr, Paul H & Ozanne, Julie L, 1985. "Influence on Exchange Processes: Buyers' Preconceptions of a Seller's Trustworthiness and Bargaining Toughness," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 11(4), pages 939-953, March.
    17. Chris Forman & Anindya Ghose & Batia Wiesenfeld, 2008. "Examining the Relationship Between Reviews and Sales: The Role of Reviewer Identity Disclosure in Electronic Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 291-313, September.
    18. Matthew Blackwell & Stefano Iacus & Gary King & Giuseppe Porro, 2009. "cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(4), pages 524-546, December.
    19. Khim-Yong Goh & Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin, 2013. "Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 88-107, March.
    20. Antonio Moreno & Christian Terwiesch, 2014. "Doing Business with Strangers: Reputation in Online Service Marketplaces," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 865-886, December.
    21. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    22. David Masclet & Thierry P鮡rd, 2012. "Do reputation feedback systems really improve trust among anonymous traders? An experimental study," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(35), pages 4553-4573, December.
    23. Seshadri Tirunillai & Gerard J. Tellis, 2012. "Does Chatter Really Matter? Dynamics of User-Generated Content and Stock Performance," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 198-215, March.
    24. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers CWP09/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    25. Gefen, David & Straub, Detmar W., 2004. "Consumer trust in B2C e-Commerce and the importance of social presence: experiments in e-Products and e-Services," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 407-424, December.
    26. Jay B. Barney, 1986. "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(10), pages 1231-1241, October.
    27. Franco Valdez, Ana Dolores & Valdez Cervantes, Alfonso & Motyka, Scott, 2018. "Beauty is truth: The effects of inflated product claims and website interactivity on evaluations of retailers' websites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 67-74.
    28. Naveen Kumar & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2018. "Exit, Voice, and Response on Digital Platforms: An Empirical Investigation of Online Management Response Strategies," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 849-870, December.
    29. Ann E. Schlosser, 2005. "Posting versus Lurking: Communicating in a Multiple Audience Context," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(2), pages 260-265, September.
    30. Paul A. Pavlou & Angelika Dimoka, 2006. "The Nature and Role of Feedback Text Comments in Online Marketplaces: Implications for Trust Building, Price Premiums, and Seller Differentiation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 392-414, December.
    31. Ginger Zhe Jin, 2005. "Competition and Disclosure Incentives: An Empirical Study of HMOs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 93-112, Spring.
    32. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    33. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin, 2004. "Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 545-560, June.
    34. Dellarocas, Chrysanthos, 2003. "The Digitization of Word-of-mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms," Working papers 4296-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    35. Amalia R. Miller & Catherine Tucker, 2013. "Active Social Media Management: The Case of Health Care," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 52-70, March.
    36. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    37. Chrysanthos Dellarocas & Charles A. Wood, 2008. "The Sound of Silence in Online Feedback: Estimating Trading Risks in the Presence of Reporting Bias," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 460-476, March.
    38. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hailiang Chen & Prabuddha De & Yu Jeffrey Hu, 2015. "IT-Enabled Broadcasting in Social Media: An Empirical Study of Artists’ Activities and Music Sales," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 513-531, September.
    2. Khim-Yong Goh & Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin, 2013. "Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 88-107, March.
    3. Frondel, Manuel & Kaestner, Kathrin & Sommer, Stephan & Vance, Colin, 2022. "Photovoltaics and the solar rebound: Evidence for Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 954, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Frondel, Manuel & Kaestner, Kathrin & Sommer, Stephan & Vance, Colin, 2021. "Photovoltaics and the Solar Rebound: Evidence for Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242356, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Dominik Gutt & Jürgen Neumann & Steffen Zimmermann & Dennis Kundisch & Jianqing Chen, 2018. "Design of Review Systems - A Strategic Instrument to shape Online Review Behavior and Economic Outcomes," Working Papers Dissertations 42, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    6. Fay, Scott & Feng, Cong & Patel, Pankaj C., 2022. "Staying small, staying strong? Retail store underexpansion and retailer profitability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 663-678.
    7. Mateo Zokalj, 2016. "The impact of population aging on public finance in the European Union," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 40(4), pages 383-412.
    8. Grundmann, Rainer & Gries, Thomas, 2015. "Crucial for Modern Sector Development? The Role of Exports and Institutions in Developing Countries," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112962, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Jaanika Merikull & Tairi Room, "undated". "Are foreign-owned firms different ? Comparision of employment volatility and elasticity of labour demand," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2014-1, Bank of Estonia.
    10. Seidu, Ayuba & Onel, Gulcan & Moss, Charles Britt, 2018. "Impact of International Remittance on Out-Farm Labor Migration in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis," 2018 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2018, Jacksonville, Florida 266531, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    11. Stephen O'Neill & Kevin Hanrahan, 2016. "The capitalization of coupled and decoupled CAP payments into land rental rates," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(3), pages 285-294, May.
    12. Shelagh Heffernan & Xiaoqing Fu, 2010. "Determinants of financial performance in Chinese banking," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(20), pages 1585-1600.
    13. Dolton, Peter & Bondibene, Chiara Rosazza & Stops, Michael, 2015. "Identifying the employment effect of invoking and changing the minimum wage: A spatial analysis of the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 54-76.
    14. Martinsson, Gustav, 2009. "Finance and R&D Investments - is there a debt overhang effect on R&D investments?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 174, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    15. Johanna Vogel, 2015. "The two faces of R&D and human capital: Evidence from Western European regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 525-551, August.
    16. Corton, Maria Luisa & Zimmermann, Aneliese & Phillips, Michelle Andrea, 2016. "The low cost of quality improvements in the electricity distribution sector of Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 485-493.
    17. Martikainen, Emmi & Schmiedel, Heiko & Takalo, Tuomas, 2015. "Convergence of European retail payments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 81-91.
    18. Hanusch, Marek & Keefer, Philip, 2014. "Younger parties, bigger spenders? Party age and political budget cycles," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-18.
    19. Karel Janda & Eva Michalikova & Jiri Skuhrovec, 2013. "Credit Support for Export: Robust Evidence from the Czech Republic," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(12), pages 1588-1610, December.
    20. Antonakakis, Nikolaos, 2014. "Sovereign Debt and Economic Growth Revisited: The Role of (Non-)Sustainable Debt Thresholds," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 187, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

    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:inm:orisre:v:33:y:2022:i:4:p:1264-1286. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.