Inside the black box of collective reputation

The literature on collective reputation is still in its infancy. Despite the existence of a (limited) number of valuable theoretical works studying the process of collective reputation building, there is still no comprehensive analysis of this concept. In addition, due to data limitation, there are no empirical studies testing the determinants of group reputation. This work intends to provide a comprehensive analysis of reputational equilibria within coalitions of agents. In order to do so, we design a static and dynamic (over 30 years) study on the universe of coalitions of companies, within the wine market, looking at the role exerted by the characteristics of the coalition itself (its age and size), the rules set and the actions put forward by the group of agents in order to reach and maintain a certain level of collective reputation, and the context in which they operate. Results shed new lights into this ubiquitous phenomenon.reputation, collective reputation, asymmetric information, quality standards, wine.

Factors Influencing the Perception of Seller Credibility in Online Reputation System: an Eye-Movement Approach

The current online reputation systems for online sellers face great challenges from bad-faith behavior such as malicious negative reviews, click farming, mismatch between images and commodities, and forged commodities. To optimize the design of online reputation systems, explore the consumer utilization of credit clues, and describe the law of mutual trust, this paper puts forth three hypotheses about the influencing factors of consumer perception of online seller credibility and integrates various research methods such as an eye-movement experiment, questionnaire survey, econometric analysis, and empirical research. To evaluate the three hypotheses, the display modes of commodities on a current e-commerce platform were optimized, and eye-movement experiments were conducted on original and optimized webpages. Results show that the display of sales growth, the refinement and tagging of review content significantly impacted consumer perception of seller credibility. Further, designers of online reputation systems were advised to display sales trends, provide personalized sales queries, and tag a variety of reviews for consumers to easily ascertain credible sellers. This advice helped curb bad-faith behavior

Peran Kepercayaan Memediasi Hubungan Reputasi dan Intensi Pembelian di E-Commerce

This research is conducted to discover the mediation role of trust, especially trust to seller in e-commerce, to seller reputation and purchase intention relationship in e-commerce. Data in this research is collected using questionnaire. Data in this research is analyzed using Path Analysis and Sobel Test. Finding in this research shows that trust to seller is able to mediate the relationship between reputation and purchase intention in e-commerce. Other findings in this research is reputation variable affect purchase intention directly in statistic test, and reputation variable is affecting trust to seller variable and trust to seller variable significantly affect purchase intention variable. The finding is expected to contribute in providing new insights in accounting information systems research, especially related to e-commerce in Indonesia and are expected to provide reference contributions for future studies in the same field.Penelitian yang dilakukan memiliki tujuan untuk melihat peran mediasi kepercayaan, khususnya kepercayaan kepada penjual di e-commerce, dalam hubungan antara reputasi penjual dan niat beli di e-commerce. Data yang digunakan untuk melakukan penelitian ini dikumpulkan dengan bantuan kuesioner yang didistribusikan kepada responden. Data dalam penelitian ini diolah dan dianalisis menggunakan Analisis Jalur dan Uji Sobel. Temuan dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa trust to seller mampu memediasi hubungan antara reputasi dan niat beli dalam e-commerce. Temuan lain dalam penelitian ini adalah variabel reputasi mempengaruhi minat beli secara langsung dalam uji statistik, dan variabel reputasi mempengaruhi variabel trust to seller dan variabel trust to seller berpengaruh signifikan terhadap variabel niat beli. Hasil penelitian yang didapatkan diharapkan mampu memberikan wawasan baru dalam bidang penelitian sistem informasi akuntansi khususnya yang berkaitan dengan e-commerce di wilayah Indonesia serta mampu memberikan kontribusi referensi bagi penelitian selanjutnya di bidang yang sama. &nbsp

The Growing Influence of Economics and Economists on Antitrust: An Extended Discussion

Over the past two to three decades economics has played an increasingly important role in the development of U.S. antitrust enforcement and policy. This essay first reviews the major facets of U.S. antitrust enforcement and next reviews the ways in which economics -- starting from a low base -- has grown in importance in antitrust. The essay then highlights three antitrust areas in which the influence of economics has had the greatest influence: merger analysis, vertical relationships, and predatory pricing. The essay concludes with the identification of four antitrust areas where further economics analysis could have high returns.

