• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.135-156
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• 2014

The Online business model for purchasing agent service is getting more popular. However, consumers perceive more risk when buying products from foreign online purchasing agents (FOPA) than from common online sellers (COS). This study focuses on finding out how consumers manage risk when they perceive risk and what different risk-reliever strategies they use when buying from high-risk FOPA and low-risk COS. This study has proved the following two. First, when consumers perceive risk at online purchasing, they tend to select risk-reliever strategies, such as the use of communication media, online assurance mark, seller's record, and secure payment to mitigate risk. With the application of those risk-reliever strategies, they built trust with the seller. Second, risk-perception of FOPA influences usage of communication media and check of online assurance mark more strongly than that of COS. On the contrary, risk-perception of COS influences the check of seller record more strongly than that of FOPA. This study helps to explain why FOPA is proliferating, despite its inherent high risk due to the fact that buyers and sellers are separated in time and space and that buyers and sellers have different social and cultural backgrounds. This study also helps managers of E-commerce to relieve consumer's risk-perception and to build trust.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.23-32
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• 2023

Purpose: This study examines the effect of full information disclosure on seller profit when there exists information asymmetry between sellers and buyers, focusing on the risk averseness of buyers. By investigating the interaction between product quality and perceived risk through online sales data, we attempt to figure out the incentive structure of full information disclosure specifically when buyers are risk-averse, so that we can suggest more feasible information disclosure strategy to sellers. Research design, data and methodology: Our empirical model analyzes the sales data of collectible goods from a major online seller using Poisson regression. In our model, we have specifically considered risk-averseness of buyers by estimating the interaction effect between the product quality and perceived risk on seller profit, aiming for a more precise empirical analysis on sellers' incentive structure of full disclosure. Results: Our empirical analysis strongly supports the effect of interaction between product quality and perceived risk, showing that the incentive for full disclosure is much stronger when product quality is higher, and vice versa. Therefore, sellers are strongly encouraged to voluntarily reveal product weaknesses when their product quality is higher than average, while it is more profitable to hide any product defects when quality claim is lower than average. Conclusions: This study supports the related literature by confirming economic incentives for full disclosure, and also supplements and strengthens previous studies by presenting that the effect of interaction between product quality and perceived risk strongly affects seller profit. Our unique finding supports both mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure arguments and presents practical implications to marketing managers by suggesting that seller's incentive for revealing weaknesses depends on the level of seller's product quality.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.33-49
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• 2010

We empirically examine the impact of online auction knowledge and category-specific knowledge on the final price of online auctions. Specifically, we question how the relationship between buying and selling experiences affects the final prices of online auctions. Related to the trust between buyers and sellers, we examine the multiple interactions between a buyer-seller pairand aim to identify how these repeated transactions influence the final price. To contrast these effects with other product related factors, we focus on so called 'common value' auctions of vintage stamps on eBay, in which the ex-post value of the product is the same among participating agents’ perceived value. Online auction of stamps provides a representative setting to examine the relationship between market experience and the auction participation behavior in the common value auction, as it provides the book value of stamp as well as price variation across individual buyers with different expertise levels. Our analysis of over 3000 stamps auctions on eBay indicates a significantly high frequency of buyer-seller (pair) interactions, thus suggesting a 'relationship view' of auctions. The work validates five hypotheses derived from the existing theory in economics, marketing, and information systems. Through the common-value auction data, we find that seller's online auction experience and category-specific experience favor sellers by increasing the final price. However, buyer's online auction experience does not affect the final price, but buyer's category-specific experience favors buyers by decreasing the final price. We find that the trust between two trading parties increases the final price.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6097-6120
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• 2019

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) provide product information and recommendations especially pictures in reviews depict the true information about the product. This study investigates the influence of pictured reviews on online seller (for a particular product of a seller) rating with moderating effect of price, brand type (foreign vs local), goods type (experience vs search), and brand familiarity. Multiple robust linear regression analysis with moderation interaction and quadratic effect used to explain the relationship of the explanatory variables with the criterion variable. We collected cross-sectional data from the two most renowned Chinese online shopping platforms (B2C) of total 15,621 product links. Results show that higher number of reviews with a low ratio of picture reviews response negative effect on rating, whereas the lower number of reviews with a high ratio of picture reviews response positive effect on the rating. In overall picture in the reviews improve the online seller product rating. For the moderation effect, results show that price and brand familiarity have a positive interaction effect on the relation of pictured reviews and rating whereas experience goods have less negative effect comparing search goods. Finally, local brand has less negative interaction effect comparing foreign brand to pictured reviews and rating.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.68-98
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• 2004

