Do starting and ending effects in fixed-price group-buying differ?

With the growing popularity of group-buying websites, a plethora of group-buying options is available to consumers. Given this range of choices, information diffusion in group-buying can greatly influence consumers' purchase decisions. Our study uses large-scale datasets from the top two group-buying websites in China, to explore the diffusion process and examine mass media communication (MMC) and interpersonal communication (IPC) during different periods of the buying process. The analysis results indicate that MMC and IPC at the start of the process can positively affect the sales, while it leads to fewer sales during the ending period in fixed-price group-buying, which contradicts the results of previous studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore information diffusion in group- buying. This study provides a number of theoretical insights into group-buying from a new perspective, as well as practical management implications. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.