J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res., Volume 7, Issue 1 (April 2012) – 9 articles

Despite the variety of existing theoretical models for buyers’ coalition in the current e-commerce literature, no existing coalition scheme explicitly takes into consideration issues related to the leadership attributes of the coalition. By adopting a design science research methodology and utilizing theoretical groundings of the Social Networking and Game theory, the current article provides algorithmic design of a buyer coalition scheme with explicit focus given to the ‘betweenness’, ‘centrality’, and ‘closeness’ attributes of the coalition leader. Detailed steps for forming the proposed coalition are provided along with related algorithmic designs and explanations for each step. The execution of the proposed algorithmic design and its effectiveness compared to the situation where no leadership attributes is explicitly considered, are demonstrated by using a scenario and associated simulation programs. Results from the simulation programs confirm that the proposed model provides additional discounts for the buyers regardless the number of buyers within the coalition, and with no additional costs to the seller. It is also expected that sellers will benefit from the proposed model as a result of reduced transaction costs associated with the proposed scheme. Full article

The growth of mobile commerce, or the purchase of services or goods using mobile technology, heavily depends on the availability, reliability, and acceptance of mobile wallet systems. Although several researchers have attempted to create models on the acceptance of such mobile payment systems, no single comprehensive framework has yet emerged. Based upon a broad literature review of mobile technology adoption, a comprehensive model integrating eleven key consumer-related variables affecting the adoption of mobile payment systems is proposed. This model, based on established theoretical underpinnings originally established in the technology acceptance literature, extends existing frameworks by including attractiveness of alternatives and by proposing relationships between the key constructs. Japan is at the forefront of such technology and a number of domestic companies have been effectively developing and marketing mobile wallets for some time. Using this proposed framework, we present the case of the successful adoption of Mobile Suica in Japan, which can serve as a model for the rapid diffusion of such payment systems for other countries where adoption has been unexpectedly slow. Full article

In this Internet age, information technologies are increasingly penetrating our daily lives. Internet Shopping has become a daily activity for most of us. However, there are very limited studies to investigate cognitive factors influencing individuals’ online shopping behavior in a developing country context. In this study, two widely used socio-psychology based theories, the extended version of Technology Acceptance Model (e-TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), have been tested in Internet shopping context and the results are compared for a Turkish sample. The results have revealed significant theoretical relationships for all of the proposed paths in both theories, yet the Theory of Planned Behavior presented better fit indices and proven to be a more detailed explanatory framework. Full article

Search costs and consumer heterogeneity are two important explanations for the price dispersion in the brick and mortar (B&M) markets. Comparison shopping agents (CSAs) provide a single click decision support for consumers’ purchasing related decision problems and reduce their search costs by providing detail price dispersion related information. Contemporary researchers in IS observe that even with such negligible search costs, price dispersion still continues in the online markets. Consumer heterogeneity and retailer heterogeneity have been agreed upon as two primary explanations for online price dispersions. In this paper, popular CSAs are analyzed to check if they provide complete and accurate price dispersion information. It is shown that because of the selection bias and temporal delay in updating information, contemporary CSAs may not present complete and accurate price dispersion information. In order to reach to an optimal purchasing decision, consumers may have to rely on a sequential search across multiple CSAs or browse through various retailers. This research adds a search cost dimension to explain the continuance of price dispersion in the online markets. Full article

Purchasing through virtual market is different from the process that takes place in the traditional market. In this market, things are less tangible and more threatening. Therefore, trust becomes crucial and it is established in a different way. This study examined the effect of testimonials on the level of trust in e-commerce. It also examined the impact of product touch level and price on the effect of testimonials. Two mock e-commerce sites were used, one with testimonials and the other without. The experimental approach simulated a complete shopping process with students whose age was between 21 and 30, on a fully functional website, with subjective and objective behavioral measures. The subjective measures were based on two questions that participants were asked along the experiment. The objective measures consisted of metrics such as navigation patterns in the site, number of products in the shopping cart, and readiness to enter credit card number. The presence of testimonials had a greater impact on users with little internet-based shopping experience, was associated with increased trust, and was more significantly pronounced for price than for product touch level. In addition, the results showed that a decreased level of trust was associated with higher prices. The impact of testimonials is accounted for in terms of history sharing and building an online community. Full article

The communication within Internet auction systems proceeds as a rule under the situation in which users are not in physical contact nor they do not know anything of each other. They have therefore to rely on reputation mechanisms implemented within these online systems. Such mechanisms help to create a trustworthy environment on the basis of additional attributes associated with users and their roles. The trustworthy environment in online auction systems (trust of the system itself and trust among users of this virtual world) is the essential element for these systems functioning. This paper introduces a trust model based on reputation while it takes into account possible fraudulent behavior of users in online auctions as contextual information. The reputation is calculated from user’s evaluations (feedback) following performed transactions. Information about possible fraudulent behavior is additional information determining the reliability of the user’s reputation in our trust model. Reputation and fraudulent behavior are expressed in a form of belief functions and the resulting user’s trustfulness is calculated. The case study shows that the proposed approach is valid and may be applicable in real online auctions. Full article

With recent developments in mobile technologies, tourism mobile payment(m-payment) is beginning to offer interesting and beneficial new services. This research aimed to identify the factors determining tourists’ acceptance of tourism m-payment. Based on literature relating to the TAM theory, the conceptual model is developed and tested in this research. This research extends the applicability of the TAM in tourism m-payment context, by adding the system characteristics' constructs and tourism characteristics' constructs to the model. Data collected from 421 tourists in China were tested against the extended TAM, using the structural equation modeling approach. The empirical results show especially strong support for the effects of perceived security, perceived compatibility, destination m-payment knowledge, and tourist susceptibility to interpersonal influence. The findings provide a foundation for an enhanced theory on tourism m-payment adoption and for the practical development of tourism m-payment service. Full article

Reputation systems provide a form of social control and reveal behaviour patterns in the uncertain and riskladen environment of the open Internet. However, proposed reputation systems typically focus on the effectiveness and accuracy of reputation management, and suffer from a number of common vulnerabilities. As a result, introducing reputation management into the business environment may only replace the problems it hopes to solve with new issues. This paper aims to improve the security and robustness of reputation systems through 1) identifying the basic requirements in that area, 2) analyzing existing reputation systems for e- Commerce and a handful of other environments to compare their design choices and solutions provided, and 3) compiling a number of topical practices into guidelines for future research and development of reputation systems. Full article

Despite being a graduate of the rigorous Bachelor of Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in 1996, I was unfortunate in that I missed being taught by Associate Professor Elaine Lawrence who began working at UTS in 1990 as a Lecturer in Computing Science.[...] Full article