The value of online seller reputation: evidence from a price comparison site

This paper examines the value of seller reputation for e-retailers trading via a price comparison site (PCS). E-markets are widely held to accommodate sellers of differing service quality, including some who behave opportunistically. The paper uses a sample of offers on up to 295 digital cameras tra...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thompson, Stephen, Haynes, Michelle
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37583/
Description
Summary:This paper examines the value of seller reputation for e-retailers trading via a price comparison site (PCS). E-markets are widely held to accommodate sellers of differing service quality, including some who behave opportunistically. The paper uses a sample of offers on up to 295 digital cameras traded on a leading PCS, over a 134-day period to estimate reputation’s price impact. User-generated reputation measures have a significant impact in the expected direction. However, their magnitude is small compared to variables capturing economy-wide reputation. The strength of the reputation signal increased non-monotonically with the number of reviews on which it was based.