Abstract
The marketplace-based e-commerce is the dominant type so far. Therefore, it is important to understand the decisional attributes and their relevance for online consumers when choosing marketplaces. However, little research is devoted to this issue. This paper outlines seven attributes of marketplace based on three theories, including ease of use, usefulness, logistics service quality, effectiveness of feedback mechanisms, effectiveness of escrow service, effectiveness of information security services, and effectiveness of dispute resolution mechanisms. Via conjoint analysis methodology, we find that for the whole sample effectiveness of dispute resolution is the most important attribute, whereas logistics service quality is the least important one. The results further reveal gender has impacts on the relative strength of each attribute: while male buyers think some attributes (i.e., effectiveness of dispute resolution mechanisms and effectiveness of information security services) are more important than others (i.e., logistics service quality), female buyers consider that each attribute is equally important. This study suggests that institutional theory and technology adoption model offer more relevant theoretical perspective than the logistics service theory for marketplace choice. Though having limitations including focusing on young users in one region, this paper offers several theoretical contributions to research and some insights for practice.
Highlights
Online marketplaces, such as eBay, Amazon and Airbnb, have dominated current e-commerce economy in this digital era [8], [19], [22], [28], [33]-[34], [42]
When the payment has been done, if buyers find any hidden problems related to the transactions, they tend to rely on online marketplaces to resolve their disputes and complaints with online sellers in an effectively, fair and impartial manner
Our results disclose that online buyers are concerned a little more on the after-sale protection mechanism than the pre-sale institutional mechanisms, including the feedback mechanisms, escrow service and information security service
Summary
Online marketplaces, such as eBay, Amazon and Airbnb, have dominated current e-commerce economy in this digital era [8], [19], [22], [28], [33]-[34], [42]. There have been hundreds of online marketplaces in the globe and the number is just growing. Competitions among these marketplaces become more and more violent with the emergence of new digital technologies. This calls special attention to an important issue that how buyers make a choice among marketplaces when making online transactions, such as purchasing a product or service. Despite the growing importance and relevance of online marketplaces in digital economy, our knowledge on marketplace-related attributes and their relevance to buyer decisions still remains limited.
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