Analysis of Review Helpfulness Based on Consumer Perspective

When consumers make purchase decisions, they generally refer to the reviews generated by other consumers who have already purchased similar products in order to get more information. Online transaction platforms provide a highly convenient channel for consumers to generate and retrieve product reviews. In addition, consumers can also vote reviews perceived to be helpful in making their decision. However, due to diverse characteristics, consumers can have different preferences on products and reviews. Their voting behavior can be influenced by reviews and existing review votes. To explore the influence mechanism of the reviewer, the review, and the existing votes on review helpfulness, we propose three hypotheses based on the consumer perspective and perform statistical tests to verify these hypotheses with real review data from Amazon. Our empirical study indicates that review helpfulness has significant correlation and trend with reviewers, review valance, and review votes. In this paper, we also discuss the implications of our findings on consumer preference and review helpfulness.

Architecture of Next-Generation E-Commerce Platform

E-commerce, driven by computer and internet technology, has experienced a significant growth in almost all fields during the past two decades. E-commerce has significantly changed the rules of business. Numerous research institutions and enterprises have made e-commerce more intelligent and convenient. Here, we propose a novel prototype of next-generation e-commerce platform with an architecture framework and theoretical models.Each subject, including the individual, enterprise, and administrative department, has his/her personalized portal to complete the subject information synchronization, supply release, demand satisfaction, and social contact. By using the personalized portal, instead of the traditional trading platform, the consumers and suppliers can complete intelligent matching transactions without intermediate traders. Moreover, the overall transaction process can be reviewed, making the transaction safer, more transparent, and more interesting. Moreover, the interconnected personalized portals solve the isolated islands of information, and the counterparts support parallel processing.Thus, this may improve the operating efficiency of the entire society.

Evolution of Specialization with Reachable Transaction Scope Based on a Simple and Symmetric Firm Resource Allocation Model

In the last decade, as an emerging transaction measure driven by computer and internet technology, e-commerce experienced explosive growth in many areas. It has greatly broken down the limitations of space and time to economic activities, thus changing the rules of business fundamentally. Significant work has been done to understand the laws of e-commerce from multiple dimensions, but the question of how e-commerce shapes firms＇ specialization and market structure from the perspective of spatial factors remains obscure. In this paper, we propose a simple and symmetric firm resource allocation model with a specialized-economy production function and market size constraint, to investigate how individual firms adjust resource allocation with reachable transaction scope expanded. It is shown that with the expansion of reachable transaction scope, individual firms discretely take back one unit resource from a low-investment direction and, instead, channel it to a ＂specialized direction＂. Meanwhile, at the macro level, an optimal division network evolves from a static self-sufficient stage to a diverse semi-specialized stage, and finally to a highly integrated completely specialized stage. Ergo, a Complex Adaptive System （CAS） based simulation framework is constructed. Designed simulation experiments are carried out and confirm to the analysis result of our proposed model.

Analysis of Specialized Production of Transaction Services Based on Essential Services Quantity

The specialized production of e-commerce transaction systems is an important research topic, which is of great significance for evaluating the development level and forecasting the development direction of e-commerce. However, there is a certain disparity between the current mainstream research model and reality, which leads to a deviated result. This paper puts forward a definition of ＂transaction efficiency＂ based on essential transaction services and establishes a model of the middleman＇s specialized production decision of transaction services. The research result shows that （1） transaction efficiency plays an important role in improving the middleman＇s specialized production level, （2） only when the transaction efficiency is higher than a certain threshold will the distribution middleman appear, and （3） the degree of economic specialization, price of commodities and transaction services, and other associated factors also affect the evolution of e-commerce transaction systems.

Infra-Marginal Analysis Model for Provision Mode Selection for E-commerce Services

E-commerce has grown extraordinarily since the emergence of the internet, and many types of services are employed to accelerate this process. Service quality and productivity are two critical indicators to evaluate the competitiveness of e-commerce companies. Deciding which provision mode of e-commerce services （buy, sell, or self-provide） to adopt is a key operational strategy issue. This paper investigates the conditions and limitations of e-commerce services＇ optimal supply modes, and proposes a cost oriented infra-marginal model where service demand is considered an exogenous variable due to its non-elastic and unprofitable characteristics. By analyzing the main impact factors of this model, this paper infers provision mode selection strategies, which are determined by four factors： transaction cost, service price, service demand, and competitive advantages. Decision trees are derived from these strategies to help e-commerce companies make appropriate decisions. Finally, the proposed model＇s feasibility is verified by two case studies.

Analysis of a Firm's Optimal Size Based on Accessible Market Capacity

E-commerce has dramatically reduced the limitation of space and time on economic activities,resulting in individuals having access to a huge number of consumers.In this paper,we propose a company's optimal size decision model containing management costs as a means of investigating the evolution of the company size in e-commerce.Given that production decisions are made based on accessible market capacity,we explain how a company enters the market,and we draw an evolutionary path of the optimal company size.The results show that in the early expansion stage of accessible market capacity,a firm's optimal size keeps increasing;after reaching a peak,the change in a firm's optimal size depends on its cost management.When the accessible market capacity reaches a threshold,the firm will no longer be in the market,and may no longer exist.Finally,we construct a simulation framework based on complex adaptive systems to validate our proposed model.A simulation experiment confirms our model and reveals the dynamic co-evolution process of individual producers and firms.