Replication files: Building a reputation for trustworthiness: Experimental evidence on the role of the feedback rate

DOI

The published Stata syntax files (do-files) and data can be used to replicate the results reported in the cited article. Abstract of the journal article: In 25 years, research on reputation-based online markets has produced robust evidence on the existence of the so-called reputation effect, i.e. the positive relation between online traders’ reputations and these traders’ market success in terms of sales and prices. However, there is an ongoing debate on what the size of the reputation effect means. We argue that the rate of truthful feedback that traders leave after completed transactions is negatively related to the size of the reputation effect. The higher the rate of truthful feedback, the quicker will untrustworthy traders be screened and disincentivized to enter the market. With mostly trustworthy traders entering the market, buyers will demand smaller price discounts from market entrants without a good reputation. We test this mechanism empirically in two laboratory experiments. In both experiments, we systematically vary the probability with which information about sellers’ behavior in an economic trust game is recorded and shown to future interaction partners of these sellers. In the second experiment, we introduce competition among sellers by allowing buyers to choose one of two sellers in each interaction. We find that sellers give discounts to buyers to build or repair their reputation and that sellers who give discounts or have a good reputation are trusted more. However, we do not find support for our hypothesis that a higher feedback rate significantly decreases sellers’ propensity to give discounts. We argue and show in exploratory analyses that this is likely due to the high level of unconditional trust buyers exhibit towards sellers without a reputation. Yet, seller competition increases the propensity to offer discounts among sellers without a reputation the most.

Non-probability Sample - Availability Sample

Laboratory experimentExperiment.Laboratory

LaborexperimentExperiment.Laboratory

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.7802/2676
Source https://search.gesis.org/research_data/SDN-10.7802-2676?lang=de
Metadata Access https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/oai-pmh/v0/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_ddi25&identifier=7d8b64a85b692cfd095039445cbbfe53d679533e2f9d9718ba3ddaaf0352d4d6
Provenance
Creator Przepiorka, Wojtek; Jiao, Ruohuang; Buskens, Vincent
Publisher GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences; GESIS Datenarchiv für Sozialwissenschaften
Publication Year 2024
Funding Reference [China Scholarship Council [grant no. 201707720047]]
Rights Free access (without registration) - The research data can be downloaded directly by anyone without further limitations. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: Attribution - NonCommercial – NoDerivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de); Freier Zugang (ohne Registrierung) - Die Forschungsdaten können von jedem direkt heruntergeladen werden. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: Attribution - NonCommercial – NoDerivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de)
OpenAccess true
Contact http://www.gesis.org/
Representation
Discipline Social Sciences
Spatial Coverage Netherlands; Netherlands