Evaluating electronic market designs: The effects of competitive arousal and social facilitation on electronic group buying

• Main Authors: Yu, Yuecheng, LANG, Karl R., PELAEZ, Alex
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2014
• Subjects: Experimental economics; competitive arousal; group buying; group coordination; social shopping.; Computer and Systems Architecture; Digital Communications and Networking
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/3940; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/4942/viewcontent/The_Effects_of_Competitive_Arousal_and_Social_Facilitation_on_Electronic_Group_Buying.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This article presents an evaluation approach foralternative electronic market designs and examines theimpact of competitive arousal under time pressure onmarket performance in a group-buying setting. Drawingon theory from economics, decision theory, andinformation systems, we present a competitive arousalmodel for a social buying setting that posits thatintroducing competitive arousal among buyers reducesbuyer profits and that social facilitation can mitigate thesecosts through better task completion and time tocompletion rates. Using an economic experiment, wefound that rivalry has a negative effect on buyer profitsbut also that competitive arousal increases the efficiencyof social facilitation in terms of group formation. Wediscuss the implications of these results.