Seller Reputation

Seller Reputation introduces a unifying framework that embeds a number of different approaches to seller reputation, incorporating both hidden information and hidden action. This framework is used to stress that the way in which consumers learn affects both behavior and outcomes. In particular, the extent to which information is generated and socially aggregated determines the efficiency of markets. After reviewing these theoretical building blocks, Seller Reputation examines several applications and empirical concerns. It highlights that the environment in which a transaction is embedded helps determine whether the transaction will occur and how parties will behave. Institutions, ranging from the design of online markets to norms in a community, can be understood as ensuring that concerns for reputation lead to more efficient outcomes. Similarly, the desire to affect consumer beliefs regarding the firm's incentives can help us understand strategic firm decisions that seem unrelated to the particular transactions they wish to promote. Seller Reputation concludes by considering slightly different models of reputation that lie beyond the scope of this framework, briefly reviewing the somewhat sparse empirical literature and suggesting future directions for research.

If you've bought or sold items through eBay, or through hundreds of other online sites, then you're familiar with PayPal, the online payment service. With PayPal, a valid email address, and a credit card or bank account, you can easily send and receive payments online. Not a bank or financial institution itself, PayPal describes its service as one that builds on the financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards, and using advanced propriety fraud prevention systems, creates a safe, global, real-time payment solution. Put simply, PayPal provides the means for people to conduct financial transactions online, instantly and securely.But there's more to PayPal than meets the eye. PayPal Hacks shows you how to make the most of PayPal to get the most out of your online business or transactions. Authors Shannon Sofield of Payloadz.com and PayPal evangelist David Nielsen guide you through the rigors of using and developing with PayPal. Whether you're building an ecommerce site using PayPal as a transaction provider, or simply trying to pay for an eBay auction without getting burned, PayPal Hacks will give you the skinny on this leading global online payment service.The collection of tips and tricks in PayPal Hacks shows you how to find or even build the right tools for using PayPal to buy and sell on eBay or as a transaction provider for ecommerce on your own site. Written for all PayPal users, from those just starting out to those developing sophisticated ecommerce sites, this book begins with the basics such as setting up your account, then moves quickly into specific tips and tools for buyers, sellers, and developers.With PayPal Hacks, you can: Learn extra steps to help protect yourself while buying or selling on eBay Save time and money with advanced tips and undocumented features Learn dozens of easy-to-follow procedures to help you request and receive payments and fill orders Use PayPal to handle subscriptions, affiliate systems, and donations Create and customize your customers' checkout process Effortlessly integrate PayPal's shopping cart system into your own website Implement digital fulfillment with Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and Payment Data Transfer (PDT) Develop and distribute ecommerce applications with the PayPal API Each hack consists of a task to be accomplished or a creative solution to a problem, presented in a clear, logical, and task-oriented format. PayPal Hacks provides the tools and details necessary to make PayPal more profitable, more flexible, and more convenient.

Computational Trust Models and Machine Learning provides a detailed introduction to the concept of trust and its application in various computer science areas, including multi-agent systems, online social networks, and communication systems. Identifying trust modeling challenges that cannot be addressed by traditional approaches, this book: Explains how reputation-based systems are used to determine trust in diverse online communities Describes how machine learning techniques are employed to build robust reputation systems Explores two distinctive approaches to determining credibility of resources—one where the human role is implicit, and one that leverages human input explicitly Shows how decision support can be facilitated by computational trust models Discusses collaborative filtering-based trust aware recommendation systems Defines a framework for translating a trust modeling problem into a learning problem Investigates the objectivity of human feedback, emphasizing the need to filter out outlying opinions Computational Trust Models and Machine Learning effectively demonstrates how novel machine learning techniques can improve the accuracy of trust assessment.

Industrial Organization: Markets and Strategies provides an up-to-date account of modern industrial organization that blends theory with real-world applications. Written in a clear and accessible style, it acquaints the reader with the most important models for understanding strategies chosen by firms with market power and shows how such firms adapt to different market environments. It covers a wide range of topics including recent developments on product bundling, branding strategies, restrictions in vertical supply relationships, intellectual property protection, and two-sided markets, to name just a few. Models are presented in detail and the main results are summarized as lessons. Formal theory is complemented throughout by real-world cases that show students how it applies to actual organizational settings. The book is accompanied by a website containing a number of additional resources for lecturers and students, including exercises, answers to review questions, case material and slides.

The first book on platforms that concisely incorporates path-breaking insights in economics over the last twenty years.

With the rise of the Internet, many pundits predicted that middlemen would disappear. But that hasn't happened. Far from killing the middleman, the Internet has generated a thriving new breed. In The Middleman Economy , Silicon Valley-based reporter Marina Krakovsky elucidates the six essential roles that middlemen play.

Trustworthiness technologies and systems for service-oriented environments are re-shaping the world of e-business. By building trust relationships and establishing trustworthiness and reputation ratings, service providers and organizations will improve customer service, business value and consumer confidence, and provide quality assessment and assurance for the customer in the networked economy. Trust and Reputation for Service-Oriented Environments is a complete tutorial on how to provide business intelligence for sellers, service providers, and manufacturers. In an accessible style, the authors show how the capture of consumer requirements and end-user opinions gives modern businesses the competitive advantage. Trust and Reputation for Service-Oriented Environments: Clarifies trust and security concepts, and defines trust, trust relationships, trustworthiness, reputation, reputation relationships, and trust and reputation models. Details trust and reputation ontologies and databases. Explores the dynamic nature of trust and reputation and how to manage them efficiently. Provides methodologies for trustworthiness measurement, reputation assessment and trustworthiness prediction. Evaluates current trust and reputation systems as employed by companies such as Yahoo, eBay, BizRate, Epinion and Amazon, etc. Gives ample illustrations and real world examples to help validate trust and reputation concepts and methodologies. Offers an accompanying website with lecture notes and PowerPoint slides. This text will give senior undergraduate and masters level students of IT, IS, computer science, computer engineering and business disciplines a full understanding of the concepts and issues involved in trust and reputation. Business providers, consumer watch-dogs and government organizations will find it an invaluable reference to establishing and maintaining trust in open, distributed, anonymous service-oriented network environments.

The law shapes behavior not only by imposing sanctions, but also by producing information on how powerful entities behave.