Title: The implications of forecast accuracy on the benefits of online auctions in business-to-business and business-to-consumer environments

Authors: Tim Baker, Nagesh N. Murthy

Addresses: Department of Management and Operations, Washington State University, 2710 University Drive, CIC 125N, Richland, WA 99352–1671, USA. ' Decision Sciences Department, Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon, 468 Lillis Business Complex, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

Abstract: The internet is providing firms with an increased opportunity to use auctions as a price discovery mechanism for disposing surplus assets in both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) environments. While numerous papers have focused on the savings that are attained by electronic auctions vis-a-vis conventional (non-internet-based) procurement practices in B2B environments, few have offered economic intuition or empirical evidence to gauge the performance of the new price distribution channels available to a seller firm that is ready to exploit the internet in B2B or B2C environment. We develop a stochastic model to compare the expected performance of an online auction approach relative to a fixed (posted or listed) price approach in the presence of the forecast errors that are associated with traffic intensity and the variance in customers| willingness-to-pay.

Keywords: pricing; internet auctions; forecasting errors; forecast accuracy; online auctions; business-to-business; B2B; business-to-consumer; B2C; electronic auctions; price distribution channels; stochastic modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2009.024149

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2009 Vol.5 No.3, pp.299 - 325

Published online: 27 Mar 2009 *

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