Portfolios of Exchange Relationships: An Empirical Investigation of an Online Marketplace for IT Services

Small firms face distinct problems and opportunities when procuring IT resources. Whereas previous work focused at the level of firm or buyer-supplier dyad, we address portfolios of buyer-supplier relationships at an online marketplace for IT services. Using the portfolio approach, we develop a buyers taxonomy and analyze properties of resulting clusters.Our investigation reveals four clusters of buyers with distinct mixes of long-term and short-term supplier relationships. Although reverse auctions are found to be associated with short-term relationships and negotiations support long-term relationships, buyers in different clusters use the two mechanisms in combination to a different extent.Performance;Buyer-supplier relationships;IT services;Online markets;Outsourcing;Reverse auctions

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

Trust and Experience in Online Auctions

This paper aims to shed light on the complexities and difficulties in predicting the effects of trust and the experience of online auction participants on bid levels in online auctions. To provide some insights into learning by bidders, a field study was conducted first to examine auction and bidder characteristics from eBay auctions of rare coins. We proposed that such learning is partly because of institutional-based trust. Data were then gathered from 453 participants in an online experiment and survey, and a structural equation model was used to analyze the results. This paper reveals that experience has a nonmonotonic effect on the levels of online auction bids. Contrary to previous research on traditional auctions, as online auction bidders gain more experience, their level of institutional-based trust increases and leads to higher bid levels. Data also show that both a bidder’s selling and bidding experiences increase bid levels, with the selling experience having a somewhat stronger effect. This paper offers an in-depth study that examines the effects of experience and learning and bid levels in online auctions. We postulate this learning is because of institutional-based trust. Although personal trust in sellers has received a significant amount of research attention, this paper addresses an important gap in the literature by focusing on institutional-based trust

Portfolios of Exchange Relationships: An Empirical Investigation of an Online Marketplace for IT Services

Small firms face distinct problems and opportunities when procuring IT resources. Whereas previous work focused at the level of firm or buyer-supplier dyad, we address portfolios of buyer-supplier relationships at an online marketplace for IT services. Using the portfolio approach, we develop a buyers taxonomy and analyze properties of resulting clusters. Our investigation reveals four clusters of buyers with distinct mixes of long-term and short-term supplier relationships. Although reverse auctions are found to be associated with short-term relationships and negotiations support long-term relationships, buyers in different clusters use the two mechanisms in combination to a different extent

How Marketing Factors Influence Online Browsing and Sales: Evidence From China's E-Commerce Market

As the e-commerce market evolves from being primarily transactional to being more subtle, sellers now seek to form online strategies. Previous studies have investigated buyers’ purchasing patterns, online transaction trust, electronic word-of-mouth, online resale behavior as well as online auctions. However, less is known about the antecedents that effect store traffic and sales. By using real market data from a major Chinese C2C e-commerce site, this article investigates C2C transactional formation and identifies sellers’ performance payoffs that result from various marketing factors. Marketing factors that influence store traffic and sales will be analyzed by means of the Negative Binomial model and Tobit model. Results point out that strong store reputation and high service quality are crucial indicators for increasing number of browsers and sales amount. In accordance with the results of prior research, advertising is confirmed as an effective tool for positively influencing both store traffic and sales. In addition, we found that guarantee policies can positively impact store sales only by interacting with reputation ratings. Drawing on empirical findings, we also discuss the managerial implications for C2C sellers and put forth some recommendations

Portfolios of Exchange Relationships: An Empirical Investigation at an Online IT Marketplace for Small Firms

Small firms face distinct problems and opportunities when procuring IT resources. Whereas previous work focused at the firm level or the buyer-supplier dyad, the present study addresses the portfolios of the buyer’s exchange relationships with suppliers at an online marketplace for IT services. We draw on social network theory to measure portfolios as the buyer’s ego network. Using clustering techniques, we empirically derive a taxonomy of portfolios of small firms’ buying IT services and analyze cluster antecedents and outcomes. Our investigation reveals four clusters of buyers’ ego networks: transactional buyers, relational buyers, small diversifiers and large diversifiers. Each of these clusters has a distinct and different mix of long-term and short-term relationships with selected suppliers. Reverse auctions are found to be associated with a short-term exchange relationship orientation, while bilateral negotiations support long-term orientation. Buyers in different clusters use the two exchange mechanisms in combination to a different extent

