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Does a Seller’s eCommerce Reputation Matter? Evidence from eBay Auctions
Author(s) -
Melnik Mikhail I,
Alm James
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the journal of industrial economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1467-6451
pISSN - 0022-1821
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6451.00180
Subject(s) - reputation , common value auction , business , product (mathematics) , empirical evidence , the internet , reliability (semiconductor) , commerce , advertising , microeconomics , marketing , economics , computer science , world wide web , social science , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , epistemology , sociology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
With internet commerce, a buyer cannot directly examine the product and so must rely upon the accuracy and reliability of the seller in deciding whether and how much to bid. In this setting, the seller’s reputation can become an important factor in the bid. This paper examines the impact of the seller’s reputation on the willingness of buyers to bid on items sold via internet auctions, using a 1999 mint condition U.S. $5 gold coin whose average price was $32.73. The empirical results show that the seller’s reputation has a positive, statistically significant, but small impact on the price.