Opportunities For Sellers Research Articles

Effect of consumers’ materialistic values on consumption guilt as reflected in price preferences

ABSTRACT While simplistic arguments portend a possible relationship between consumers’ materialistic values and consumption guilt, empirical evidence in this regard, however, remains equivocal at best. In this paper, we address this issue by establishing the effect of materialism on consumption guilt – delimited by regulatory influence (promotion/prevention) – as reflected in consumers’ relative preferences for structurally distinct but financially equivalent price alternatives. Specifically, we conduct an experiment with consumers’ trait materialistic values, measured as a continuous variable, as an independent variable, with extraneous social influence as a two-level (promotion/prevention) manipulated moderator, consumption guilt as the mediating variable, and consumers’ relative price preference (as mentioned above) as the dependent variable of choice. Subsequently, we conduct a regression analysis, followed by a floodlight analysis, and, a series of mediation analyses, including a mediated moderation analysis, in establishing the effect of materialism on consumption guilt. Our results indicate that consumers higher/lower in materialism, both experienced consumption guilt. Subsequently, these consumers mitigated consumption guilt by preferring the price structure that best allowed them to do so in consummating the purchase of a new product – the mediating effect of consumption guilt. Our findings imply indirect price-discrimination opportunities for sellers, wherein demand for products increases as consumers (self) mitigate consumption guilt through price preferences, irrespective of their dominating materialistic tendencies. In summary, herein, we empirically establish the long-conjectured relationship between materialism and consumption guilt, unequivocally, both for consumers high, or low, in materialism.

Research on the impact of e-commerce platform’s AI resources on seller opportunism: a cultivational governance mechanism

PurposeDrawing on the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi, this paper aims to present a novel mechanism for governing opportunism, referred to as “cultivational governance.” By examining the role of artificial intelligence (AI) resources possessed by e-commerce platforms, the authors explore how these resources contribute to mitigating seller opportunism. The central hypothesis of this study posits that two distinct types of AI resources, namely, AI technology resources and AI human resources, serve as crucial factors in curbing seller opportunism. Furthermore, the authors propose that platform digital empowerment and value cocreation act as mediating variables linking AI resources to opportunism.Design/methodology/approachBased on the resource-based view and resource orchestration theory, the authors developed a framework and tested it using survey data from sellers. This framework encompasses five key variables: e-commerce platform’s AI technology resources, AI human resources, platform digital empowerment, value cocreation and seller opportunism. Regression analysis was used for data analysis.FindingsThe empirical results validate the effectiveness of cultivational governance mechanisms, as both AI resources effectively suppress seller opportunism through digital empowerment and value cocreation. Specifically, e-commerce platforms’ AI technology resources significantly promote value cocreation and platform digital empowerment, while AI human resources primarily contribute to platform digital empowerment. Although platform digital empowerment encourages value cocreation, its direct impact on reducing seller opportunism was not supported. Notably, value cocreation negatively affects seller opportunism.Originality/valueThe present research mainly contributes to the marketing channel governance literature by introducing a new approach to inhibit opportunism, namely, the cultivational governance mechanism.

Customer experience in pharmaceutical B2B markets: perspectives of buyers and sellers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand customer experience (CX) in business-to-business (B2B) markets through the perspectives of buyer–seller dyads. This study aims to evaluate how customer journey, touchpoints and digital and social media (DSM) influence CX and offer avenues for sellers to align their efforts with buyers’ requirements to create and manage CX.Design/methodology/approachIntegrating insights of practicing buyers and sellers in the pharmaceutical B2B industry, this study follows the phenomenological approach to understand their experience through their perspectives on the customer journey, touchpoints and DSM.FindingsThe findings of this study include convergence in the perspectives in journey stages, journey enablers, stakeholder involvement, touchpoint preference and DSM’s use. The study findings also include divergence in perspectives in the senior management engagement, journey enablers, selling center involvement, DSM purpose and usage of DSM platforms. These offer opportunities for sellers to align with buyer journey, touchpoints and DSM to create and manage CX.Practical implicationsSellers in pharmaceutical B2B markets have been dependent on traditional knowledge to influence customer journey and touchpoints and the advent of DSM has enhanced the challenge. To avoid this confusion, sellers need to have clarity of customers’ expectations on the journey, touchpoints and DSM. This enables sellers to allocate their resources better to achieve the desired outcome in CX.Originality/valueThis first-of-its-kind study captured the convergence and divergence perspectives of pharmaceutical B2B buyer–seller dyads from the lens of the uncertainty reduction theory and social penetration theory. The study suggests opportunities for pharmaceutical sellers to create and manage CX.

