New Practice of E-Commerce Platform: Evidence from Two Trade-In Programs

Abstract

In the context of developing the digital platform economy, trade-in programs have become an effective strategy for e-commerce platforms to stimulate consumption. Many head e-commerce platforms have launched their own trade-in programs. However, the existing research on trade-in programs is still stuck in the traditional trade-in model. The purpose of this study is to explore whether there is a new and more beneficial trade-in program. In this paper, we construct the Stackelberg game model between a brand owner and a B2C e-commerce platform under two trade-in programs and use optimization theory to obtain the equilibrium results of the model. The results indicate that the performance improvement of the new-generation product will promote the increase in two-generation products’ price under traditional trade-in programs, the price of the new-generation product will increase, and the price of the previous-generation product will decrease under new trade-in programs. The brand owner always prefers traditional trade-in to new trade-in. However, the e-commerce platform prefers traditional trade-in to new trade-in just when the previous-generation product is durable enough and the performance improvement of a new-generation product is small enough; otherwise, it prefers new trade-in to traditional trade-in. These findings are beneficial to the operational practices of e-commerce platforms and brand owners.

Evaluation of Open and Distance Education Websites: A Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach

“…Thus, the initial fuzzy decision matrix is obtained. The normalized decision matrix shown in Table 12 was achieved by applying Equation (9).…”

“…In Garg (2017)'s study, the website criteria was widely reviewed and highlighted, such as human elements with technical skills and aspects, infrastructure, organizational support, website functionalities (usability and accessibility), content availability and quality, system support and maintenance, design and appearance, ease of use, navigation, communication, interactivity, and multimedia design [8]. High-quality web-based information should be defined to improve online programs, interactive websites, and construction [9,10]. Arif et al (2018) explored the factors influencing students' use of web-based services and applied the "Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)" [11].…”