Repeated use of online auctions: investigating individual seller motivations

Abstract

Online auctions, connecting sellers and buyers on the Internet, are a specific type of eMarketplaces. eMarketplaces rely on repeat business in order to build scale, yet little is known about the drivers of repeated use by sellers. Based on an empirical investigation of individual, private sellers, this paper identifies the determinants of their repeated use of online auctions. It demonstrates that repeated use is driven by expectancy concerning performance and effort and by the facilitating conditions provided by auction sites. However, repeated use of online auctions is neither directly motivated by social influences, nor is it moderated by sellers' demographics.

Entrepreneurs adoption of information system innovation

“…Since the UTAUT model was development in 2003 researchers have applied this model in: new contexts such as community health center, managers, mobile owners, and merchants (Hanson et al, 2011;Shu and Chuang, 2011;; new user populations such as university students, university faculty members, doctors, educators, lawyers, college teachers, investors, small and medium enterprises, bank customers, internet banking service users Loebbecke et al, 2010;Heerink et al, 2010); new cultural settings such as India, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Netherlands (Moghavvemi et al, 2012;Wang and Shih, 2009); and finally inclusion of exogenous predictors (Cody-Allen and Kishore, 2006) in the UTAUT model (Venkatesh et al, 2012).…”

Exploring Sellers' Experiences in the C2C Online Auction Environment

“…Past research shows that salespeople play a significant role in generating long-term relationships between consumers and organisations and can contribute significantly to the success of a business and product (William & Attaway, 1996;Bisp, Sorensen, & Grunert, 1998;Dwyer, Hill, & Martin, 2000;DelVecchio, Zemanek, McIntyre, & Claxton, 2002;Pettijohn, Pettijohn, & Taylor, 2007). However, a gap remains in the literature around the behaviour of individual sellers within the C2C online auction environment (Chu & Liao, 2007;Loebbecke, Powell, & Weiss, 2010).…”

“…Past studies have tended to focus on rational aspects such as auction settings (Lucking- Reiley, 2000;Reynolds et al, 2009;Utz, Matzat, & Snijders, 2009), monetary motivations (Chu & Liao, 2007;Denegri-Knott & Molesworth, 2009), pricing strategy and buyer-seller negotiations in online auctions (Vishwanath & Barnett, 2005;Clark & Ward, 2008). Little attention has focused on sellers" marketing activities, their behaviour in the online auction environment, or their reasons for participating in online auctions (Popkowski-Leszczyc, 2004;Cheema, 2005;Cameron & Galloway, 2005;Goes, Tu, & Tung, 2009;Loebbecke et al, 2010). Moreover, few studies have investigated inexperienced buyers and sellers, even though these make up a large proportion of C2C online auction users (Klemperer, 1999;Maasland & Onderstal, 2006).…”

“…Since the first online auction on eBay in 1995, most research to date has focused on buyer-centric design and buyer behaviour (Ariely & Simonson, 2003;Dittmar et al, 2004;Rauniar et al, 2009). However, little effort has been spent on investigating the dynamic nature of seller behaviour in the C2C online auction environment (Stafford & Stern, 2002;Chu & Liao, 2007;Loebbecke et al, 2010).…”

“…Thus, it would be interesting to study the process through which sellers learn selling expertise, which transforms them into experienced sellers, and the marketing skills acquired by novice sellers during this learning process. Even though an extensive body of research has investigated the auction mechanisms used by sellers to facilitate their businesses (Bapna, Goes, & Gupta, 2001;Ariely & Simonson, 2003;Kauffman & Wood, 2006), and their involvement in online auctions (Loebbecke et al, 2010), little information is known about how sellers perceive and value their activities, and how they attempt to increase the effectiveness and reputation of their businesses. Therefore, it is critical to further investigate the reasons behind their activities on online auction sites.…”