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More and more disputes have quickly emerged and accumulated, hence generating uncertainties and doubts among consumers regarding the online group-buying. In order to decrease such uncertainties, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among information disclosure, trust, reducing search cost, and online group-buying intention, as well as proposing concrete suggestions for enhancing online group-buying intention.

In order to explore the relationships among information disclosure, trust, reducing search cost, and online group-buying intention, the questionnaire and statistical analytical techniques were used. Moreover, as this study was an early attempt to develop a model for information disclosure, trust, reducing search cost, and online group-buying intention, partial least square therefore was appropriately to analyze data.

The results showed that the level of information disclosure and trust on a group-buying website have positive influence on reducing search costs, while reducing search costs and trust have positive influences on online group-buying intention.

This research applied a purposive sampling method and obtained a slightly inadequate number of respondents. Therefore, it is suggested that future research should apply a random sampling method to collect more responses and increase the generalizability of the findings.

By more actively disclosing information it is possible for group-buying websites to increase consumer trust and decrease search costs, thus enhancing their group-buying intentions.

There are few studies on the relationships among reducing search cost, trust, and group-buying intention from the perspective of information disclosure. This study thus applies a questionnaire survey method to explore the relationships among them. This study also offers concrete suggestions to enhance group-buying intentions, and provides marketing strategies that can be used by online group-buying websites to raise their sales.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the mechanisms through which Chinese National Science Parks' (NSPs) services facilitate returnee entrepreneurs' (REs) acquisition of resources for their new ventures. Resource acquisition is crucial for new ventures, but it inevitably leads to significant costs increase. Although the NSPs offer various services to REs to reduce these costs, they still struggle to find the right mix of services.

From the transaction cost's perspective, an exploratory multiple-case study was conducted with data collected from six NSPs in China.

The results reveal that four types of NSP services (mentoring and training, social event, promotion of REs and accreditation of resource holders (RHs)) have both individual and joint effects on reducing REs' resource acquisition costs. Specifically, the “accreditation of RHs” service directly helps REs reduce search costs. The combination of “accreditation of RHs”, “promotion of REs” and “social event” services help REs and RHs to establish guanxi. Further, guanxi, working along with the “mentoring and training” service, helps REs to reduce contracting, monitoring and enforcement costs.

This study is among the first to explore the matching mechanisms between science parks’ services and entrepreneurs' cost reduction. This helps reconcile the inconsistent findings on science parks' effect by explaining why some NSPs are able to provide strong support to REs while others are less successful. In addition, the findings are useful for NSPs to develop the right mix of tailored services for REs. Finally, REs will find this study useful to evaluate which NSP is a more suitable location for their new ventures.

This paper aims to study the direct and indirect influence of three important intangible resources: export knowledge, negotiation skills and specialisation and trustworthiness on export intermediary performance via the competence to reduce clients’ transaction costs.

The study has been provided with the official database of export intermediary firms by the Department of Export Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. The samples of 400 export intermediary firms were identified from the 1,486 population firms. The postal questionnaires were sent to sample firms. Ordinary least square regression analysis has been adopted to test the hypotheses of the study.

The results indicate that valuable resources of export knowledge, negotiation skills and specialisation and trustworthiness significantly and positively affect both export intermediary performance and the competence to reduce clients’ transaction costs. The competence to reduce clients’ transaction costs partially mediates the relationship between resources and export intermediary performance.

A “cost-based” perspective needs to be supplemented in future research with a more behavioural approach.

Export intermediaries must be able to deliver “true added value” to remain a viable organisational form, hence, the intermediaries need ceaselessly to acquire, utilise and develop resources and capabilities in reducing clients’ export-related transaction costs.

From a public policy perspective, gaining more knowledge about the role of export intermediaries can greatly facilitate the export promotion efforts in which most nations’ governments are involved.

This study is a first attempt to study the mediating effect of the competence to reduce transaction costs, which mediates the relationship between resources and performance of export intermediary.

An increasing interest in consumer behavior online is the investigation of their price search activities. Most empirical evidence from Internet shopping literature suggests through reducing search cost, that the Internet will increase consumer price search and intensify price competition. This paper develops a conceptual model and a set of propositions to explain the main factors influencing online price search. Specifically, this model integrates the psychological search literature under the context of online environment by incorporating ability and cost to search for information into “perceived search efficiency”, and the factors that center on the perceived benefits and motivation of price search are investigated as well.

Marketing channels are changing dramatically as the world economy becomes networked. Buyers who are likely to only have limited insight into a wholesaler's sourcing decisions may be uncertain about product and/or service quality. This paper aims to show that a credible quality signal provided by the wholesaler, the wholesale brand, can effectively reduce buyer uncertainty.