Although the internet is useful for transferring information, Internet auction environments make fraud more attractive to offenders because the chance of detection and punishment are decreased. One of fraud is phantom transaction which is a colluding transaction by the buyer and seller to commit illegal discounting of credit card. They pretend to fulfill the transaction paid by credit card, without actual selling products, and the seller receives cash from credit card corporations. Then seller lends it out buyer with quite high interest rate whose credit score is so bad that he cannot borrow money from anywhere. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the factors to detect of the phantom transaction in online auction. Based up on the studies that explored behaviors of buyers and sellers in online auction, bidding numbers, bid increments, sellers' credit, auction length, and starting bids were suggested as independent variables. We developed an Internet-based data collection software agent and collect data on transactions of notebook computers each of which winning bid was over 1,000,000 won. Data analysis with logistic regression model revealed that starting bids, sellers' credit, and auction length were significant in detecting the phantom transaction.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.273-289
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• 2004

Although the Internet is useful for transferring information, Internet auction environments make fraud more attractive to offenders, because the chance of detection and punishment is decreased. One of these frauds is the phantom transaction, which is a colluding transaction by the buyer and seller to commit the illegal discounting of a credit card. They pretend to fulfill the transaction paid by credit card, without actually selling products, and the seller receives cash from the credit card corporations. Then the seller lends it out with quite a high interest rate to the buyer, whose credit rating is so poor that he cannot borrow money from anywhere else. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the factors necessary to detect phantom transactions in an online auction. Based upon studies that have explored the behaviors of buyers and sellers in online auctions, the following have been suggested as independent variables: bidding numbers, bid increments, sellers' credit, auction lengths, and starting bids. In this study. we developed Internet-based data collection software and collected data on transactions of notebook computers, each of which had a winning bid of over W one million. Data analysis with a logistic regression model revealed that starting bids, sellers' credit, and auction length were significant in detecting the phantom transactions.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.277-288
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• 2005

The proliferation of the internet technologies and applications has intensified business activities on the Internet. This study considered the price competition between two shopping channels, one on-line seller and the other traditional off-line retailer. Based on the Hotelling's linear market model, we derive the Nash and Stackelberg equilibria as a function of the cost parameters which represent the characteristics of the online and off-line channels. By analyzing the equilibrium solutions, the following significant findings were obtained. First, pricing by Stackelberg equilibrium always outperformed that of Nash equilibrium. However the value of the cost parameters played a crucial role in determining both channels' preferred position (price leader or follower). Second, the online seller could benefit more in terms of profit by lowering its efficiency when its efficiency belongs to a certain interval. Third, when the online seller's efficiency is low, lowering its delivery cost has no contribution to its profit. To benefit more from lowering its delivery cost, increasing its channel efficiency to a certain level should be preceded.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1005-1015
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• 2021

We investigate the impact of marital status on the levels of satisfaction of online shoppers in the beauty and cosmetics industry in Vietnam. We find a significant difference in satisfaction between married and divorced/separated online shoppers. More specifically, the latter reveals higher level of satisfaction than the former. Extended analyses further show that this finding is only observed for female online shoppers whilst it is insignificant for their male counterparts. Moreover, we find significant differences in determinants of customer satisfaction between three different groups of online shoppers: single, married, and divorced/separated. While married individuals' satisfaction is affected by all factors (Online shopping experience; Seller Services; External Incentives; Security/Privacy), that of their divorced/separated peers are influenced by only seller services and external incentives. Also, single participants are satisfied with their online shopping driven by their online shopping experience and external incentives. Our findings contribute to the stream of customer satisfaction literature, and to the studies in beauty and cosmetics sector as well as online shopping trends in Vietnam. They contain implications for existing online businesses and new or potential market entrants as to which customer demographic factors have significant influences in terms of customer psychology, behaviour and their satisfaction.

• 한국경영정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.571-576
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• 2007

Advanced online environment and communication technology have made the e-commerce environments evolved rapidly. In the e-commerce area, one of the most important concepts regarding the relationship between seller and buyer is the "trust." Considering the purpose of purchase and satisfaction of website, the users may face problems such as consumer's transaction security or personal information sharing when they make transactions over web sites. It could be difficult to pursue the goal for the users to purchase product or service over online if the seller or service provider cannot establish trust to the customers. In this paper, through multi-dimensional viewpoints of trust, satisfaction can be accounted for by cue-based trust and experienced trust. The purchase intention mediates the experienced trust when online users purchase products or use online service.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.19-25
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• 2016

Purpose - This study explores the role of construal levels in predicting online consumer behavior on a retail website. It builds on the conceptualization that simply browsing a website and making actual purchases can be an outcome of how abstractly or concretely one thinks about that experience. This study examines the differential effects of intermediary websites' attributes and seller's product offerings in predicting frequency of visits and actual purchases. Research design, data, and methodology - Data were collected from 188 undergraduate students in a large university of Korea. Hierarchical regression model was utilized to test the proposed effect of website characteristics and seller attributes on visit and purchase. Results - We propose and find that online shopping website visits and purchase frequency have different antecedents. The results reveal that website visit frequency and purchase have different predictors and this can be explained through construal level theory. Specifically, we find purchase frequency is predicted more by website image and financial benefits can be more predictive in actual purchases. Conclusions - Consumer behavior on the internet can be delineated into website visits and actual purchases. First, uplifting the image of the website itself is much more important than just making offerings cheaper. Online shopping website should try to match its features to mental representations that customers go through from just visit (abstract) to purchase (concrete).