Money Walks: A Human-Centric Study on the Economics of Personal Mobile Data

In the context of a myriad of mobile apps which collect personally identifiable information (PII) and a prospective market place of personal data, we investigate a user-centric monetary valuation of mobile PII. During a 6-week long user study in a living lab deployment with 60 participants, we collected their daily valuations of 4 categories of mobile PII (communication, e.g. phonecalls made/received, applications, e.g. time spent on different apps, location and media, photos taken) at three levels of complexity (individual data points, aggregated statistics and processed, i.e. meaningful interpretations of the data). In order to obtain honest valuations, we employ a reverse second price auction mechanism. Our findings show that the most sensitive and valued category of personal information is location. We report statistically significant associations between actual mobile usage, personal dispositions, and bidding behavior. Finally, we outline key implications for the design of mobile services and future markets of personal data.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp 2014

Implementing Business-to-business Online Reverse Auctions

The purpose of this study was to address the gap in the academic literature by developing and testing a model to successfully implement online reverse auctions with respect to: (1) reducing purchase prices, and (2) developing/maintaining buyer-supplier strategic alliance relationships. A survey was sent to 603 members of the Institute of Supply Management who reported to be in purchasing/supply management role. Companies were surveyed to determine the effect of auction design and purchase type on the "successful" implementation of reverse auctions, in terms of the reduction in purchase price and the success of buyer-supplier strategic alliance. The measures developed by Mohr and Spekman (1994) and Monczka et al. (1998) were used to assess the "successful strategic alliance" and its critical antecedents including attributes of the relationship (trust, commitment, coordination and interdependence), communication behavior (information quality, participation and sharing) and conflict resolution techniques. The research concluded that for the purpose of reducing purchase prices (1) companies prefer to use open-bid rather than sealed bid auctions, (2) companies prefer to organize auctions with the help of a market maker than in-house, (3) an average of 14.4% is the reduction in purchase prices when using online reverse auctions to outsource products. The research study also concluded that online reverse auctions are used for: (1) either the short-term or the long-term and not for both when purchasing any type of product, (2) the long-term when larger size companies outsource production items and material, (3) the short-term when smaller size companies outsource MROs and/or services. The research found that from the perspective of the buying company in the alliance, the following were found to be significantly related to partnership success: trust, coordination, communication, information quality, information participation, information sharing, joint problem solving, persuasive attempts, and low use of avoidance and destructive conflict resolution tactics. Buyers did not find any significant relationship between the auction application and the predictors of success of supplier strategic alliances. Finally, the study concluded that buyers value the importance of the strategic relationships with their suppliers more than the promised reduction of purchase prices when outsourcing products/services using online reverse auctions.Industrial Engineering & Managemen

Who Gets the Job? Synthesis of Literature Findings on Provider Success in Crowdsourcing Marketplaces

Background: Over the past decade, crowdsourcing marketplaces — online exchange platforms which facilitate commercial outsourcing of services — have witnessed a dramatic growth in the number of participants (service providers and customers) and the value of outsourced services. Deciding about the most appropriate provider is a key challenge for customers in crowdsourcing marketplaces because available information about providers may be incomplete and sometimes irrelevant for customer decisions. Ineffective information impedes many service providers to develop long-term relationships with customers, obtain projects on a regular basis and survive on crowdsourcing marketplaces. Previous studies have investigated the impact of a range of factors on customers’ choice decisions and providers’ success, given the important role of customer–provider relationship development for long-term success on crowdsourcing marketplaces. Method: This paper reviews the literature of crowdsourcing marketplaces with the aim of developing a comprehensive list of factors that influence customers’ choice decisions and providers’ success. Results: We found 31 conceptually distinct profile information components/factors that determine customers’ choices and providers’ business outcomes on crowdsourcing marketplaces. Conclusion: We classified these 31 factors into five major categories: 1) prior relationship between a customer and a provider or a customer’s invitation, 2) providers’ bidding behavior, 3) crowdsourcing marketplace or auction characteristics, 4) providers’ profile information, and 5) customer characteristics. The main factors in each category, associated considerations, related literature gaps and avenues for future research are discussed in detail