Exploring market dispersion and factors that predict auction success of a commodity: The case of three e-auction markets

The current study presents emerging evidence of the heterogeneities of dispersion in price and number of bidders and the combination of factors that predict auction success across electronic auction (e-auction) markets in various countries. We argue that heterogeneities in e-auction markets exist and understanding them can benefit market participants. A spider program was developed to collect live auction data of commodity transactions from e-auction markets in three different countries: Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our results confirm heterogeneities across these markets. We also found that each e-auction market has a different set of success factors. The article concludes with recommendations to participating members of auctions. © 2011 by the Association for Information Systems.