We consider the role of online dispute resolution (ex-post guarantees of supplier quality) when they are introduced in the presence of an online reputation system (an ex-ante informational mechanism), in the context of online service procurement platforms. We argue that dispute resolution will...

Online referral systems help firms attract new customers and expand their customer base by leveraging the social relationships of existing customers. We integrate ultimatum game theory, which focuses on fairness, with motivation theories to investigate the effects of social distance and monetary...

In hopes of motivating consumers to provide larger volumes of useful reviews, many retailers offer financial incentives. Here, we explore an alternative approach, social norms, wherein we inform people about the volume of reviews authored by peers. We test the effectiveness of using financial...

This paper investigates how IT-enabled monitoring systems mitigate moral hazard in an online labor market and their effect on market competition. We exploit a quasi-experiment at Freelancer when it introduced enhanced offline tracking features in 2015. Using a large dataset including 17,827...

Sharing economy, which leverages information technology to re-distribute unused or underutilized assets to people who are willing to pay for the services, has received tremendous attention in the last few years. Its creative business model has disrupted many traditional industries (e.g.,...

Online labor markets, two-sided platforms that match buyers with freelancers for IT services, have become increasingly important for sourcing labor and creating jobs around the globe. However, matching buyers and freelancers is challenging, largely because of the difficulty in pricing...

Technology in general and the Internet in particular have often been seen as the “great equalizer” in that it provides a level playing field for all individuals in the society in terms of competing for social and economic opportunities. However, technology philosophers such as Andrew...