• Information Systems Review
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.103-123
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• 2023

One of the valid perspectives in the e-commerce platform literature is the seller signaling strategy in the information asymmetry situation. In this study, a research model was constructed based on signaling theory and shopping goal theory to systematically explore the effects of a seller's signaling strategy on consumer decision-making. Specifically, the study examined whether the signaling effects (i.e., reputation, electronic word-of-mouth, price) provided by the seller differed based on consumers' shopping goals. For the empirical analysis, the Gaussian Copula method was employed, utilizing 26,246 data collected from Amazon, a leading e-commerce platform. The analysis revealed that the signals provided by the seller positively impacted sales, and this effect was moderated by consumers' shopping goals. Drawing on shopping goal theory, this study contributes to signaling theory and e-commerce literature by discovering differences in the effectiveness of a seller's signaling strategy based on the keywords input by consumers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.904-913
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• 2005

This paper deals with an integrated problem of inventory control and dynamic pricing strategies for a commodity with price and sales-period dependent demand pattern, where a seller and customers have complete information of each other. The problem consists of two parts; one is each buyer's benefit problem which makes the best decision on price and time for buyer to purchase items, and the other one is a seller's profit problem which decides an optimal sales strategy concerned with inventory control and discount schedule. The seller's profit function consists of sales revenue and inventory holding cost functions. The two parts are closely related into each other with some related variables, so that any existing general solution methods can not be applied. Therefore, a simplified model with single seller and two customers in considered first, where demand for multiple units is allowed to each customer within a time limit. Therewith, the model is generalized for a n-customer-classes problem. To solve the proposed n-customer-set problem, a dynamic programming algorithm is derived. In the proposed dynamic programming algorithm, an intermediate profit function is used, which is computed in case of a fixed initial inventory level and then adjusted in searching for an optimal inventory level. This leads to an optimal sales strategy for a seller, which can derive an optimal decision on both an initial inventory level and a discount schedule, in $O(n^2)$ time. This result can be used for some extended problems with a small customer set and a short selling period, including sales strategy for department stores, Dutch auction for items with heavy holding cost, open tender of materials, quantity-limited sales, and cooperative buying in the on/off markets.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.42 no.10
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• pp.1286-1293
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• 2015

Most e-marketplaces build a reputation system that provides potential buyers with reputation scores of sellers in order for buyers to identify the sellers that are more reliable and trustworthy. The reputation scores are computed based on the aggregation of buyers' ratings. However, when these ratings are used to compute the reputation scores, the existing reputation systems do not make a distinction according to the following two criteria: the capability of the seller and the quality of an item. We claim that a reputation system needs to separate the two criteria in order to provide more precise information about the seller. In this paper, we propose a method to compute seller's reputation by separating the rating into the seller's score and the item's score. The proposed method computes the reputation of the seller's capability by using only the 'seller's score' and helps potential buyers to find reliable sellers who provide fast delivery and better service. In experiments, we propose a simulation strategy that reflects the real life of an E-marketplace and verify the effectiveness of our method by using the generated simulation data.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

Social commerce (s-commerce) is a subset of e-commerce and uses social media for social interactions. Although s-commerce has been rapidly growing, disputes between some s-commerce firms and their consumers often occur over issues such as poor customer services, incorrect product information, and late refunds. In order for s-commerce to continuously grow, s-commerce firms need to build consumer-trust in their transaction process to minimize their consumers' uncertainty. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between the multidimensional trust (ability, integrity, benevolence) and the intention of continuous use of s-commerce. Moreover, this study presents antecedent factors needed for trust-building by applying the characteristics of s-commerce, and verifies the relations between the variables. We test and validate the research model and related hypotheses using structural equation modeling based on a survey done on 428 people who have previous experience with s-commerce. The result shows that trust has positive effect on the intention of continuous use, and verifies the necessity of the antecedent factors (social presence, assurance, informativeness, economic feasibility, and seller reputation) for trust-building. This study provides strategy for the continuous growth of s-commerce, and suggests theoretical implication that explains the relationship between the characteristics of s-commerce and consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.464-476
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• 2021

This study empirically investigated the relationship benefits perceived by consumers from a live commerce channel and verified effects on trust in seller/product relationship and purchase intention to establish a strategy for a live commerce channel. An online survey was conducted among 204 women residing in Korea who had watched a video on fashion products shown by the NAVER Shopping channel. The perceived relational benefits from the live commerce channel were extracted into four groups: psychological, social, economic, and customerization benefits. Psychological benefits were found to have a positive effect on trust in seller but not trust in product. Social benefits and customization benefits had a positive effect on both trust in seller and product, but economic benefits had no effect. Trust in seller and in product had positive effects on purchase intention. Understanding consumer response in relation to perceived relationship benefits in live commerce can contribute strengthen consumer behavior research on live commerce channels. These results can guide fashion companies as they develop live commerce marketing strategies.

• 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2001.01a
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• pp.83-88
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• 2001

To get the items that a buyer wants in Internet auction. he must search for the items through several auction sites. When the bidding starts, he(the buyer) needs to connect to these auction sites frequently so that he can monitor the bid stats and re-bid. A reserve-price auction reduces the number of connections, but this limits the user's bidding strategy. Another problem is equity between the buyer and the seller. Both the buyer and the seller should profit together within proper limits. In this paper, we propose an auction agent system using a collaborative mobile agent and a brokering mechanism called MoCAAS (Mobile Collaborative Auction Agent System), which mediates between the buyer and the seller and executes bidding asynchronously and autonomously. This reduces connection costs. offers more intelligent bidding and solves the equity problem.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.101-124
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• 2004

The exponential growth of the Internet has been the advent of buying and selling products and services over the Internet. In Korea, electronic commerce including Internet commerce reached a ￦6,534 billion industry in the year 2002. This paper presents the importance of understanding and managing consumer trust to sellers succeed in Internet commerce. We tested a trust model that includes seller's trustworthiness-based factors and consumer's personality-based factors. We found that seller's trustworthiness-based factors lead to greater consumer trust in Internet shopping through the consumer's perceptions about integrity, benevolence, reputation, and size, but consumer's personality-based factors containing five traits, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and trust propensity, have not a significant effect on consumer trust. We also confirmed a positive relationship between consumer trust in Internet shopping and consumer intention to buy.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.109-127
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• 2007

In a buyer seller transaction process, "value for money" is one of the most important criteria for a buyer's purchasing decision. The terms "value" and "money" represent a composite measure of what a buyer receives from goods and/or services and a measure of what he/she pays for them, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to help buyers select the best seller in terms of value for money. We suggest DEA models for buyer seller transactions and apply them to the case of an Internet comparison shopping site in Korea. We expect our DEA models to provide valuable information for rational buyers who want to pay the least price for high quality products/services. Moreover, we expect that our models can help sellers be more competitive by showing them how to attract buyers.