Research on consumer behaviour in online auctions: Insights from a critical literature review

Abstract

Academic interest in the popularity and success of online auctions has been increasing. Although much research has been carried out in an attempt to understand online auctions, little effort has been made to integrate the findings of previous research and evaluate the status of the research in this area. The objective of this study is to explore the intellectual development of consumer behaviour in online auction research through a meta‐analysis of the published auction research. The findings of this study are based on an analysis of 83 articles on this topic published mainly in information systems (IS) journals between 1998 and 2007. The results indicate that the consumer behaviour research on online auctions can be categorized into three major areas – facilitating factors, consumer behaviour and auction outcomes. Based on this literature review, directions for future research on e‐auction consumer behaviour are discussed, including potential new constructs, unexplored relationships and new definitions and measurements, and suggestions for methodological improvements are made.