Perceived uncertainty and switching intention on e-commerce platforms: The moderating role of usage habit

With the increasingly fierce competition between e-commerce platforms, the issue of user retention has received more attention. Prior research highlighted the important role of perceived uncertainty in predicting user switching. This study enriches this line of literature by incorporating the effect of habit. Distinguished from other research, our study specifically focuses on the conflict between habit, which requires a stable environment for formation, and perceived uncertainty, which indicates an unstable environment. Anchored on the stimulus–organism–response framework, we provide a clear explanation of how perceived uncertainty interacts with habit and shapes users’ switching intention in the e-commerce context. An online survey of 358 users of the Taobao in China provided data for model validation and partial least squares estimation was adopted for data analysis. Three main findings emerged. First, perceived information asymmetry and perceived seller opportunism increase users’ perceived uncertainty. Second, perceived uncertainty directly and positively influences disconfirmation (internal cognition), whereas indirectly influences dissatisfaction (internal affect) through disconfirmation. Third, users’ habit of using an incumbent platform negatively moderates the effect of perceived uncertainty on disconfirmation. Furthermore, both disconfirmation and dissatisfaction positively contribute to the users’ switching intention. The findings provide valuable enlightenment for e-commerce platform owners to retain users.

Analsis of the Study of Digital Marketing Potential on Product Purchase Decisions in Generation Z

Generation Z grew up with easy access to the internet. They tend to spend more time online than previous generations. This opens up great opportunities for sellers to reach them through various digital platforms. This study aimed to conduct an analysis of the study of the potential of digital marketing for product purchasing decisions in generation Z. This research is qualitative research that explores and describes in detail a situation or phenomenon of the research object studied by developing concepts and gathering existing facts. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat are popular channels for digital marketing. Sellers can share content, conduct paid advertising campaigns, interact with users, and build relationships with audiences through social media. Company websites and blogs are the main channels in digital marketing. Sellers can create informative content, describe products or services, provide special offers, and drive traffic to their websites through SEO (search engine optimization) strategies and online advertising campaigns. Email is an effective channel for sending direct sales messages to audiences. Sellers can collect email addresses of customers or prospects and send them personalized content, special offers, product updates, or newsletters on a regular basis. Search engine marketing (SEM) includes the use of paid advertising on search engines such as Google Ads. Sellers can display their ads on search results pages or on partner websites relevant to their targeted keywords. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo are popular channels for video content. Merchants can create promotional videos, product reviews, tutorials, or entertaining content to reach a wider audience.

Studi Literature Analisis Potensi Pasar Marketplace terhadap Penjualan

Marketplace allows Customer to Customer (C2C) transactions between consumers without being bound by place and time. This change also occurs in human spending habits. So it becomes an opportunity for sellers to market their wares. In facing market competition, business people also need analysis to find out what products are selling best. However, there are many factors that affect the complexity of the marketplace in Indonesia. Then a classification-based simulation using KNN and C4.5 is needed, where the weight of each sales product group affects market potential so that it benefits sellers to choose which marketplace is suitable for the goods to be sold. So it can be concluded that (1). Factors that influence the complexity of marketplaces in Indonesia are price, number of sales, discounts, ratings and reviews. (2). The most optimal method used for analysis of sales market potential is K-Nearest Neighbor and C4.5.

Reputation and market structure in experimental platforms

We conduct a market experiment with the opportunity for sellers to send a nonbinding advertisement of their product quality, and examine the effects of including a reputation aggregation system for sellers in these markets. In order to closely match the setting of real life markets, we conduct a laboratory experiment designed to resemble an online marketplace. We find substantial efficiency gains from the addition of the ratings system, but not enough to obtain fully efficient market outcomes. These efficiency gains come primarily through a decrease in false advertising behavior by the sellers as they compete to build reputations, raising the level of trust in the market. We structurally examine the formation of reputations by the sellers (with and without ratings) and the effect of these reputations on the decisions of buyers and sellers in the market. Using bipartite networks of transaction data, we quantify the effects of ratings in encouraging trustworthiness and supporting diverse, connected, and high quality markets.

