Avoiding Imprudent Commitments to Fast Dispatch: The Influence of Platform-Issued Quick-Seller Certificates on Postpurchase Behavior

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of platform-issued “quick-seller” certificates (indicating sellers with faster dispatch than others) on buyers’ postpurchase behavior. Drawing upon the theoretical lens of psychological contract violation (PCV), we hypothesize the effects of quick-seller certificates on order cancelations, as well as the subsequent impacts of cancelations associated with the quick-seller certificates on buyers’ future purchase frequency and search behavior. Using a comprehensive transaction dataset, the study reveals that quick-seller certificates increase the likelihood of cancelation of an order. Furthermore, we also find that an order cancelation from a certified quick seller results in decreased purchase frequency and a higher incidence of product comparisons through search engines.

KEYWORDS:

• Quick-seller certificates
• order cancelation
• psychological contract violation
• survival model
• difference-in-differences
• online dispatch

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Yonsei University Research Grant of 2023.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Furthermore, the platform also awards quality-seller and quantity-seller certificates grounded in the seller’s historical product return rate and sales volume, respectively. While these certificates are not directly tied to seller dispatch, we contrast their effects with that of the quick-seller certificate. This comparison aims to clarify the inherent influence of the certificates and highlight the specific impact of the quick-seller certificate related to PCV.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Yonsei University.

Notes on contributors

Yiying Zhang

Yiying Zhang ([email protected]) is an assistant professor at the School of Business, Hunan University, China. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before joining Hunan University, she was a research fellow at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Her research interests include e-commerce, big data analytics, and supply chain innovation. Dr. Zhang’s research has appeared in Production and Operations Management and Information & Management.

Youngsok Bang

Youngsok Bang ([email protected]; corresponding author) is an associate professor at the School of Business, Yonsei University, Korea. Before joining Yonsei University, he was on the faculty of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School. His current interests lie in the business value of data analytics, especially in e-commerce, health care, fintech, and Internet privacy. Dr. Bang’s research has appeared in Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Information & Management, Information Systems Research, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Information Systems Quarterly, and several other journals.

Sang Won Kim

Sang Won Kim ([email protected]) is an associate professor at the College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He received his Ph.D. in decision, risk, and operations at Columbia Business School. Prior to joining KAIST, he was an assistant professor of operations management at CUHK Business School, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on understanding the implications of system participants’ strategic/psychological motivations for the design and evaluation of a system or policy. The application areas of his past and current research include allocation mechanisms, electric vehicles and car-sharing operations, supply-chain structures in the automotive industry, and e-market platforms.