InterNeg Seminars

Thursday 10:20 AM, May 4, 2006
Room GM 300-24
J. Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal

Assessment of An Electronic Auction System: Beliefs about Usage, System and Institution on Intention to Use

Eva Chen and Ilka Weber (Concordia University and University of Karlsruhe)

Meet2trade is a generic electronic market platform that supports various auction protocols. Iit can potentially work in many different domains by providing adjusted protocols to meet the needs of participants in targeted segments of the market. Whether auction systems, such as Meet2trade, can enfold its potential depends on users’ perceptions. In information systems (IS) research, the technology acceptance model (TAM) has dominated the field in the assessment of user perceptions. Over the years, researchers have, on one hand, acknowledged the contribution made by in eliciting the two main beliefs governing the behavior to use an IS in an organizational setting.
     One particular characteristic of auction systems is the mechanism presiding over the exchange among participants. From an individual perspective, the institution influences beliefs on uncertainty and risk associated to employing the auction system to transact in the market. Therefore, the evaluation of auction systems must also include perceived measure of the institution shaping the exchange.
      In order to assess the behavioral intention to use auction systems, this study proposes an integrative model to relate not only the beliefs about behavior from TAM, but also beliefs from the institution (i.e., more specially, the regulative beliefs concerning the manner in which the auction awards the winner) and the technical aspects. As a means of measuring the proposed model, the research method consists of a laboratory experiment involving Meet2trade as a platform for implementing a second-price sealed-bid auction. Ninety subjects were recruited to participate in the experiment in a Western European university. The results serve to demonstrate the beliefs affecting intention to use and to advise market engineers on the technical aspects influencing users’ behavioral perceptions.

		Eva Chen, Ph.D. student Decision Sciences and MIS, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University. Eva's research interest is in negotiation systems design and use.				Ilka Weber, Ph.D. student, Information Management and Systems, Department of Economics and Business Engineering, University of Karlsruhe. Ilka's research interest is in internet auctions.
Virtual seminar

For more information contact: Ms. Norma Paradis (nparadis-AT-jmsb.concordia.ca; replacing -AT- with @)