The Economics of E-Commerce

by Vulkan, Nir

• ISBN13: 9780691089065
• ISBN10: 069108906X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-10
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Only business models based on sound economic propositions will survive. This book provides professionals, investors, and MBA students the tools they need to evaluate the wide range of actual and potential e-commerce businesses at the microeconomic level. It demonstrates how these tools can be used to assess a variety of existing applications.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction and Overview	1	(10)
Part 1 Evaluating E-Commerce Applications
E-Commerce and the Tools of Economic Analysis	11	(11)
The Phenomenal Growth of E-Commerce	11	(3)
Why Use Economics to Analyze E-Commerce?	14	(7)
Key Issues	21	(1)
E-Commerce for Consumers	22	(37)
The Impact of E-Commerce on Prices and Product Offerings	22	(11)
Consumer Research and Comparison Shopping: The Economics of Search Costs	33	(7)
Individually Tailored Products and Prices: The Economics of Personalization	40	(13)
Consumer E-Commerce in Practice: The Waldo Experiment	53	(4)
Key Issues in Consumer E-Commerce	57	(2)
Business-to-business E-commerce	59	(34)
Types of B2B E-Commerce	59	(4)
Why Trade Online?	63	(3)
How Firms Choose the Most Profitable Way to Trade	66	(16)
B2B E-Commerce in Practice: Exostar	82	(8)
Key Issues for B2B E-Commerce	90	(3)
Part II Designing E-commerce Applications
E-Commerce and the Principles of Economic Engineering	93	(22)
The Motivation for Economic Engineering	94	(4)
Economic Design in Practice	98	(5)
Designing Incentives to Participate in the Market	103	(4)
Encouraging the ``Right'' Behavior	107	(5)
Putting the Design into Practice	112	(2)
Lessons for Designers of Market Mechanisms	114	(1)
One-to-one Trading: Direct Negotiations in E-commerce	115	(34)
One-to-One Negotiations Off- and Online	116	(5)
Designing Technologies for One-to-One Negotiations	121	(8)
The Importance of Context-Specific Design for E-Commerce	129	(5)
The Limits of Protocol Design for One-to-One Negotiations	134	(3)
Negotiations: E-commerce in Practice	137	(10)
Key Considerations for E-Commerce Negotiations	147	(2)
One-to-many Trading: Online Auctions	149	(30)
Types of Auction	150	(4)
Why Use Auctions?	154	(5)
General Principles of Auction Design	159	(6)
Designing Online Auctions: The Problem of Late Bidding	165	(6)
Additional Issues for Online Auction Designers	171	(6)
Key Considerations for Online Auctions	177	(2)
Many-to-many Electronic Exchanges	179	(30)
Introduction	179	(1)
What Can be Traded Through an Exchange?	180	(3)
How Do Exchanges Work?	183	(5)
What is Liquidity and Who Provides It?	188	(7)
Automation	195	(3)
Case Study	198	(7)
Key Consideration for E-commerce Exchanges	205	(4)
Bibliography	209	(4)
Index	213