Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Asymmetric Information Of Product Authenticity On C2c E-Commerce Platforms: How Can Inspection Services Help?, Linqiu Li, Xin Fang, Yun Fong Lim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: We consider a customer-to-customer (C2C) platform that provides an inspection service. Uncertain about his product’s authenticity, a seller sells his product through the platform. Before purchasing, a buyer obtains a signal of the product authenticity from the product’s price set by the seller. The platform’s inspection service can detect a counterfeit with a probability. If the product passes the inspection, the platform sends it to the buyer and charges the seller a commission fee. Otherwise, the platform returns it to the seller and charges the seller a penalty fee. Methodology/results: We develop a two-stage game-theoretical model. In the …