Yuting Wang, Yao Chen, Jie Fang and Bingqing Xiong
Despite the popularity of leveraging cause-related marketing (CRM) to make societal contributions and bolster business profits, sellers face a profound dilemma when conducting CRM…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the popularity of leveraging cause-related marketing (CRM) to make societal contributions and bolster business profits, sellers face a profound dilemma when conducting CRM due to consumers’ ambivalent understanding of sellers’ motivation for the initiative. Therefore, it is imperative to unravel consumers’ ambivalent understanding of CRM and determine how sellers can effectively employ CRM to elicit positive evaluations from consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study gathered survey data from 217 participants and applied a polynomial regression model and response surface analysis for disentangling ambivalent perception of CRM by investigating the influence of (in)congruence between perceived egoistic and altruistic motivation.
Findings
The incongruence between perceived egoistic and altruistic motivation can positively influence consumers’ evaluations of sellers. Moreover, when perceived egoistic and altruistic motivations are congruent, increasing their absolute level also enhances consumers’ evaluation of sellers. Moreover, sellers’ platform function usage behavior can amplify the positive effect of incongruence but has no salient moderating role on the congruence effect.
Originality/value
Differing from prior literature that predominantly focused on either the positive or negative interpretation of CRM, this study reveals the coexistence of both positive and negative viewpoints and disentangles the congruence and incongruence effect between the two motivational understandings.
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Uchenna Uzo, Ogechi Adeola, Olamide Shittu and Olutayo Otubanjo
Although African markets have incorporated various selling practices originating from the West, there are still some selling practices that are indigenous to the African people…
Abstract
Although African markets have incorporated various selling practices originating from the West, there are still some selling practices that are indigenous to the African people and are widely practised by sellers across the continent. This chapter is an attempt at documenting those indigenous practices with the aim of providing managers, educators and policymakers of the continent with a reference document on what these indigenous selling practices are, how sellers invoke them in the course of transactions and the cultural values that guide these practices. Primary data were gathered from three countries representing western, eastern and southern Africa through observations, field surveys and in-depth and key informant interviews while literature was sourced for secondary data. The chapter identified street selling, haggling and credit-based selling as the major indigenous selling practices found among sellers in Africa. The cultural values that guide selling in the continent include respect, trustworthiness and kindness. The chapter displayed a framework to explain the subject matter and made some practical suggestions that are relevant for managers, educators and policymakers.
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Xingping Zhang, Feng Yang, Yaqin Hu and Zhimin Huang
For two-sided platforms, the utility of users on one side of the platform depends in part on the number of users on the other side of the platform, a phenomenon called indirect…
Abstract
For two-sided platforms, the utility of users on one side of the platform depends in part on the number of users on the other side of the platform, a phenomenon called indirect network externalities. With the rapid development of two-sided platform and the popularity of platform membership, more and more two-sided platforms have launched joint membership through horizontal cooperation in order to take advantage of indirect network externalities to increase platform profits.
Our study explores the optimal bundling strategy for platform memberships under horizontal cooperation considering indirect network externalities. The main purpose of our study is to obtain the optimal pricing under different strategies (pure component, pure bundling, and mixed bundling) and contrast different strategies under different indirect network externalities.
Results suggest that the platform's optimal pricing for consumers and sellers depends on the indirect network externalities. Interestingly, the higher the indirect network externalities from consumers, the higher the price of the platform charges to sellers, and the platform might even subsidize sellers. Besides, when there are equal proportions of different types of consumers in the market, indirect network externalities that are too high, too low, or heavily lopsided may discourage the platforms from bundling their memberships. When the composition of consumers changes, the optimal strategy will also change. Our results can be employed in practical applications of bundling, which can help the platform increase profits.
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Jingbo Yuan, Bilal Ahmad, Zhilin Yang and Qing Ye
Drawing on the principal-agent theoretical perspective, we assert that sellers’ opportunism is acknowledged as an essential component that could determine the quality of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the principal-agent theoretical perspective, we assert that sellers’ opportunism is acknowledged as an essential component that could determine the quality of the relationship between buyers (principals) and sellers (agents). The primary aim of this research is to investigate the influence of seller behavior vs outcome-based reputation and seller’s perceived freedom on opportunistic behavior in the Chinese e-commerce platform context.
