Timm Teubner

The Economics of Multi-Hop Ride Sharing

Ride sharing allows to share costs of traveling by car, e.g., for fuel or highway tolls. Furthermore, it reduces congestion and emissions by making better use of vehicle capacities. Ride sharing is hence beneficial for drivers, riders, as well as society. While the concept has existed for decades, ubiquity of digital and mobile technology and user habituation to peer-to-peer services and electronic markets have resulted in particular growth in recent years. This paper explores the novel idea of multi-hop ride sharing and illustrates how information systems can leverage its potential. Based on empirical ride sharing data, we provide a quantitative analysis of the structure and the economics of electronic ride sharing markets. We explore the potential and competitiveness of multi-hop ride sharing and analyze its implications for platform operators. We find that multi-hop ride sharing proves competitive against other modes of transportation and has the potential to greatly increase ride availability and city connectedness, especially under high reliability requirements. To fully realize this potential, platform operators should implement multi-hop search, assume active control of pricing and booking processes, improve coordination of transfers, enhance data services, and try to expand their market share.

Trust in the Sharing Economy

Trust has been in the focus of research on business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in the last decade. The rise of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) markets in the context of the sharing economy, however, has posed new challenges and questions regarding the dimensionality and role of trust in online transactions. We outline a conceptual research model for the role of trust with regard to the consumers’ and suppliers’ intentions to engage in this economy. Our model differentiates between three substantial targets of trust, that is, trust towards peer, platform, and product (3P). We propose and evaluate a questionnaire, which addresses these targets in their dimensions ability, integrity, and benevolence.

Price Determinants on Airbnb: How Reputation Pays Off in the Sharing Economy

Trust is a crucial prerequisite for peer-to-peer rental and sharing. Therefore, platform operators such as Airbnb have implemented a plethora of trustbuilding mechanisms, user interface (UI) artefacts, and reputation systems. While the role of reputation systems for establishing trust is well-understood, little is known about how reputation actually translates into tangible economic value, either by attracting more demand or by enabling the enforcement of higher prices. In this paper, we consider the economic value of trust-building artefacts on Airbnb by quantifying price effects of common reputation features from a signaling theory perspective. Our analysis is based on hedonic price modeling and a large-scale dataset from 86 German cities that provides insights in the price effects of a diverse set of variables (average rating score, number of ratings, Superhost status, ID verification, photos, and duration of membership). Employing hedonic price regression modeling, we find that index signals such as the hosts’ rating scores and duration of membership are associated with economic value. Moreover, also conventional signals such as accommodation photographs consistently translate into price premiums. We discuss implications for platform operators, users, and the general design of Information Systems (IS) artefacts intended to facilitate peer-to-peer platform interactions.

Understanding resource sharing in C2C platforms: the role of picture humanization

Sharing spare resources on customer to customer (C2C) web platforms yields economic advantages for users on both supply and demand sides. It also increases resource efficiency by enabling better utilization patterns, which in turn provides societal and environmental benefits. Establishing trust among users is a key factor in facilitating the sharing of resources in such platforms. Among other methods, the use of profile pictures has proven to increase trust in peer-to-peer interactions. However, this comes at a considerable cost of privacy. In this study, we compare different levels of user representations (i.e. picture humanization) in a lab experiment involving 216 users and analyze their effect on users’ sharing behaviour on a C2C platform. Our results indicate that an increased level of picture humanization increases users’ perception of social presence and decreases their perception of anonymity. In turn, perceived anonymity has a marginal negative impact on users’ sharing behaviour while perceived social presence impacts positively users’ sharing behaviour through a path that involves trust and perceived reciprocity.

The limits of trust-free systems : A literature review on blockchain technology and trust in the sharing economy

Abstract At the tip of the hype cycle, trust-free systems based on blockchain technology promise to revolutionize interactions between peers that require high degrees of trust, usually facilitated by third party providers. Peer-to-peer platforms for resource sharing represent a frequently discussed field of application for “trust-free” blockchain technology. However, trust between peers plays a crucial and complex role in virtually all sharing economy interactions. In this article, we hence shed light on how these conflicting notions may be resolved and explore the potential of blockchain technology for dissolving the issue of trust in the sharing economy. By means of a dual literature review we find that 1) the conceptualization of trust differs substantially between the contexts of blockchain and the sharing economy, 2) blockchain technology is to some degree suitable to replace trust in platform providers, and that 3) trust-free systems are hardly transferable to sharing economy interactions and will crucially depend on the development of trusted interfaces for blockchain-based sharing economy ecosystems.

