Agent behavior, embedded strategies and resulting welfare in networked e-auctions

Eliminating spatial and temporal constraints to connect physically apart customers, e-auction mechanism has become one of the key components in current e-commerce system. One interesting aspect is that often there are multiple timely-overlapping mechanisms which form a network of information transfer. Since the signals revealed from an auction can influence the strategic space of users in the other ongoing auctions, it is crucial to view the market as a network in which overall interactions of mechanisms determine the global equilibrium. We present a taxonomic analysis on heterogeneous bidder behavior in a networked e-auction market. We classify the bidders´ participation and bidding strategy at individual mechanism level and at the market level. The outcomes of different strategies are compared in terms of the likelihood of winning and the relative surplus. We observe the outcome heavily relies on user strategies. We also examine whether heterogeneous mechanism formats having different winner/price determination rules influence bidder entry decision.