Success Strategies and Web Elements in Online Marketplaces: A Moderated-Mediation Analysis of Seller Types on eBay

Online marketplaces are among the most prominent and fastest growing markets on the Internet. The leader and main exemplar of this type of market is eBay. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the salient website elements and strategies as success factors in online marketplaces. The conceptual framework for this examination is based on the marketing mix model and its synthesis with competitive heterogeneity theory, allowing us to formulate a success model for sellers operating in this market. The conceptual model is empirically tested by a random collection of 2231 auction listings from eBay's motor division and tested using a moderated-mediation approach. Our results shed light on the factors that are critical for succeeding in online marketplaces and the significant role of seller types in the impacts of these factors. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and suggestions for future research are suggested.

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