Governance of traditional markets and rural-urban food systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Traditional markets form a critical part of rural-urban food systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Aside from providing more affordable and physically accessible food to low-income consumers, traditional markets serve as wholesalers to street vendors, create market entry points for smallholder farmers, and provide essential employment opportunities for sellers. However, many traditional markets face ongoing challenges such as infrastructure deficits, poor waste management, and internal conflict that undermine their effectiveness. Markets that perform effectively can provide requisite services to vendors and manage relationships between actors within and outside the market. We propose that the degree to which traditional markets are able to play an effective role in rural-urban food systems depends on the governance structures in place in individual markets. We aim to take initial steps toward developing an institutional analysis methodology that can be used to identify the set of institutional arrangements that are appropriate for successfully governing traditional markets. Using data from a 2021 phone call survey of 81 urban and rural markets in Zambia, and drawing inspiration from Ostrom's design principles for enduring common pool resources, we identify some of the institutional arrangements that tend to lead to effective market performance in Zambia, including market formality, the role of market committees, government engagement in markets, and conflict resolution protocols. Our study alone does not definitively identify the set of institutions that are appropriate for successfully governing traditional markets, particularly beyond the Zambian context. However, we highlight the types of data that need to be collected to achieve this objective by contributing a survey instrument and an empirical dataset of traditional markets across the rural-urban food system.

The dual-process model of product information and habit in influencing consumers’ purchase intention: The role of live streaming features

• Exploring how live streaming features influence purchase intention. • Product quality uncertainty and product fit uncertainty have a negative influence on purchase intention. • Automatic habit is positively associated with purchase intention. • Habit increases the influence of perceived quality uncertainty on purchase intention. The increasing popularity of live streaming commerce has presented opportunity for sellers to generate revenue. Despite the obvious advantages of live streaming commerce offers reduced product uncertainty and encourages usage habit formation, studies have overlooked their effect on consumers’ purchase intention. On the basis of dual-process theory, this study proposes a research model with information signals mechanism and automatic habit mechanism. An online survey with 401 samples from several live streaming platforms is conducted to measure our model. Our results show that uncertainties in product quality and product fit have a significant negative influence on the purchase intention, while automatic habit is positively associated with the purchase intention. The result also indicates that habit moderates the relationship between product quality uncertainty and purchase intention. In addition, live streaming features can activate the two mechanisms. Our findings contribute to research by highlighting the importance of product information and habit.

Seller Opportunism in Credence Good Markets -- the Role of Market Conditions

Seller Opportunism in Credence Good Markets -- the Role of Market Conditions

Public Perception of Courier Fare Issue Management and Shopee Express Expedition

Technological developments are growing rapidly, with the result that create phenomenon marketplace. Indonesia, which is still following the development of marketplaces or e-commerce also continues to encourage the utilization of equal opportunities for sellers on the platform including Shopee. As in some time ago, Shopee Indonesia was hit by the issue of oppression of Shopee Express couriers as well as the slow expedition of goods throughout the country due to the impact of both problems. Responding to concerns about courier fares and Shopee Express expeditions, based on the results of issue life cycle that Shopee Indonesia immediately took a strategy and quick response steps in order to manage the issue as soon as possible. The research method that will be used is qualitative descriptive with data collection techniques used are observation, interviews, and document analysis. The result of this research is, it can be concluded public perception of courier fare issue management and shopee express expedition raises various negative and positive aspects of varied public perceptions. What happens to Shopee Indonesia can happen with anyone. Keep in mind that the purpose of PR activities is to shape the reputation of the organization and then maintain it. Therefore, Shopee Indonesia must remain consistent in maintaining its reputation so that similar problems do not occur in the future.

