The risk-taking theory suggests that people are intended to avoid risk, and the risk
behaviors are determined by the risk perception (Sitkin and Pablo, 1992). In physical
markets, consumers may adopt various risk handling activities to avoid or reduce
the risk incurred in purchase (Dowling and Staelin, 1994). In online markets, there
are some forms of risk relief services to reduce the risk in online business, such as
OES. The risk relief services help to reduce the fraud in business transactions. In
BIN auctions, buyers may choose to use the risk relief service to avoid the risk of
being cheated and enhance payment safety. The expected utility of using the service
is high when the risk perception for the transaction is high (Antony et al., 2006).
Thus, in BIN auctions, buyers intend to adopt the risk relief services when the
perceived risk is high.