IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v29y2010i6p1152-1164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Search and Choice in Online Consumer Auctions

Author

Listed:
  • Ernan Haruvy

    (School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080)

  • Peter T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc

    (Marketing Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6, Canada)

Abstract

Price dispersion in simultaneous online auctions is a puzzle in light of the relatively low search costs required to find the lower price. Much of this price dispersion appears to be due to a lack of switching by bidders between auctions, which in turn could be due to inertia related to search costs. We identify some of the influencing factors through a controlled field experiment involving pairs of simultaneous auctions. Keeping the sellers and the goods sold identical between two auctions, we vary auction design features between and within pairs including shipping cost, open reserve, secret reserve price, and duration, and we provide bidders with incentives to search. We use a choice model that examines individual choice between pairs of simultaneous auctions. We find that within-pair price dispersion is substantial and that prices and auction choice by bidders are indeed related to search costs. We find strong inertia in auction choice and find that this effect significantly interacts with time left in the auction. Although individuals do not always choose a lower-priced auction, they are more likely to do so when search costs are low or search incentives are high.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernan Haruvy & Peter T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc, 2010. "Search and Choice in Online Consumer Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1152-1164, 11-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:29:y:2010:i:6:p:1152-1164
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1100.0601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1100.0601
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.1100.0601?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sándor, Zsolt & Train, Kenneth, 2004. "Quasi-random simulation of discrete choice models," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 313-327, May.
    2. Hossain Tanjim & Morgan John, 2006. "...Plus Shipping and Handling: Revenue (Non) Equivalence in Field Experiments on eBay," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-30, January.
    3. Bhat, Chandra R., 2001. "Quasi-random maximum simulated likelihood estimation of the mixed multinomial logit model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 677-693, August.
    4. Peters, Michael & Severinov, Sergei, 2006. "Internet auctions with many traders," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 220-245, September.
    5. David H. Reiley, 2006. "Field experiments on the effects of reserve prices in auctions: more Magic on the Internet," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 195-211, March.
    6. Ernan Haruvy & Peter T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc, 2010. "The Impact of Online Auction Duration," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 99-106, March.
    7. Bernard Elyakime & Jean-Jacques Laffont & Patrice Loisel & Quang Vuong, 1994. "First-Price Sealed-Bid Auctions with Secret Reservation Prices," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 34, pages 71-114.
    8. Jean-Pierre Dubé & Günter J. Hitsch & Peter E. Rossi & Maria Ana Vitorino, 2008. "Category Pricing with State-Dependent Utility," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 417-429, 05-06.
    9. Anwar, Sajid & McMillan, Robert & Zheng, Mingli, 2006. "Bidding behavior in competing auctions: Evidence from eBay," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 307-322, February.
    10. Alvin E. Roth & Axel Ockenfels, 2002. "Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1093-1103, September.
    11. J. Yannis Bakos, 1997. "Reducing Buyer Search Costs: Implications for Electronic Marketplaces," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(12), pages 1676-1692, December.
    12. David Lucking‐Reiley & Doug Bryan & Naghi Prasad & Daniel Reeves, 2007. "Pennies From Ebay: The Determinants Of Price In Online Auctions," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 223-233, June.
    13. Dan Horsky & Sanjog Misra & Paul Nelson, 2006. "Observed and Unobserved Preference Heterogeneity in Brand-Choice Models," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 322-335, 07-08.
    14. Jean‐Pierre Dubé & Günter J. Hitsch & Peter E. Rossi, 2010. "State dependence and alternative explanations for consumer inertia," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(3), pages 417-445, September.
    15. Robert Zeithammer & Christopher Adams, 2010. "The Sealed-Bid Abstraction in Online Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 964-987, 11-12.
    16. Haruvy, Ernan & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2009. "Bidder motives in cause-related auctions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 324-331.
    17. Philip A. Haile & Elie Tamer, 2003. "Inference with an Incomplete Model of English Auctions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(1), pages 1-51, February.
    18. Randolph E. Bucklin & James M. Lattin, 1991. "A Two-State Model of Purchase Incidence and Brand Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(1), pages 24-39.
    19. Eric T. Bradlow & Young-Hoon Park, 2007. "Bayesian Estimation of Bid Sequences in Internet Auctions Using a Generalized Record-Breaking Model," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 218-229, 03-04.
    20. repec:adr:anecst:y:1994:i:34:p:04 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Wolfgang Jank & Galit Shmueli, 2007. "Modelling concurrency of events in on‐line auctions via spatiotemporal semiparametric models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 56(1), pages 1-27, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anwar, Sajid & Zheng, Mingli, 2015. "Posted price selling and online auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 81-92.
    2. Sander Onderstal, 2020. "Premium auctions in the field," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 24(1), pages 39-63, June.
    3. Hungria Gunnelin, Rosane, 2020. "Bidding strategies and winner’s curse in auctions of non-distressed residential real estate," Working Paper Series 20/13, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    4. Zhuang, Hejun & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Lin, Yuanfang, 2018. "Why is Price Dispersion Higher Online than Offline? The Impact of Retailer Type and Shopping Risk on Price Dispersion," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 136-153.