The influence of community engagement on seller opportunistic behaviors in e-commerce platform

Firms using e-commerce as platforms need to develop effective mechanisms to govern seller opportunism. This paper attempts to explore the effect of seller community engagement, as an informal mechanism of network governance, on seller opportunistic behaviors. In particular, we identify two types of the seller community established by the e-commerce platforms, which offers infrastructures supporting tightly and loosely coupled relationships among members, respectively. We find that engaging in both types of communities reduces seller opportunistic behaviors. We also show that the intensity of competition positively moderates the relationship between engagement in the communities with tight infrastructure and sellers’ opportunistic behaviors, while deterrence perception exerts a negative moderating effect on the relationship. In contrast, the intensity of competition negatively moderates the relationship between engagement in communities with loose infrastructure and opportunistic behaviors. The findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for opportunism governance in electronic markets.

An Analysis of Online Shoppers’ Acceptance and Trust toward Electronic Marketplace using TAM Model

Changes in technology affect business activities. The presence of the internet opens opportunities for sellers to expand their marketing reach. E-marketplaces can be utilized by sellers to broaden the marketing reach of their products. From the consumer side, the presence of the e-marketplace presents many choices in buying goods. The e-marketplace makes it easy for buyers and sellers to deal with products. This study aims to evaluate attitudes toward online shopping. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust as independent variables. Attitude toward online shopping as a dependent variable. Two hundred buyers in one of the biggest e-marketplace in Indonesia as analysis subjects to complete the questionnaire in this study. Multiple regression analysis to test the research model. The results show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust affect online shopping attitudes.

Which is More Effective for Platform Performance: Punishments or Incentives?

The success of online third-party business-to-business (B2B) platforms relies heavily on simultaneous governance of both sellers and buyers. This study examined and compared the effects of punishments and incentives on seller’s opportunism toward platforms, buyers’ trust in platforms, and platform performance using data from B2B platforms in China. The results show that punishments (both severity and speed) and incentives toward sellers are negatively related to sellers’ opportunism toward platform. The effect of punishment severity is greater than that of punishment speed or incentives on curbing seller opportunism, and the effect of punishment speed is not significantly different from that of incentives. The findings also reveal that both punishment severity and speed toward sellers are positively related to buyers’ trust in platform, although their effects are not significantly different from each other. Additionally, incentives toward buyers do not significantly affect buyers’ trust in platform, and both punishment severity and speed have a greater effect than buyer incentives on building buyer trust. These findings not only make novel theoretical contributions to the B2B platform and governance literature by exploring platforms’ triadic governance issue but also provide valuable practical suggestions for platform managers.

Justice motivation theory in sustainable home purchases

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the understudied topic of sustainability as a factor in the Canadian residential real estate purchase decision using the unique lens of justice motivation theory.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative approach, the study draws on transcripts from 14 interviews with realtors and residential buyers in three different Ontario cities. This paper adopts an exploratory perspective to investigate justice-based motivations related to sustainability in the real estate decision process.FindingsThe research finds that the three requirements of justice motivation are satisfied in the context of a broad understanding of sustainability that includes social, economic and environmental dimensions. The residential real estate decision offers opportunities for sellers to appeal to those motivated by justice.Practical implicationsPolicymakers should consider ways of easing these barriers for those consumers who a financially unable to satisfy their justice motivation when purchasing a home as well as bolstering regulatory enforcement. Sellers should clearly articulate functional explanations of features as well as benefits to enhance the cognitive processing of the sustainable home as a choice alternative.Originality/valueThis paper makes a unique contribution by arguing that the social psychology theory of justice motivation helps explain the role of sustainability in the residential real estate purchase decision-making process.

Seller Reviews and Consumers' Perceptions of Trust, Risks, and Uncertainty

Based on the principal-agent theory, the authors posit that seller-related uncertainty is derived from buyer (the principal) fears of hidden information (information asymmetry) and hidden action (seller opportunism) on the part of sellers (the agents). The study evaluates the effects of the three antecedents of trust in the seller reviews context with a quasi-experiment. The authors enhance the validity of the research manipulation through a unique approach of creating reviews through a text mining process of actual seller reviews. This allows control over the content of reviews while retaining their realism. The findings validate that the principal-agent theory provides a good fit for understanding seller-related uncertainty in e-commerce transactions. Second, buyers appear to be more concerned about seller opportunism than with information asymmetry. Third, while assessments of integrity and competence of the vendor, assessed through reviews, play a role, benevolence does not.

