Reputation systems aim at facilitating the emergence of trust between transaction partners in online auction marketplaces. In this paper the reputation systems of the six largest online auction marketplaces in the German market are evaluated. To this end, a catalogue of criteria regarding design options for reputation systems was developed. Since eBay is widely criticized for shortcomings of its reputation system, it was assumed that its five competitors have a vital interest in distinguishing themselves in this important aspect of auction platform design. The results of the empirical analysis however point to the contrary. Reputation systems largely show a dominant design with only marginal deviations in detail. The reasons for this, the actual differences between the reputation systems, as well as general limitations of reputation systems are discussed.
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