Design/methodology/approach
The data collected from 436 e-commerce platform sellers were analyzed and interpreted using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results indicate that both behavior-based and outcome-based reputations positively impact sellers’ perceived freedom but negatively impact their opportunism. Additionally, while perceived freedom of objectives reduces opportunism, freedom of action increases it. The study also highlights the significant moderating roles of prevention mechanisms and ethical ideology.
Originality/value
This study extends the principal-agent perspective by integrating the seller’s reputation as a potential source of preventing sellers from behaving opportunistically on e-commerce platforms.
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Kurtis Swope, Ryan Wielgus, Pamela Schmitt and John Cadigan
Purpose – Land assembly can mitigate the negative environmental impacts of land fragmentation on urban areas, agriculture, and wildlife. However, the assembler faces several…
Abstract
Purpose – Land assembly can mitigate the negative environmental impacts of land fragmentation on urban areas, agriculture, and wildlife. However, the assembler faces several obstacles including transactions costs and the strategic bargaining behavior of landowners. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how the order of bargaining and the nature of contracts may impact the land assembler's problem.
Methodology – We develop theoretical predictions of subjects' behavior and compare these to behavior in a laboratory land-assembly game with monetary incentives.
Findings – Sellers bargain more aggressively when bargaining is sequential compared to simultaneous. Noncontingent contracts increase bargaining delay and the likelihood of failed agreements. Buyers and sellers act more aggressively when there are multiple bargaining periods, leading to significant bargaining delay. When a seller has an earnings advantage in the laboratory, it is the first seller to bargain in noncontingent contract treatments. In sequential bargaining treatments, most sellers preferred to be the first seller to bargain.
Research limitations – Our laboratory experiments involved only two sellers, complete information, and costless delay. Land assembly in the field may involve many sellers, incomplete information, and costly delay.
Practical implications – Some of our results contradict conventional wisdom and a common result from the land-assembly literature that it is advantageous to be the last seller to bargain, a so-called “holdout.” Our results also imply that fully overcoming the holdout problem may require subsidies or compulsory acquisition.
Originality – This chapter is one of the first to experimentally investigate the land-assembly problem, and the first to specifically examine the role of bargaining order and contract type.
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Guangkuan Deng, Jianyu Zhang, Ying Xu and Lijuan He
The integration of e-commerce platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) into the marketing channel ecosystem is challenging the explanatory capacity of traditional channel power…
Abstract
Purpose
The integration of e-commerce platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) into the marketing channel ecosystem is challenging the explanatory capacity of traditional channel power theories, indicating a significant yet unaddressed research gap concerning the impact of these digital entities and AI on channel power exercise dynamics. This study adopts a contingency perspective to critically revisit how e-commerce platforms exercise channel power and the ensuing effects on channel conflicts. The purpose of this study is to extend the boundaries of traditional channel power theories, enhancing their relevance in today’s digital marketplace.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on channel power theories, the authors developed a framework tested with survey data collected from 262 sellers. This framework incorporates three key contingent variables: inter-platform competition, AI capabilities and platform value co-creation. Regression analysis was used to perform the analyses.
Findings
This study finds that intense inter-platform competition mitigates the (positive) negative relationship between platform channel power and the exercise of (non-) coercive power. Moreover, a platform’s AI capabilities and value co-creation activities diminish the potential for channel conflicts induced by the exercise of coercive power. AI capabilities can also strengthen the negative relationship between the exercise of non-coercive power and channel conflicts.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the advancement of traditional channel power theories by integrating contemporary digital elements like AI and platform dynamics. This study provides theoretical and practical insights on navigating channel power in modern marketing environments, offering strategic guidelines for optimizing channel relationships.
