The World Wide Web: Opportunities for Operations Research and Management Science
INFORMS Journal on Computing
An exploratory study of the emerging role of electronic intermediaries
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Electronic commerce in decision technologies: a business cycle analysis
International Journal of Electronic Commerce - Special issue: Systems for computer-mediated digital commerce
A model for buyer's trust in the e-marketplace
ICEC '05 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Electronic commerce
A brief history of mobile communication in Europe
Telematics and Informatics
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Introduction to the Special Section: Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
A Model of Neutral B2B Intermediaries
Journal of Management Information Systems
Pricing local search engines for company websites
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
An Analysis of Diversity in Electronic Commerce Research
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Electronic Commerce
Optimal pricing for web search engines
WINE'05 Proceedings of the First international conference on Internet and Network Economics
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Electronic intermediaries play an important role in many Web-based electronic markets, adding value for participants by offering such services as matchmaking and trust. This paper presents an economic model of intermediation where the intermediary offers services to two types of actors: consumers and providers. When consumers are heterogeneous, differentiated by their willingness to pay for intermediation, the intermediary can potentially offer two (or more) levels of service quality to target different consumer segments. The analysis in this paper highlights the aggregation benefit that consumers derive from having access to multiple providers through the intermediary. According to prior research on vertically differentiated digital goods, it is optimal to offer only one quality level in the market, because segmentation causes cannibalization and lowers profits. In the case of intermediation, however, the aggregation benefit makes it optimal for the intermediary to offer both levels of service. The intermediary's profits increase when the quality of the lower-quality service is decreased, suggesting that the two quality levels should be differentiated as much as possible. If the aggregation effect is intense, the intermediary should make the service free for providers.