Using structural equation modelling methodology in the context of 569 buyers across 52 locations of a home improvement wholesaler the authors investigate the key mediating role of transaction costs for the effect of wholesale brand knowledge on buyer loyalty.

The results suggest that wholesaler brand knowledge effectively reduces ex‐post transaction costs incurred by the buyer. These lower quality control costs and price verification efforts increase buyer loyalty. Interestingly, however, the data show that this bonding effect of the wholesale brand may not affect buyer search costs.

The research on the role of supplier brands for supply network management is an early effort. Clearly more research is needed to fully explore the role of wholesale brand knowledge for wholesaler selection.

The findings are important to marketing channel managers because they provide a viable alternative to ever‐increasing relationship marketing costs. They suggest that a close wholesaler‐retailer relationship may not be necessary to realize the benefits of a trusting exchange environment. In fact, they show that high wholesale brand knowledge may act as a substitute and reduce uncertainty effectively.

This paper is the first to introduce a transaction cost perspective on the relationship between wholesale brand knowledge and wholesale loyalty. It demonstrates how wholesale brand knowledge can reduce uncertainty in the wholesaler‐retailer dyad and substitute for more costly relationship building efforts.

The progress of parallel computing in Information Retrieval (IR) is reviewed. In particular we stress the importance of the motivation in using parallel computing for text retrieval. We analyse parallel IR systems using a classification defined by Rasmussen and describe some parallel IR systems. We give a description of the retrieval models used in parallel information processing. We describe areas of research which we believe are needed.

The case for compulsory minimum standards in those cases where the consumer cannot readily assess the quality before purchase is examined. The most common justifications are reduction in search, reduction in risk for the consumer and monopoly profits for producers. The factors relevant to an appraisal are identified. It is shown that generalised conclusions are not possible because of the wide range of market conditions. It would appear likely that in many markets minimum standards which remove dangerous or useless items are cost effective, though basic consumer protection legislation does this for most products. They are also appropriate where costs are public rather than private. Increased levels of minimum standards are progressively less cost‐effective. Labelling can often be a superior alternative.

Historically, research shows that out-of-town buyers of real estate are informationally disadvantaged and therefore pay higher prices compared to in-town buyers. However, with the recent advent of online housing platforms, a plethora of information about the housing market is provided for free. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether out-of-town buyers do in fact pay a premium and why, and whether this premium has decreased because of better information availability.

A hedonic regression model over a ten-year window (2005, 2015) is developed to analyze condominium transactions in Miami-Dade County. The results are validated by various robustness checks and the propensity score matching algorithm to identify a comparable control sample for 2015 in terms of relevant housing characteristics.

The results support the hypothesis that out-of-town buyers pay higher prices for real estate, compared to their local counterparts, and that both search costs and anchoring cause a premium in both years, whereas wealth only plays a significant role in 2005. The premium because of search costs, and therefore, information availability has decreased slightly over time.

This is the first out-of-town paper that compares two points in time versus a single cross-section analysis. Besides the premium caused by information asymmetry/search costs measured by distance and the anchoring effect, the regression model is extended by the wealth effect.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the most important economic factors that determine choice of distribution channel when booking a tourism service. The theoretical framework applied to meet this objective is agency theory, as it provides insight into the effects arising from problems such as information asymmetries and opportunism.

The analysis of a sample composed of 805 tourists who made their reservation through either the internet or traditional channels has provided interesting conclusions, allowing different hypotheses to be contrasted using a structural equation analysis.

This study has shown how the main source of uncertainty in the stages leading up to the choice of purchase channel is due to a lack of trust towards the internet. In this regard, the signals emitted by firms in order to mitigate information asymmetries contribute to generating trust towards the selected firm; however, they neither reduce the risk differential existing between channels nor the associated transaction costs. In addition, trust in the chosen firm shows that the buyer makes the reservation through the channel with the least perceived risk.

The research has underlined that the greater the differential in transaction costs between the internet and the traditional channels, the greater the propensity of buyers to make their purchases through alternative distribution channels. In addition, clients perceive greater internet transaction costs with respect to the traditional channels, a fact that may be contrasted with the purpose behind its creation.

The differences between the information provided by economic agents and the information that is requested by the client reveal a need for greater awareness among those offering the services, in order for them to improve the way in which they target the consumer, especially in relation to the management of information flows. Furthermore, steps should be taken to improve internet security systems and undertake joint actions that are formalised and coordinated by all of the agents involved so that clients perceive internet as a secure channel. Finally, internet‐related skills should be developed to allow the consumer to search for information in a more efficient way.

The study deals with a recent line of new research. It is also performed in the context of Mediterranean countries, which represents a further important contribution, given that very few empirical studies focus on this geographical region.