T he Internet's computational power and flexibility have made auctions a widespread and integral part of both consumer and business markets. Though online auctions are a multibillion dollar annual activity, with a growing variety of sophisticated trading mechanisms, scientific research on them is at an early stage. This paper analyzes the current state of management science research on online auctions. It develops a broad research agenda for issues such as the behavior of online auction participants, the optimal design of online auctions, the integration of auctions into the ongoing operation of firms, and the use of the data generated by online auctions to inform future trading mechanisms. These research areas will draw from applied and theoretical work spanning management science, economics, and information systems. (Auctions; Internet)
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.