Data were collected using a questionnaire containing 20 self-reported items related to
five research constructs. To ensure content validity, items selected for the constructs
were largely adapted from prior research. For all the measures discussed below, a
five-point Likert scale was used, with anchors ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to
“strongly agree” (5). Most of the items were slightly modified to fit the online auction
con-text. Perceived information asymmetry was assessed based on the scale developed
by Mishra et al. (1998) and Pavlou et al. (2007). Concerns regarding information privacy
and security were assessed using the scale proposed by Pavlou et al. (2007). The
measures for fears of seller opportunism were developed from Jap and Anderson
(2003). Perceived uncertainty was measured with four items taken from Pavlou et al.
(2007). Intention to purchase goods or services at online auction sites was measured
with a four-item scale developed by Pavlou and Gefen (2004). The instrument was
validated through a pre-test and a pilot test. The pre-test involved three respondents
who were experts in the field of online auctions. These experts were asked to comment
on the length of the instrument, its format, and the wording of the scales.
To reduce potential ambiguity in the questionnaire items, 92 students from an
e-commerce class at a university in northern Taiwan were invited to participate in the pilot test, with the results of the pilot test leading to some modifications to how
questions were phrased (survey items are listed in the Appendix).