Sulin Ba

Evidence of the effect of trust building technology in electronic markets: price premiums and buyer behavior

Despite the wide use of reputational mechanisms such as eBay’s Feedback Forum to promote trust, empirical studies have shown conflicting results

Technology adaption: the case of a computer-supported inter-organizational virtual team 1

The adaptation process for new technology is not yet well understood. This study analyzes how an inter-organizational virtual team, tasked with creating a highly innovative product over a 10 month period, adapted the use of a collaborative technology and successfully achieved its challenging objectives. The study of such a virtual team is especially useful for extending our understanding of the adaptation process as virtual teams have more malleable structures than typical organizational units and controlled group experiments. Data were obtained from observations of weekly virtual meetings, electronic log files, interviews, and weekly questionnaires administered to team members. We found that the team initially experienced significant misalignments among the pre-existing organizational environment, group, and technology structures. To resolve these misalignments, the team modified the organizational environment and group structures, leaving the technology structure intact. However, as the team proceeded, a series of events unfolded that caused the team to reevaluate and further modify its structures. This final set of modifications involved reverting back to the pre-existing organizational environment, while new technology and group structures emerged as different from both the pre-existing and the initial ones. A new model of the adaptation process-one that integrates these findings and those of several previous models-is proposed.

Establishing online trust through a community responsibility system

Much of the research on trust building in electronic commerce takes a descriptive approach. The question of what social structures are more appropriate to promote trust in the online world has not been extensively studied. We analyze in this paper, using a prescriptive approach, how a certain social structure—a community responsibility system, supported by present technology, can be set up. We use game theoretic tools to prove that under the community responsibility system for trust building, online transactions that are impersonal can be supported and can preserve at the same time anonymity to a large extent.

Research Commentary: Introducing a Third Dimension in Information Systems Design--The Case for Incentive Alignment

Prior research has generated considerable knowledge on information systems design from software engineering and user-acceptance perspectives. As organizational processes are increasingly embedded within information systems, one of the key considerations of many business processes--organizational incentives--should become an important dimension of any information systems design and evaluation, which we categorize as the third dimension: incentive alignment. Incentive issues have become important in many IS areas, including distributed decision support systems (DSS), knowledge management, and e-business supply chain coordination. In this paper we outline why incentives are important in each of these areas and specify requirements for designing incentive-aligned information systems. We identify and define important unresolved problems along the incentive-alignment dimension of information systems and present a research agenda to address them.

Building trust in online auction markets through an economic incentive mechanism

Millions of dollars change hands daily through online auction markets. However, fraud has been on the rise in these markets. Using a game theoretic approach, we propose a design of an economic incentive mechanism, the trusted third party (TTP), to serve the online auction communities. The proposed model addresses both the economic and technological aspects of online auction transactions by assigning a digital certificate to each participant. Thus, each participants identity as well as his or her reputation can be established by other market participants. The analytical results demonstrate that when online transactions take place with the assistance of digital certificates issued by a TTP, the most utilitarian course of action for a market participant is to behave honestly.

Enterprise decision support using intranet technology

Abstract We present a knowledge-based enterprise modeling framework that automatically builds and executes task-specific models in response to user queries. This framework bases its reasoning about a particular organization upon a library of knowledge representing signigicant organizational phenomena from different perspectives and at different levels of detail. The system is aimed at providing fast cycle responses to decrease organizational error and support strategic decision-making. The focus is on how to improve model building and how to extract the relevant knowledge to support specific analyses of corporate issues. An Intranet-based prototype implementation is presented to illustrate the ideas and concepts.

Using client-broker-server architecture for Intranet decision support

Abstract Electronic commerce is emerging as a key enabler in changing the way companies do business. This paper focuses on the aspects of electronic commerce that are pertinent to Intranet decision support and tries to develop the theory and technical requirements that will drive the implementation of such a decision support system. The main objective is to achieve information integration using the brokers, World Wide Web, and structured documents. The implementation of a prototype system is described and results from its usage are presented.

The Dynamics of the Electronic Market: An Evolutionary Game Approach

The capabilities afforded by network technologies have facilitated the growth of electronic commerce. However, online frauds pose serious challenges to the further adoption of the electronic market. In order to promote trust and reduce transaction risks, various trusted third parties have emerged and new models have been proposed. Will people use the trusted third parties while conducting online transactions? How will the electronic market evolve? This research attempts to identify the different equilibria of the electronic market using an evolutionary game theoretic approach and to explore the best strategy to do transactions in the electronic market. Also, the work provides a theoretical justification to the emergence and necessity of trusted third parties for electronic transactions.

Introducing a Third Dimension in Information Systems Design: The Case for Incentive Alignment

Prior research has generated considerable knowledge on information systems design from software engineering and user-acceptance perspectives. As organizational processes are increasingly embedded within information systems, one of the key considerations of many business processes — organizational incentives — should become an important dimension of any information systems design and evaluation, which we categorize as the third dimension: incentive alignment. Incentive issues have become important in many IS areas, including distributed decision support systems (DSS), knowledge management, and e-business supply chain coordination. In this paper we outline why incentives are important in each of these areas and specify requirements for designing incentive-aligned information systems. We identify and define important unresolved problems along the incentive-alignment dimension of information systems and present a research agenda to address them.

Price competition in e-tailing under service and recognition differentiation

The Internet has significantly increased the bargaining power of consumers. Many online shopping search engines allow consumers to find most retailers that sell a specific product, compare product prices, and review detailed store ratings. With competition just a click away, online retailers have little control over where consumers would shop. Offering the lowest price alone does not always guarantee that consumers will come and buy at your site. Other non-price attributes, such as service quality and a merchants brand recognition, also play important roles in helping online retailers to build competitive advantages. In this paper, we present a model of price competition that assumes e-tailers can mainly differentiate themselves by providing different levels of service and by establishing a different online recognition. Closed-form equilibrium solutions are obtained for the different scenarios that may arise in this model. Based on such solutions, we give managerial insights on how e-tailers should position themselves when parameters such as service cost, service levels, and recognition are varied.