Which Location to Register For Sellers in C2C E-Market in China? A Study on Taobao.Com

As there are a large number of sellers and products on C2C shopping websites, consumers are faced with the problem about how to choose the right goods whereas sellers are confronted with the problem concerning how to set up online shops and provide commodities. Based on signaling theory and research findings about regional economics, we put forward an analysis model between the difficulty in identifying quality of goods and the quality signal intensity of geographic location, and make an empirical test by the actual data from Taobao.com. What this study finds is that, under the environment of C2C e-commerce in China, the geography location may affect the distribution of these online stores and their sales performance. For local specialty products, the quantity and the average sales of seller stores from the origin locations are more than those from the other locations; for the branded consumer electronics, the quantity and the average sales of seller stores from the first-tier cities are higher than those from other cities

Effects of online one-yuan Dutch auction on the seller’s revenue: Evidence from an online community for auctioning agricultural and subsidiary products in China

The traditional Dutch auction usually sets the starting price but does not set the final price. The effects and impact factors on the seller’s revenue have not been discussed if the final price of online Dutch auction is set to a teeny number (i.e., one RMB) which is termed as an one-RMB Dutch auction. Based on the regret theory and related literature, the effects of starting price, time pressure (one day and 15 minutes of time interval respectively) and product perishability on buyers\u27 choice behavior and the revenue of sellers were examined. The results showed that there is a negative effect coming from the starting price, time pressure and perishability of products and the overall discount rate of product auction; and buyers are more inclined to bid in the penultimate round of the price reduction cycle

Designing Effective Performance Feedback Notification Systems to Stimulate Content Contribution: Evidence from a Crowdsourcing Recipe Platform

This study investigates whether and how a platform’s provision of performance feedback to users about their prior content contributions can help to stimulate users’ subsequent contributions. We draw on social value orientation theory to hypothesize how different framings may impact users’ likelihood of producing additional content. We partnered with a major mobile crowdsourcing recipe platform based in China to conduct a randomized field experiment involving the delivery of feedback messages with randomly determined framings, via mobile push notifications. We find that feedback framed either pro-socially or pro-self has a positive effect on content contributions, whereas feedback framed competitively has no such effect. Additionally, we observe differences across genders, such that the positive effects of pro-socially framed feedback are significantly stronger for female users. In contrast, competitively framed feedback is only effective for male users. Our findings provide implications for the design of platform-provided performance feedback to stimulate users\u27 content contribution

Does Customer Membership Level Affect Online Reviews? A Study of Online Reviews from 360buy.Com in China

More and more shopping sites implement membership level management strategies and provide customers with not only online review communities but also incentives to promote them to post their online reviews. However, whether these measures affect the results of online reviews and how they influence have not been studied yet. Based on the social exchange theory, we collect data of online reviews about the two types of products involving search and experience from Jingdong Mall shopping site ( i.e. 360Buy.com), and then an empirical research is conducted. The results show that the customer membership level has a positive effect on review rating, and a negative effect on review depth and review promptness; product type has reverse moderation effect on these effects. Finally, the theoretical contributions and practical implications of this research are discussed

Effects of membership tier on user content generation behaviors: evidence from online reviews

Abstract Online shopping websites typically classify customers into different membership tiers in their customer relationship management systems. This study investigates the effects of membership tiers on user content generation behaviors in the context of an electronic commerce marketplace that has a membership tier program and an online review system. Grounded in theories related to status, our study hypothesizes the effects of membership tiers on user content generation behaviors as well as the helpfulness of the content they generated in the context of online reviews. We collected online data from a world-leading shopping website. The results from our empirical analyses indicate that membership tier has a positive effect on review rating and review delay, whereas it has a negative effect on revie

Effectiveness of Performance Feedback in Stimulating User-Generated Content

This study investigates whether and how a platform’s provision of performance feedback to users about their prior content contributions can help to stimulate users’ subsequent contributions. We draw on social value orientation theory to hypothesize how different framings may impact users’ likelihood of producing additional content. We partnered with a major mobile crowdsourcing platform based in China to conduct a randomized field experiment involving the delivery of feedback messages with randomly determined framings, via mobile push notifications. We find that feedback framed either pro-socially or pro-self has a positive effect on content contributions, whereas feedback framed competitively has no such effect. Additionally, we observe differences across genders, such that the positive effects of pro-socially framed feedback are significantly stronger for female users. In contrast, competitively framed feedback is only effective for male users. Our findings provides implications for the design of platform-provided performance feedback to stimulate users\u27 content contribution

A new pneumatic suspension system with independent stiffness and ride height tuning capabilities

This paper introduces a new pneumatic spring for vehicle suspension systems, allowing independent tuning of stiffness and ride height according to different vehicle operating conditions and driver preferences. The proposed pneumatic spring comprises a double-acting pneumatic cylinder, two accumulators and a tuning subsystem. This paper presents a detailed description of the pneumatic spring and its working principle. The mathematical model is established based on principles of thermo and fluid dynamics. An experimental setup has been designed and fabricated for testing and evaluating the proposed pneumatic spring. The analytical and experimental results confirm the capability of the new pneumatic spring system for independent tuning of stiffness and ride height. The mathematical model is verified and the capabilities of the pneumatic spring are further proved. It is concluded that this new pneumatic spring provides a more flexible suspension design alternative for meeting various conflicting suspension requirements for ride comfort and performance