IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Prices on the Internet

Prices on the Internet
View Sample PDF
Author(s): Jihui Chen (Illinois State University, USA)
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 10
Source title: Encyclopedia of E-Business Development and Management in the Global Economy
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): In Lee (Western Illinois University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-611-7.ch004

Purchase

View Prices on the Internet on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

In the pre-Internet era, consumers relied on media such as Sunday newspapers and flyers for product and price information. Such a search process is time-consuming and unlikely to be exhaustive. Existence of incomplete information has been shown to lead to price dispersion (Stigler, 1961). Recent advances in information technology have dramatically changed the manner by which consumers and businesses gather and transmit information. With a few mouse-clicks, consumers are able to compare price information from a wide range of vendors. With the advent of the Internet, especially the introduction of price comparison sites or shopbots, competition among online retailers escalates and we might expect prices to converge in the new economy. However, substantially decreased transaction cost has apparently not led to online price convergence. An extensive literature on Internet pricing has documented persistent price dispersion in online markets. In this chapter, I review price dispersion and related literatures, and discuss future research directions.

Related Content

Emrah Arğın. © 2022. 16 pages.
Ebru Gülbuğ Erol, Mustafa Gülsün. © 2022. 17 pages.
Yeşim Şener. © 2022. 18 pages.
Salim Kurnaz, Deimantė Žilinskienė. © 2022. 20 pages.
Dorothea Maria Bowyer, Walid El Hamad, Ciorstan Smark, Greg Evan Jones, Claire Beattie, Ying Deng. © 2022. 29 pages.
Savas S. Ates, Vildan Durmaz. © 2022. 24 pages.
Nusret Erceylan, Gaye Atilla. © 2022. 20 pages.
Body Bottom