CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION
5.2 Limitations and Future Research
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more important to sellers than previously thought. Sellers should not only care about their rating scores; clearly text comments are also important. Consumers are also becoming smarter and will search for information and compare every dimension of a product or service to choose the best seller. It is essential that sellers realize that the rating score is not the only index that influences sales. Sellers can also improve their products or services by reading buyers’ comments, which contain informative buyer feedback.
Buyer experience does moderate the relationship between seller manipulation and the percentage of positive ratings. Therefore, treating different customers in different ways may be effective for maintaining a good reputation. Sellers and buyers can communicate through applications such as the AliWangwang instant messenger on Taobao.com, and sellers should utilize these applications to distinguish between different buyers. Overall, the results of this study add to our knowledge of evaluation systems, especially with regard to the interaction between sellers and buyers and the influence of seller manipulation.
5.2 Limitations and Future Research
Although this study has made some important and interesting findings, it has several limitations. The main limitation is that the coders were recruited in Taiwan, whereas most
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shoppers on Taobao.com are based in China. Nonetheless, shoppers in Taiwan are not unfamiliar with Taobao.com and use the same language, Mandarin. In this regard, the potential bias is limited. However, cultural differences do exist, and thus it would be interesting to compare the results of coders from both Taiwan and China. It would also be interesting to use a case study approach to enrich our understanding of why different types of manipulation affect buyers of different online shopping experience differently. Another limitation is that the gender of the coders was not balanced, as there were many more females than males. Further, to make the research more comprehensive and precise, greater amounts of seller evaluation data and coders would be needed. With ample time and sufficient budget, this can be feasible, as Taobao.com has a huge market of more than a hundred million users and products.
The last limitation relates to the analysis method used to test the hypotheses. Initially, MANOVA was selected as the best choice to test the whole model and the hypotheses.
However, Levene’s test of homogeneity was significant, thereby violating the assumption of the equivalence of the covariance matrices across groups. As a result, the MANOVA test was replaced with a two-way ANOVA and the model was examined separately in two parts, one for percentage of ratings and the other for comment orientation. However, this may
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have resulted in doubling the 5% probability of error when the confidence level was set at 95%. This possibility should be noted and the results interpreted with caution.
Online evaluation systems have and continue to play an important role in the development of e-commerce. Researchers and practitioners have long been curious about the trustworthiness of evaluation systems. Seller manipulation is central to this issue. Thus, this study is both timely and pioneering. The type of seller manipulation considered in this study is the intentional posting of reminders by sellers. The results of this study should improve our understanding of how buyers and sellers respond to the mechanisms of evaluation systems, and subsequently contribute to more comprehensive and sophisticated designs of online evaluation systems.
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marketplaces provide reputation systems to collect buyers’ feedback, and buyers usually like to post comments after purchasing from sellers. Buyers’ feedback on sellers’ online reputations provide a reference for others. Therefore, some sellers try to manipulate buyers’comments. This manipulating behavior influences the credibility of buyers’ comments.
This is an academic research project. The results of the questionnaire will be used to examine the effects of trying to influence buyers’ comments on sellers’ online reputations.
Have you ever purchasing online?
Yes No
---Part A: Demographic data
1. Nationality: Taiwan China Other:______
2. Gender: Female Male
3. Age: 15~20 21~25 26~30 31~35 36~40 41~45 46~50 51~55
56 and above
4. Education level: under junior high school junior high school senior high school college bachelor master PhD
Part B: online shopping experience 1. Experience of using Internet:
0~3years 4~7years 8~11years 12~15yearsmore than 15 years 2. Experience of online purchasing:
0~3years 4~7years 8~11years 12~15yearsmore than 15 years
3. Have you ever purchasing on Taobao.com? If yes, then for how many years have you used the site?
No
under 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years 6 years7 years 8 years more than 9 years
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5. Have you ever browsed the evaluation page of Taobao.com? (Evaluation page including seller evaluations and product evaluations)
6. Which website to you mostly use to purchase goods? (Region of Greater China)
Taobao.com Yahoo! Auction PC Home Tmall.com 360buy.com
others:_________________
7. Do you take notice of reputation scores and comments when purchasing on C2C websites? No Only rating scores Only comments Both
8. Have you ever browsed forums or websites about online shopping?
No
PTT e-shopping meilishuo.com(美丽说)mogujie.com(蘑菇 街)Mobile01others:_________
9. Do you search for information online before purchasing?
Yes No
Part C: Orientation of comment
Please answer the following questions according to the reputation comments.
Answer each item using the seven-level scale (1: strongly disagree, 7: strongly agree) According to the comments, I can feel…
Service quality
1. The seller acted sincerely in dealing with buyers.
2. The seller has the ability to handle the transaction in the expected manner.
3. The seller has adequate knowledge to handle inquiries and manage transactions.
4. The seller has sufficient expertise and resources to complete the transaction.
5. The seller responds quickly.
6. The seller performs consistently over time.
7. The seller treats buyers with respect.
Information quality
1. The sellers provide reliable information on the merchandise page 2. The seller is unlikely to make a false claim.
3. The seller keeps promises and commitments.
4. The seller gives honest advice and information to buyers who have questions.
Product quality
1. The product is worth the price.
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2. The product is good.
3. The product is most likely going to be of high quality.
4. The performance of the product is good.
(Performance refers to the primary operating characteristics of a product)
5. The quality of the product is much higher than average.
Satisfaction
1. The comments are positive.
2. The seller wants to have good feedback ratings.
3. Buyers are very satisfied
The seller intends to build a good relationship with every buyer.
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是 否
8. 請問您是否有在淘寶網上購物的經驗
1 年以下 2 年 3 年 4 年 5 年 6 年 7 年 8 年 9 年以上
我未曾在淘寶網上購物
9. 請問您是否為淘寶網賣家 是 否
10. 請問您最常前往購物的網站為何(大中華地區)
淘寶網(Taobao.com) 雅虎拍賣(Yahoo!Auction) PC Home
天貓網(Tmall.com) 360buy.com 其他:_______
11. 請問您在 C2C 類型購物網站購物時，是否會注意或閱讀評價
否 只注意評價分數 只閱讀評論內容評價分數與評論內容皆會閱讀 12. 請問您是否會瀏覽網路購物相關網站或論壇，請選出最常瀏覽的網站
否 PTT e-shopping 蘑菇街 美麗說 mobile01 其他:_______
13. 請問您購物前是否會先上網搜尋相關資訊 是 否
14. 抽獎聯絡用 email:_________________________________________
(如欲參加抽獎，請留下 email)
再次感謝 您用心填寫此問卷！
敬祝
平安快樂，萬事如意！
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