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This paper aims to adapt Simons’ (1995b) theory of the role of information technology (IT) in shaping and facilitating the levers of control (i.e. the Levers of Control Applied to Information Technology – LOCaIT) as a framework for investigating how eBay’s business strategy was realized through its management control system (MCS) in the first 10 years of the online auction market.

The qualitative method uses data from public record interviews, teaching cases, books, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other archival sources to longitudinally trace the realization of eBay’s strategy through its MCS and IT.

Realizing its strategy through the eBay MCS necessitated a diagnostic control system unlike any previously seen. This system created a close-knit online community and enabled buyers and sellers to monitor one another’s performance and trustworthiness.

The LOCaIT theory facilitated understanding the core aspects of the realization of eBay’s strategy through its MCS and IT. However, LOCaIT largely omits the strong linkages evident among elements of the MCS, the importance and necessity of building a core IT infrastructure to support eBay’s strategy and the central role of building consumer trust in the realization of this strategy.

eBay’s MCS is now, perhaps, the world’s most widely imitated model for creating online trust and user interactions (e.g. Yelp, TripAdvisor, Amazon). In addition, eBay’s MCS was “sold” as a consumer product that was instrumental in facilitating consumer trust in the online auction market.

Contributions include: tracing the creation, growth and evolution of, perhaps, the world’s largest and most widely imitated MCS, which redefined the boundaries of accounting systems monitoring; and testing the range, usefulness and limitations of Simons’ LOCaIT theory as a lens for understanding eBay’s use of IT in their MCS.

To study the strategies of eBay as it moves on from its now “traditional” online market for the masses to extend its expertise into areas such as business to business. The paper also considers online trading in general.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Amanda Aldridge notes that, as well as being an online auction, eBay is increasingly acting as a shop‐front for new goods sold by professional retailers at fixed prices. She recommends that retailers start selling small batches of goods on eBay and to consider how to integrate this with their existing multi‐channel strategies. Glenn Baker warns that, with the fragmentation of traditional marketing media and the rise of the Internet, any company without an e‐marketing strategy may fall by the wayside. Dhruv Grewal et al. suggest that although online retailing started out as a separate retail format, it has now become part of a multi‐channel strategy. They list, and explain, various limiters and enablers to Internet retailing growth. Ralph A. Oliva says that some of the benefits and innovations being brought to individual customers by eBay are now available to small businesses, and that eBay is creating a new marketplace for the sort of things small businesses need. Growth to service bigger industries is a distinct possibility.

Offers advice to businesses which have not yet taken the “online plunge” that they might be wise to test the water, accepting it as just another channel for their goods.

In order to ensure the continuing expansion and success of electronic commerce, the issue of how to assess product quality of items sold over the Internet must be addressed. The formal literature of microeconomics presents a conceptual framework for this assessment that is applied in the case study presented in this paper. The type of transaction studied is online auction transactions conducted through the popular web site, eBay. Quality issues, as well as other sources of buyer dissatisfaction with electronic purchases, are addressed on eBay through a bulletin board style feedback system by which members of the eBay community may report on various aspects of their eBay transactions. eBay publishes the feedback ratings of each seller as a part of its listing of any item for sale and also disciplines sellers that accumulate too much negative feedback. This would seem to provide buyers with some degree of protection from sellers who are unscrupulous in their claims regarding product quality. The empirical work presented here examines the effectiveness of this system using logistic and ordinary least squares regression, and concludes that at least key aspects of the system offer adequate incentives to sellers to provide accurate representations to buyers regarding the quality of their merchandise.

Using data relating to eBay transactions, investigates the economic, demographic, and geographic factors affecting willingness to pay for purchases online.

Carries out regression analysis of 3,386 eBay transactions, over a two‐year period, reported by two American sellers operating on the United States eBay site. In all auctions examined, consumers had the option of making payment online or by various traditional payment methods.

Analysis identifies several variables as reasonable predictors of the chosen payment method, including the value of the transaction, the buyer's gender, rural versus urban residence, and several other characteristics of the community in which the buyer lives.

The general demographic, geographic, and economic variables of consumers can be used by researchers and planners to predict consumers' willingness to make online payments. The effect of income demands further investigation. Factors not identified – such as consumer personality and ethnicity or product category – might also influence this form of online consumer behaviour. The study is restricted to online consumer auction transactions in one country only.

Uses a larger sample than most previous studies of eBay to identify general demographic, geographic, and economic characteristics of an American sample of eBay consumers, which act as predictors of willingness to make online payments for purchases. Can be a departure point for further research in other countries.

Research was undertaken to assess the level of fraud and precautions against fraud in Internet auctions. A trial run was also carried out of placing items for auction with eBay and then bidding for them. It is concluded that Internet auctions are severely disadvantaged in comparison to traditional auctions because of their inability to check the quality or provenance of items on offer. The attempts of Internet auction houses to prevent potential fraud have loopholes and can therefore be manipulated of the unscrupulous.The current checks Internet auction houses impose are therefore not enough to eradicate this growing problem. Recommendations are made to a number of di ¡erent stakeholders,such as the government and the auction industry.

The rise of the “new economy” has occurred in an incredibly short space of time. In just a decade we have seen the Internet grow from comparative obscurity into one of the most powerful business tools on the planet. But we have also seen the sting in the tail: the shattered promises, the lost investments and the countless company failures.

You're probably too busy getting the kinks out of your own supply chain to worry about your competitor's. But you should.

This paper aims to study how buyers' gender and risk proclivity, and the time remaining in an internet auction, influence whether buyers buy at fixed prices or bid.

The study is based on a simulated internet auction. Participants choose between bidding in an auction and buying at a fixed price. Data are analyzed using a logistic regression model. The results from the laboratory study are validated with data from eBay.com.

Female participants’ odds of choosing the buy‐it‐now (BIN) option are higher than their odds of bidding in an auction (BID) when less time is remaining in an auction. Contrarily, for males, when less time is remaining, BID is preferred over BIN. Unexpectedly, when substantial time is remaining, males have greater odds of choosing BIN over BID except when they are high risk‐seekers. Simulation results correspond closely with eBay data.

The paper shows that not only do gender differences manifest themselves in ways that are to be expected, such as females being more risk‐averse than males, but that competitiveness among males may lead to an uncharacteristic choice to buy at fixed prices if substantial time is remaining in an auction. Furthermore, the latent competitive nature of females is revealed by secondary research. Finally, the research validates laboratory results with field data to practice methodological triangulation.

A comparison of determinants of bidding versus buying at fixed prices is missing from the extant literature. The present study fills this gap.

It takes more than traditional value chain analysis to understand how companies create customer value in the electronic marketspace.

The need for reliable information for decision makers is a fundamental principle underlying the demand for audit and assurance services. Yet, individuals and companies often do not understand the value that users place on independent third‐party assurance. This paper aims to address this issue.

This paper uses the market for baseball cards to provide an empirical analysis of the value users associate with third‐party assurance services. Paired observations for baseball cards are identified on eBay; one with a third‐party assurance regarding its quality and one with only the seller's statement.

Comparative analysis indicates that bidders are willing to pay significantly more for the items when third‐party assurance was provided.

These findings indicate that third‐party assurance is valued by consumers, and where information asymmetry exists between buyer and seller, sellers should consider the use of third‐party assurance to increase sale price.