Seller's creditworthiness in the online service market: A study from the control perspective

Information asymmetry and the community-based nature of online marketplaces may lead to opportunistic behaviors by sellers. This study investigates seller opportunism in the online service market from the control perspective. By analyzing data on online transactions and trade disputes from the largest crowdsourcing platform in China, Zhubajie, this study found that a seller's opportunistic behaviors, such as the non-delivery or late delivery of the final solution, are related to social and formal control in the market. Specifically, social control, i.e., the number of seller fans and members the seller follows, negatively affects opportunistic behaviors by the seller; the seller's reputation score negatively affects opportunistic behaviors, but the effect is weakened when social control is high. The seller's rank in the market is positively related to opportunistic behaviors. This paper contributes to research on online marketplaces by exploring seller creditworthiness from the control perspective. It provides implications for online marketplaces for controlling seller opportunism and enhancing creditworthiness in the market.

Recommendation Framework Combining User Interests with Fashion Trends in Apparel Online Shopping

Although fashion-related products account for most of the online shopping categories, it becomes more difficult for users to search and find products matching their taste and needs as the number of items available online increases explosively. Personalized recommendation of items is the best method for both reducing user effort on searching for items and expanding sales opportunity for sellers. Unfortunately, experimental studies and research on fashion item recommendation for online shopping users are lacking. In this paper, we propose a novel recommendation framework suitable for online apparel items. To overcome the rating sparsity problem of online apparel datasets, we derive implicit ratings from user log data and generate predicted ratings for item clusters by user-based collaborative filtering. The ratings are combined with a network constructed by an item click trend, which serves as a personalized recommendation through a random walk. An empirical evaluation on a large-scale real-world dataset obtained from an apparel retailer demonstrates the effectiveness of our method.

Realigning Incentives of Acquirees and Acquirers: Leveraging Stock and Cash Payments

The payment schemes used in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have attracted attention from finance and management scholars. Although prior finance studies examined variations in the cash-plus-stock payments, they have not provided an overarching theory to explain the variations. Management studies have proposed a market-failure theory, but they focused on other payment strategies. This paper advances both research streams by extending the market-failure theory to draw a rule that the parties to an M&A can use to determine the optimal percentage combination of cash-plus-stock payments. We contend that the use of acquirers¡¦ stock to pay acquirees helps realign the incentives of both parties and produces a reciprocity effect to self-enforce contracts and correct for imperfection of the M&A market. Hence, an optimal percentage combination of cash-plus-stock payments can be identified in M&A deals, wherein cash (stock) will represent a higher percentage in the total payments among those deals featuring a smaller (bigger) room for seller opportunism. We develop a set of hypotheses that predict the optimal level of stock usage in M&A payments, and verify them on a sample of US M&As during 2010 and 2015. Empirical results support our theoretical conjectures, and provide important implications to scholars and managers.

Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences of Live Chat Use in Electronic Markets

Online shopping has progressed from having consumers passively browse through the webpages of online stores to having them proactively engage in communication dialogues with the sellers themselves via live chat. Modern-day consumers can now directly contact online sellers and inquire about the products they intend to purchase through the live chat medium available in the webpages of online stores, such as Taobao.com. In this study, the conceptual framework of motivation, opportunity, and ability was extended to understand the antecedents of using live chat and to lengthen such an understanding on one’s eventual intention to transact on the website from the trust-oriented perspective. A total of 222 online consumers of Taobao.com were surveyed, and their responses validated the proposed conceptual model and confirmed the research hypotheses. Results of the investigation indicated that perceived information asymmetry and fears of seller opportunism, encapsulated under motivation dimension, and perceived personal expertise, which manifests ability dimension, significantly influence the use of live chat by consumers. The results further demonstrated that live chat use positively affects the perceived interactivity of consumers, thereby increasing their intention to transact. The influence of live chat use on the perceived interactivity of consumers and its effect on one’s intention to transact online are negatively moderated by the trust of consumers in a seller. The findings contribute to our understanding communication services for e-commerce in general and to the realization of real-time communication technology in particular.