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The act of consolidating multiple parcels of land to form a single larger parcel is known as land assembly. Laboratory experiments have enabled researchers to explore how various…
Abstract
The act of consolidating multiple parcels of land to form a single larger parcel is known as land assembly. Laboratory experiments have enabled researchers to explore how various factors, environments, and institutions hinder or assist the aggregation process. This chapter surveys the experimental literature and highlights the experimental design used in those studies, as well as their main findings.
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Mark DeSantis, Matthew McCarter and Abel Winn
The authors use laboratory experiments to test two self-assessment tax mechanisms for facilitating land assembly. One mechanism is incentive compatible with a complex tax…
Abstract
The authors use laboratory experiments to test two self-assessment tax mechanisms for facilitating land assembly. One mechanism is incentive compatible with a complex tax function, while the other uses a flat tax rate to mitigate implementation concerns. Sellers publicly declare a price for their land. Overstating its true value is penalized by using the declared price to assess a property tax; understating its value is penalized by allowing developers to buy the property at the declared price. The authors find that both mechanisms increase the rate of land assembly and gains from trade relative to a control in which sellers’ price declarations have no effect on their taxes. However, these effects are statistically insignificant or transitory. The assembly rates in our self-assessment treatments are markedly higher than those of prior experimental studies in which the buyer faces bargaining frictions, such as costly delay or capital constraints.
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In social marketplaces, follower ego networks are integral social capital assets for online sellers. While previous research has underscored the positive impact of the follower…
Abstract
Purpose
In social marketplaces, follower ego networks are integral social capital assets for online sellers. While previous research has underscored the positive impact of the follower number on seller performance, little attention has been given to the structure of follower networks and their value implications. This research investigates two structural properties of follower networks—network centralization and density—and examines their main and contingent effects on sellers’ sales performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A 13-month panel dataset of 1,150 sellers in Etsy, a social marketplace for handmade and vintage products, was collected and analyzed. A fixed effects model was adopted to validate the hypotheses on the main effect of centralization and density, as well as the moderating effects of two store attributes: store age and product diversification.
Findings
We find that both network centralization and density negatively impact sellers’ sales performance, and these effects vary across store age and product diversification levels. Specifically, the negative effect of network centralization is less pronounced for older stores than young ones, whereas the negative effect of density is more severe for stores with high product diversification.
Originality/value
This research contributes to social commerce research by highlighting the significance of network structure, alongside network size, in assessing the value of followers and offers practical guidance for sellers in social marketplaces seeking to optimize their follower networks.
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Abstract
Purpose
In response to the intense competition in the platform economy, e-commerce platforms are actively introducing value-added services to maintain their competitiveness. However, how effective these value-added services are in fulfilling this purpose remains unclear. This paper explores how value-added services can enhance e-commerce platform competitiveness, measured by both user scale and reputation, considering the effect of network externalities.
Design/methodology/approach
A bilateral e-commerce platform with potential high-quality sellers and low-quality sellers on one side and potential buyers on the other side was chosen as research setting. Game theory models are constructed to simultaneously consider the behaviors of all actors (including sellers, buyers and the platform).
Findings
On the one hand, to increase the seller scale, basic services play a substituting role in determining the effect of value-added services. On the other hand, to increase the buyer scale and improve platform reputation, basic services play a fundamental role in determining the effect of value-added services. Furthermore, the higher the loss rate of the product value, the bigger the room for providing value-added services. With increasing loss rate of the product value, participating buyers who are attracted by value-added services are the fastest growing indicators; this indicates that the most significant effect of value-added services is its increase in the buyer scale.
Practical implications
Basic services determine the lower limit of platform competitiveness, while value-added services set the upper limit. The results of this paper can instruct different types of platforms to enhance their competitiveness in different ways.
Originality/value
(1) While previous studies on how to enhance platform competitiveness only considered scale or reputation separately, this paper applies a new perspective of platform competitiveness, namely the improvement of both the seller scale/buyer scale and platform reputation. (2) According to the characteristics of bilateral platforms, game theory models are constructed to explore how value-added services can enhance platform competitiveness considering both positive and negative network externalities. (3) The existing literature studies basic services and value-added services in a fragmented state; this paper contributes to research on value-added services by considering the mutual effect between basic and value-added services.