Title
Evaluating and Selecting Digital PaymentMechanisms
Author
Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, and Kimberly White
Date
1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 10/3/1996)
(Original Publish Date: 10/3/1996)
Abstract
The Internet is growing rapidly as a marketplace for the exchange of both tangible and information goods and services. Numerous payment meacnhisms suitable for use in this marketplace are in various stages of developmen. t Because their development is so recent, it is difficult for potential participants in electronic commerce to evaluate and select payment mechanisms. We characterize the properties of 10 highly visible mechanisms according to 30 criteria. We show how a decisionmaker might follow a systematic rational choice approach to select or evaluate a mechanism The selection process typically leads to a solution in a few iterations or less; it is generalizable; and it requires relatively little information about each alternative, reducing the cost of evaluating and selecting payment mechanism Ts.h e evaluation approach guides payment mechanism designerasn d researchersb y the needs of users who desire particular bundles of characteristics. We then apply the analysis to the University of Michigan Digital Library (UMDL), a large-scale intelligent-agent commercebased system. We show how the user-centric approach may lead to the use of more than one payment mechanism within a commerce system, and how the evaluation criteria could be used to determine mechanisms for different UMDL needs.