Think, feel, bid: the impact of environmental conditions on the role of bidders’ cognitive and affective processes in auction bidding

Environmental conditions and the interplay of cognitive and affective processes both exert influences on bidding behavior. This paper brings the above together, considering how the (external) auction environment determines the impact of (internal) cognitive and affective processes on bidding behavior, assessed in comparison to the optimal bid. Two aspects of the auction environment were considered, namely auction dynamics (low: first-price sealed-bid auction, high: Dutch auction) and value uncertainty (low, high). In a laboratory experiment, we assess bidders’ cognitive workload and emotional arousal through physiological measurements. We find that higher auction dynamics increase the impact of emotional arousal on bid deviations, but not that of cognitive workload. Higher value uncertainty, conversely, increases the impact of cognitive workload on bid deviations, but not that of emotional arousal. Taken together, the auction environment is a critical factor in understanding the nature of the underlying decision process and its impact on bids.

Social Identity and Reciprocity in Online Gift Giving Networks

Compared to traditional channels, Internet transactions are intrinsically untrustworthy in nature. We investigate the impact of social identity and reciprocity on trusting and cooperative behavior in dynamic gift giving networks by means of an online laboratory experiment, with a main focus on value transfers among the users individually and directed towards the group. In this study, we display profile pictures and full names of the experiment participants in order to abrogate anonymity. Moreover, we provide the possibility for private peer-to-peer interaction, in contrast to mere contributions to the entire, undifferentiated group. We find indications for the efficacy of both dimensions as well as for an interaction effect. Our study has implications for the design of information systems where mutual trust between private users forms the basis for market interaction (e.g. ride-, car or apartment sharing platforms).

Colors and Trust: The Influence of User Interface Design on Trust and Reciprocity

Interpersonal trust and reciprocation are crucial factors in peer-to-peer online interactions. In order to shed more light on the association of user interface (UI) design and trusting as well as reciprocating behavior, we consider a computerized trust game with different interface background colors, red and blue, namely. We locate our work within recent NeuroIS theory, linking UI background color to user behavior via perceived warmth of UIs and color appeal. The results of a laboratory experiment indicate an enhancing effect of red interfaces on reciprocation behavior, fully mediated by perceived warmth. We suggest to further investigate this phenomenon by applying NeuroIS methodology.

Bidding Behavior in Dutch Auctions: Insights from a Structured Literature Review

ABSTRACT The Dutch auction, also known as the descending-price auction or reverse clock auction, has a long-standing history in practice and in academic literature. In practice, the Dutch auction is commonly used to rapidly sell large quantities of homogeneous goods, such as cut flowers, fish, or tobacco. However, most e-commerce auction sites focus on other auction mechanisms, and overall research on human behavior in Dutch auctions is scant. To facilitate research on Dutch auctions and their applications in electronic commerce, we conduct a structured literature review of experimental studies and establish the current state of research on bidding behavior in single-unit and multi-unit Dutch auctions. The findings are based on an analysis of twenty-nine articles published in the fields of economics, information management, marketing, and operations research and management science between 1970 and 2016. This review reveals (1) the characteristics that make the Dutch auction unique compared to other auction formats, (2) the drivers of bidding behavior in Dutch auctions, and (3) an overview of how Dutch auctions can be employed in practice and to what advantage. Finally, we identify directions for future research on bidding behavior in Dutch auctions.

A Janus-faced matter—The role of user anonymity for communication persuasiveness in online discussions

Abstract Employees are increasingly involved in internal corporate discussion processes, often via online platforms. On such platforms, diverse opinions converge and controversial discussions may unfold. Anonymity is assumed to encourage reticent users to speak their mind and to allow for the expression of divergent views, but it has also been found to affect how arguments are received, including perceptions of credibility and, thus, persuasiveness. This paper considers how user anonymity affects communication persuasiveness in online discussions with both identified and anonymous treatment conditions. Drawing upon the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, we find that anonymity affects persuasiveness via the opposing paths of credibility and involvement