Limitations of E-Government Adoption by Local Governments: A Case Study of Ilala Municipal Council, Tanzania

Integration of advanced computing and communication in management of municipal council activities by developed countries (E-Government) greatly enhances service delivery. However, some developing countries such as Tanzania in Africa experience difficulties in applying this technology in management of municipal councils for better service delivery to its citizens. This article uses a simple multiple regression model to analyze some of the factors that limit adoption of E-Government by developing countries. The factors analyzed include legal, cultural, managerial, organizational and technological awareness. A survey of 120 respondents from Ilala Municipal council in Tanzania was used as a case study. The results indicate organizational and legal factors as the major impediments in adoption of E-Government by developing countries such as Tanzania. To overcome these impediments, developing countries should allocate enough finances to information and communication departments so as to accommodate training, system upgrade and policy implementation. Keywords: E-Government; Local Government; Information and Communication Technology; Ilala Municipal Council; Tanzani

Decisions under Uncertainty in Decentralized Online Markets: Empirical Studies of Peer-to-Peer Lending and Outsourcing

Recent developments in information technologies, especially Web 2.0 technologies, have radically transformed many markets through disintermediation and decentralization. Lower barriers of entry in these markets enable small firms and individuals to engage in transactions that were otherwise impossible. Yet, the issues of informational asymmetry that plague traditional markets still arise, only to be exacerbated by the "virtual" nature of these marketplaces. The three essays of my dissertation empirically examine how participants, many of whom are entrepreneurs, tackle the issue of asymmetric information to derive benefits from trade in two different contexts. In Essay 1, I investigate the role of online social networks in mitigating information asymmetry in an online peer-to-peer lending market, and find that the relational dimensions of these networks are especially effective for this purpose. In Essay 2, I exploit a natural experiment in the same marketplace to study the effect of shared geographical ties on investor decisions, and find that "home bias" is not only robust but also has an interesting interaction pattern with rational decision criteria. In Essay 3, I study how the emergence of new contract forms, enabled by new monitoring technologies, changes the effectiveness of traditional signals that affect a buyers' choice of sellers in online outsourcing. Using a matched-sample approach, I show that the effectiveness of online ratings and certifications differs under pay-for-time contracts versus pay-for-deliverable contracts. In all, the three essays of my dissertation present new empirical evidence of how agents leverage various network ties, signals and incentives to facilitate transactions in decentralized online markets, form transactional ties, and reap the benefits enabled by the transformative power of information technologies

Trust in the Mirror of Betrayal

Lawyers do not have much of a reputation for fostering trust. We insist that ordinary people get everything down on paper, thereby sowing seeds of discord and suspicion; we then figure out ways to weasel out of what look like clear directives, thriving on the very discord we have sown. Perhaps there is some significance in the fact that although the word trust figures prominently in some standard legal specialties, one of them is antitrust, a subject in which trust can take on sinister connotations. Nevertheless, even lawyers recognize that trust is a subject of enormous importance in modem world affairs. In fact, we like to think that law has a role in creating the preconditions for trust in a more general sense. Like everyone else, we have watched for decades as the residents of Israel and Northern Ireland have torn one another apart, to some degree vindicating lawyers\u27 fond view that trust depends on staying within the ambit of law. Of course, in the last year, it has been humbling to see these same feuding parties take astonishing steps toward cooperation—slow, difficult, tentative, and dangerous steps—with little or no help from the law. This should make people in the legal profession ask: What has allowed these erstwhile enemies to reach out to each other? How stable is their trusting behavior, and what might undermine the very fragile trust that makes these steps possible? What might turn their lands into battlegrounds again, where trust and cooperation are seemingly beyond the grasp of human actors

\u27How\u27s My Driving?\u27 for Everyone (and Everything?)

This is a paper about using reputation tracking technologies to displace criminal law enforcement and improve the tort system. The paper contains an extended application of this idea to the regulation of motorist behavior in the United States and examines the broader case for using technologies that aggregate dispersed information in various settings where reputational concerns do not adequately deter antisocial behavior. The paper begins by exploring the existing data on “How’s My Driving?” programs for commercial fleets. Although more rigorous study is warranted, the initial data is quite promising, suggesting that the use of “How’s My Driving?” placards in commercial trucks is associated with fleet accident reductions ranging from 20% to 53%. The paper then proposes that all vehicles on American roadways be fitted with “How’s My Driving?” placards so as to collect some of the millions of daily stranger-on-stranger driving observations that presently go to waste. By delegating traffic regulation to the motorists themselves, the state might free up substantial law enforcement resources, police more effectively dangerous and annoying forms of driver misconduct that are rarely punished, reduce information asymmetries in the insurance market, improve the tort system, and alleviate road rage and driver frustration by providing drivers with opportunities to engage in measured expressions of displeasure. The paper addresses obvious objections to the displacement of criminal traffic enforcement with a system of “How’s My Driving?”-based civil fines. Namely, it suggests that by using the sorts of feedback algorithms that eBay and other reputation tracking systems have employed, the problems associated with false and malicious feedback can be ameliorated. Indeed, the false feedback problem presently appears more soluble in the driving context than it is on eBay. Driver distraction is another potential pitfall, but available technologies can address this problem, and the implementation of a “How’s My Driving?” for Everyone system likely would reduce the substantial driver distraction that already results from driver frustration and rubbernecking. The paper also addresses the privacy and due process implications of the proposed regime. It concludes by examining various non-driving applications of feedback technologies to help regulate the conduct of soldiers, police officers, hotel guests, and participants in virtual worlds, among others