Abstract
In general, consumers with a limited order size can join a buying group to form economies of scale and enjoy more beneficial deals from suppliers. Researchers have shown such demand aggregation mechanisms can theoretically outperform a direct purchase at the retail price. Nevertheless, group buying mechanisms introduced into the Internet marketplace during late 90s turned out to be unsuccessful and were forced out of the market one after another. Given that waiting time (i.e. the time during which consumer demand is aggregated) is the primary parameter of a group buying mechanism, it is important to meticulously study its effects on the performance of group buying systems. This study provides a novel empirical analysis of the effects of waiting time on the financial return and the order fulfillment of group buying mechanisms. The results of this research clearly demonstrate the presence of a trade-off between these two performance factors. Furthermore, the results also highlight the negative effects of having an unbalanced waiting time (i.e. setting waiting time too short or too long) on the performance of group buying mechanisms.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technologies, 2009. WI-IAT '09. IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conferences on. Vol. 3 |
Editors | Paolo Boldi, Guiseppe Vizzari, Gabriella Pasi, Ricardo Baeza-Yates |
Place of Publication | Washington, DC, USA |
Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. |
Pages | 663-666 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780769538013 |
Publication status | Published - Sep 2009 |
Event | Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology - Volume 01 - Duration: 1 Sep 2009 → … |
Conference
Conference | Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology - Volume 01 |
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Period | 1/09/09 → … |
Keywords
- E-Commerce
- Web-based Business Models
- Group Buying
- Customer Coalition Formation