Toward Understanding Sellers\u27 Choice of Starting Price Strategies: An Experimental Approach

This paper seeks to explain the eBay-Yahoo! Auction phenomenon: while eBay charged sellers a listing fee and a percentage commission and Yahoo! Auction charged no fees at all, Yahoo! Auction, however, had a significantly lower sold-out rate than eBay, and eBay continued to dominate the C2C auction category. We combine three theoretical perspectives - the economic, the psychological and the marketing perspectives to develop our research framework and hypothesis for a fuller understanding of such a puzzle, and try to bridge the great gap between the real world and the theoretical world. A controlled experiment that took into account interactive effects of chances, payoffs, and costs was used to check subjects’ choice of the starting-price strategy in the simulated online auction market environment. We have three major findings. First, subjects generally gave more weight on transaction chance than listing fee and payoff. Second, at the website with high cost incurred, subjects could choose a median starting-price strategy, seeking a higher payoff. Third, subjects did not show strong preference to choose a high starting-price strategy at the website with no cost incurred

A value-based approach to developing a multi-channel shopper typology

Consumers are increasingly expecting retailers to provide them with information, products and services through multiple retail channels ranging from physical stores, catalogue to Website. However, there is currently a lack of understanding in what multi-channel shopping attributes consumers really value. This poses a challenge to retailers who are attempting to integrate their retail channels. Drawing upon prior work in retail patronage behaviour and synthesizing research in traditional retailing and single-channel e-commerce, this paper identified six dimensions that can be used to classify consumers into a shopper typology based on their utilitarian values. Based on the pilot study’s preliminary results, we derived a typology comprising of three types of multi-channel shoppers that differed in terms of information and service expectations. The results offer useful insights to retailers when formulating multi-channel retail strategies. This exploratory study also laid the foundation for future research in the domain of multi-channel retailing

An Empirical Study of IT-enabled Enterprise Risk Management and Organizational Resilience

Contemporary organizations are increasingly challenged by the expanding variety of risks and threats posed by turbulent and complex business environments. This paper addresses the importance of organizations having the ability to cope with risks and uncertainties by exploring IT-enabled enterprise risk management (ERM) capability as a means of achieving organizational resilience. Based on the synthesis of prior risk management theoretical frameworks, we posit that information technology is a key enabler of enterprise risk management capability that integrate risk management into enterprise-wide business processes, with organizational commitment as a complementary enabler. By examining the relationship of IT-enabled ERM capability and organizational resilience under the moderating effect of business network structure strength, this study provides insights on how to ensure continued survival of organizations in today’s volatile operating climate where risks extend beyond the organizational boundaries. Empirical findings from a survey of 185 organizations in Singapore show that IT assets and organizational commitment play significant roles in building up IT-enabled ERM capabilities. Organizational resilience is also found to be strongly impacted by the organization’s IT-enabled ERM capabilities, while the firm’s business network structure strength negatively moderates this relationship to a small extent. Managerial implications stemming from the empirical findings are discussed and directions for future research on enterprise risk management as a burgeoning research area for IS researchers are also offered

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Effects of Home Computer Ownership and School IT Environment on Self-Directed Learning

The digital divide has attracted enormous attention from both the popular press and information systems researchers. A survey study was conducted to determine the impact of the digital divide on studentsí self- directed learning in an information technology-based learning environment through their computer self- efficacy, and to assess the role of the school IT environment in bridging this digital divide. Partial least square analyses, with data from more than 5,000 middle school students, show many significant effects. Computer self- efficacy has an effect on self-directed learning. Home PC (personal computer) ownership has a significant effect on computer self-efficacy. The school IT environment affects the computer self-efficacy of students with or without a home PC in different ways. In general, a better perceived school IT environment has more impact on students without a home PC, and thus is important in reducing the impact of the digital divide. The findings provide strong evidence of the digital divide affecting computer self-efficacy and learning behavior, and support investments in improving school IT environments

Effects of Interruptions on Creative Thinking

Ubiquitous connectivity has brought about continuous interruptions to our thought processes and tasks. Many people have expressed the concern about potential deterioration of performance and productivity caused by the division of attention and fragmentation of thoughts associated with interruptions in the mass media and on the web. This research offers a novel insight into the effects of interruptions on creative thinking. Drawing on the recent observation that processing disfluency could elevate the construal level that people use to mentally represent objects and conceive ideas, which in turn facilitates creative cognition, we suggest that intermittent low-cognitively demanding interruptions can enhance creative thinking. However, if interruptions impose significant cognitive load on the individual, creative thinking will be impaired. Results from a preliminary experiment confirm our propositions

Effects of cultural cognitive styles on users evaluation of website complexity

The internationalization of websites requires compelling navigation experience for users from diverse cultures. This research investigates the effects of cultural cognitive styles on user perception of website complexity and the subsequent influence on user satisfaction towards the website. More specifically, the website complexity is examined along three dimensions: component, coordinative, and dynamic. Laboratory experiments involving participants from China and United States were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the effect of objective complexity on perceived complexity is contingent on cultural cognitive styles. People with holistic and analytic cultural cognitive styles display different perceptions of website complexity. This study extends website complexity literature to the cross-cultural context. It also suggests pragmatic strategies for website design practitioners to improve website design in order to attract international audiences

Leveraging EDIS to Improve Organizational and Interorganizational Productivity: Findings from the World\u27s Busiest Port

Portnet is a successful EDIS in Singapore. This study examines the impact of several controllable organizational factors on the organizational and interorganizationalproductivity of Portnet participants. A survey was conducted among Portnet participants. Results show that Portnet participants with a strong need for high quality information and strong CEO support benefitted greatly in terms of organizational and interorganizationalproductivity. Initiators also gained more in tems of organizationalproductivitythan reactors. EDIS sponsors could better promote their systems by targeting potential participants with a strong need for high quality information and by generating strong CEO interest in EDIS. EDIS participants could leverage their benefits by assessing their situalkl and planning ahead for adoption

Effects of e-Commerce Websites’ Auditory Features on Consumers’ Appreciation for Innovative Products

It is has been established that sensory interactions, including sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, can affect consumers’ consumption decisions. While various sensory interactions are devised in the offline context, e-commerce has to rely primarily on vision and hearing due to its inability to access other sensory. Previous IS literature has documented the substantial effects of various visual features. However, very few studies have examined auditory features. Drawing on the recent observation that medium noises enhance people’s abstractive thinking and creativity, this study tries to investigate this topic from a novel perspective that ambient sounds can promote users’ appreciation of innovative products when shopping online. The preliminary results of a lab experiment show that medium noise or music can improve participants’ likelihood of buying innovative products over traditional products, and noise brings other negative effects (e.g. bad mood), while music do not. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed