According to TCE, uncertainty is the antecedent of intention to participate in online
auctions (Williamson, 1985; Eisenhardt, 1989). Uncertainty is associated with the
underlying transaction and the economic factors involved in the transaction.
Uncertainty is the key factor in TCE because it increases transaction costs, such as
time and effort spent on bargaining or searching for product information or alternate
sellers. TCE asserts that rational customers prefer modes of transaction which
minimize costs. To further understand the antecedents of online auction uncertainties,
we proposed a research model based on previous literature and the principal-agency
perspective (see Figure 1). Construct definitions for the models and the rationales for
the proposed hypotheses are explained in the following sections.