1. Overview and Summary The term price dispersion is commonly used to refer to firms in the same market selling identical goods for different prices at the same time. Since the early conjecture by Bakos (1997) that electronic markets are likely to feature lower price dispersion on account of lower search costs, a number of researchers have studied how information technology alters the observed ...

This research attempts to develop a conceptual foundation for authentication in electronic markets by drawing upon the well-known principal-agent theory in Economics. First, principal-agent theory is discussed and related to authentication in electronic markets. Then, the technologies and business functionalities that are currently available to support authentication in electronic markets are e...

The paper proposes a new perspective on value creation in the information age. At first there will be a brief analysis of the current developments in the field of Electronic Markets and Electronic Commerce. Then the fundamental shifts in value creation will be illustrated using the financial industry sector. At the end a new framework for Business Media will be introduced.

This article presents an economic model of a monopoly retailer with supply and demand uncertainties that enables the study of incentives for B2B e-procurement technology investments that permit inventory coordination and operating cost control. In this context, we focus on the information technology (IT) adoption behavior of firms, emphasizing the trade-offs they make between managing supply pr...

Trust is particularly important in online markets to facilitate the transfer of sensitive consumer information to online retailers. In electronic markets, various proposals have been made to facilitate these information transfers. We develop analytic models of hidden information to analyze the effectiveness of these regimes to build trust and their efficiency in terms of social welfare. We find...

Cloud computing is a new and increasingly popular form of IT outsourcing. It implies that a cloud service provider offers very standardized abstract IT services which are accessed by a user over the Internet. While cloud services are supposed to be very beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises, the adoption of such services has been low in this group, among other reasons because of hig...

A three year research project is investigating evolutionary processes in electronic markets. Three fundamental evolutionary mechanisms are innovation, imitation and improvement of existing procedures. As part of the initial investigation, simulation experiments have been performed to investigate the relative impact and cost of these three evolutionary mechanisms. The design of those simulation ...

Early research in electronic markets seemed to suggest that E-Commerce transactions would result in decreased costs for buyers and sellers alike, and would therefore ultimately lead to the elimination of intermediaries from electronic value chains. However, a careful analysis of the structure and functions of electronic marketplaces reveals a different picture. Intermediaries provide many value...

Despite the wide use of reputational mechanisms such as eBay’s Feedback Forum to promote trust, empirical studies have shown conflicting results Cynthia Beath was the accepting senior editor for this paper. as to whether online feedback mechanisms induce trust and lead to higher auction prices. This study examines the extent to which trust can be induced by proper feedback mechanisms in electro...

Global electronic markets, virtual organisations, virtual identities, virtual products and services, and Internet-related crime are growing in prominence and importance. In a world that is increasingly non-physical and borderless, what are government’s roles, responsibilities and limitations? The Internet plays a central role within the transformation process from traditional governments toward...