Endgame: optimal selling strategies in online auctions

Online auctions have emerged as a major opportunity for individuals to start businesses or for established businesses to diversify and grow their markets. To-date, research interest has focused largely on the technological entrepreneur rather than the Internet based (cyber) entrepreneur. The aim of this study was to examine the behaviour of participants in online auctions, measuring their response to actual market conditions and rules. Do online markets react to quality uncertainly (Akerlof, 1970) in the same way as off line markets, and is the contention that Internet shopping emphasises cost reduction over brand-based differentiation (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) valid? The purpose of this paper is to present findings from an analysis of secondary data collected from online auctions. By better understanding buyer behaviour in online auctions, sellers will be able to select the best selling strategies for individual and/or unique businesses types.