    5. Heczko, Alexander & Kittsteiner, Thomas & Ott, Marion, 2023. "The benefits of auctioneer competition: Merging auctions and adding auctioneers," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-038, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Han, Jidong & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Zhang, Zelin, 2021. "Empirical Analyses of Nonlinear Effects of Reserve Prices on Ending Prices in Online Auctions," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 86-102.
    7. Brünner, Tobias & Reiner, Jochen & Natter, Martin & Skiera, Bernd, 2019. "Prospect theory in a dynamic game: Theory and evidence from online pay-per-bid auctions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 215-234.
    8. Haruvy, Ernan & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2016. "Measuring the Impact of Price Guarantees on Bidding in Consumer Online Auctions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 96-108.
    9. Backus, Matthew R. & Podwol, Joseph Uri & Schneider, Henry S., 2014. "Search costs and equilibrium price dispersion in auction markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 173-192.
    10. Bruce L. Alford & Otis W. Gilley & Charles M. Wood & Obinna Obilo, 2017. "“No sale” items in auctions: do they really matter?," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 155-168, March.
    11. Zakonnik Łukasz & Czerwonka Piotr & Zajdel Radosław, 2022. "Online Auctions End Time and its Impact on Sales Success – Analysis of the Odds Ratio on a Selected Central European Market," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 22(2), pages 246-264, December.
    12. Ernan Haruvy & Boram Lim & Peter T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc, 2023. "The effect of surcharge on price in online auctions," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1161-1182, June.
    13. Kannan, P.K. & Li, Hongshuang “Alice”, 2017. "Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 22-45.
    14. Zhuang, Hejun & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2022. "Optimal seller strategy in overlapping auctions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Fedorenko, Ivan & Berthon, Pierre & Edelman, Linda, 2023. "Top secret: Integrating 20 years of research on secrecy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    16. Gökçe Esenduran & James A. Hill & In Joon Noh, 2020. "Understanding the Choice of Online Resale Channel for Used Electronics," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(5), pages 1188-1211, May.
    17. Spann, Martin & Häubl, Gerald & Skiera, Bernd & Bernhardt, Martin, 2012. "Bid-Elicitation Interfaces and Bidding Behavior in Retail Interactive Pricing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 131-144.
    18. Ronald Peeters & Martin Strobel & Dries Vermeulen & Markus Walzl, 2016. "The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions," Games, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-19, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin Hasker & Robin Sickles, 2010. "eBay in the Economic Literature: Analysis of an Auction Marketplace," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(1), pages 3-42, August.
    2. Wedad Elmaghraby & Anandasivam Gopal & Ali Pilehvar, 2012. "Reference Prices and Bidder Heterogeneity in Secondary Market Online B2B Auctions," Working Papers 12-06, NET Institute, revised Sep 2012.
    3. Martin Spann & Robert Zeithammer & Marco Bertini & Ernan Haruvy & Sandy D. Jap & Oded Koenigsberg & Vincent Mak & Peter Popkowski Leszczyc & Bernd Skiera & Manoj Thomas, 2018. "Beyond Posted Prices: the Past, Present, and Future of Participative Pricing Mechanisms," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 5(1), pages 121-136, March.
    4. Emma von Essen & Jonas Karlsson, 2019. "The effect of competition on discrimination in online markets—Anonymity and selection," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Wolfgang Jank & Shu Zhang, 2011. "An Automated and Data-Driven Bidding Strategy for Online Auctions," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 238-253, May.
    6. Ernan Haruvy & Peter Popkowski Leszczyc & Octavian Carare & James Cox & Eric Greenleaf & Wolfgang Jank & Sandy Jap & Young-Hoon Park & Michael Rothkopf, 2008. "Competition between auctions," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 431-448, December.
    7. Axel Ockenfels & David Reiley & Abdolkarim Sadrieh, 2006. "Online Auctions," NBER Working Papers 12785, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Marie BLUM & Régis BLAZY, 2021. "The three stages of an auction: how do the bid dynamics influence auction prices? Evidence from live art auctions," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2021-10, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    9. Taylor, Greg, 2012. "Defensive sniping and efficiency in simultaneous hard-close proxy auctions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 51-58.
    10. Han, Jidong & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Zhang, Zelin, 2021. "Empirical Analyses of Nonlinear Effects of Reserve Prices on Ending Prices in Online Auctions," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 86-102.
    11. Michael Waterson & Chris Doyle, 2012. "Your Call: eBay and Demand for the iPhone 4☆," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 141-152, February.
    12. Waterson, Michael & Doyle, Chris, 2010. "Your call: eBay and demand for the iPhone 4," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 949, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    13. Robert Zeithammer & Christopher Adams, 2010. "The Sealed-Bid Abstraction in Online Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 964-987, 11-12.
    14. Ali Pilehvar & Wedad J. Elmaghraby & Anandasivam Gopal, 2017. "Market Information and Bidder Heterogeneity in Secondary Market Online B2B Auctions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1493-1518, May.
    15. Jeffrey A. Livingston & Patrick A. Scholten, 2019. "The Effect of ID Verification in Online Markets: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(3), pages 595-615, May.
    16. Zhuang, Hejun & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L., 2022. "Optimal seller strategy in overlapping auctions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Jennifer Brown & John Morgan, 2009. "How Much Is a Dollar Worth? Tipping versus Equilibrium Coexistence on Competing Online Auction Sites," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(4), pages 668-700, August.
    18. Patrick Bajari & Ali Hortaçsu, 2004. "Economic Insights from Internet Auctions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(2), pages 457-486, June.
    19. Katkar Rama & Reiley David H, 2007. "Public versus Secret Reserve Prices in eBay Auctions: Results from a Pokémon Field Experiment," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-25, January.
    20. Damian R. Beil & Lawrence M. Wein, 2009. "A Pooling Analysis of Two Simultaneous Online Auctions," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(1), pages 33-51, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:29:y:2010:i:6:p:1152-1164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.