On-line Reputation System e Performance dei Professional Service Provider

[Autom. eng. transl.] The dissemination of online services has significant implications for companies that, by turning to an online service marketplace, actually widen the "make or buy" choices that can actually be made by them and achieve advantages in terms of lower service costs, access to a wide basket of professionals and experts, with greater flexibility guaranteed by the use of professional services according to on-demand methods. However, the choice to turn to an online service marketplace also involves a series of risks for companies (knowledge risks and transactions risks), which require the development of adequate transaction support mechanisms, such as reputation systems, aimed at reducing information asymmetries between the parties involved. Finding a lack in the literature, the work focuses on online service marketplaces, analyzing, in particular, the relationship between online reputation and performance of the professional service provider companies that operate there. This relationship has so far been addressed in the literature with particular reference to the more traditional electronic markets for the buying and selling of products but not for professional services and this is where the innovative nature of the contribution lies. More specifically, a model with explanatory and predictive purposes is proposed, empirically controlled, based on a single case study, a well-known online service marketplace (Elance.com) that operates on a global scale. Statistical analyzes were conducted on a data set created by collecting data from approximately 5,000 professional service providers. The analysis shows that the possession of a good reputation is able to explain higher performance levels. Finally, the work suggests some ideas for further empirical studies.