A dollar for your thoughts: Feedback-conditional rebates on eBay

摘要

Feedback postings in terms of number and quality, especially from consumers, are an important determinant of a seller's success. In the present research work, the authors have tried to examine seller strategy for eliciting buyer feedback by providing buyers with a rebate conditional on rating the quality of their transaction. The rebate was provided as long as a feedback rating is left, regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative. A series of controlled field experiments were conducted on two eBay sellers who auction the same homogeneous good (a USB pen drive), was the experimental context. The hypotheses of the study rested on two hypotheses namely: 1.Homo economicus paradigm which implies that buyers are more likely to provide feedback when feedback is rewarded, to do so more quickly, and to bid higher in anticipation of a feedback reward, and 2.Homo reciprocus paradigm which implies that buyers are more likely to give favorable feedback (less negative, more positive) when sellers offer a feedback rebate or higher transaction quality. The results showed there is little evidence for the homo economicus paradigm and strong evidence for the homo reciprocus paradigm. When transaction quality is low, offering a rebate decreases the likelihood of a negative feedback message. Moreover, lowering transaction quality leads to a higher probability of negative feedback as well as speeding up of such negative feedback. (34 refs.)