Digital-social construction of willingness to pay in online marketplace: Economic sociology of the digital functional food market in Indonesia

Abstract

Spanish

French

This study explores the phenomenon of digital-social construction in the form of anonymous transactions, asymmetric information, and unlimited access in online marketplace. The study was conducted by processing digital data of 5131 comments, descriptions, and rating records of 1988 IDs of functional food products sold at Bukalapak, one of the largest marketplaces in Indonesia. Using Python and Google Studio software, digital-social interactions are mapped and visualized based on four conceptual frameworks of economic sociology, namely social embeddedness of market, product standardization, intersubjective construction of symbolic value, and willingness to pay. This study marks a new chapter in the study of contemporary economic sociology, in which conventional conceptual frameworks are applied to uncover digital market phenomena using research methods that fully process and analyze big data in the business field.

Keywords

Digital-social construction economic sociology functional food value construction willingness to pay

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Akerlof

(1970) The market for “lemons”: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Source: The Quarterly Journal of Economics 84(3).

Aperjis

Labs

Johari

(2010) Designing aggregation mechanisms for reputation systems in online marketplaces. SIGecom Exchanges 9(1): 1–4.

Anandarajan

(2010) E-Research Collaboration Theory, Techniques and Challenges (eds Anandarajan

Anandarajan

). Berlin: Springer.

Bech-Larsen

Scholderer

(2007) Functional foods in Europe: Consumer research, market experiences and regulatory aspects. Trends in Food Science and Technology 18(4): 231–234.

Beckert

(2009) The social order of markets. Theory and Society 38(3): 245–269. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40587527

Beckert

(2010) How do fields change? The interrelations of institutions, networks, and cognition in the dynamics of markets. Organization Studies 31(5): 605–627.

Beckert

(2019) Markets from meaning: Quality uncertainty and the intersubjective construction of value. Cambridge Journal of Economics 44(2): 285–301.

Beckert

Rössel

(2013) The price of art: Uncertainty and reputation in the art field. European Societies 15(2): 178–195.

Beckert

Rössel

Schenk

(2017) Wine as a cultural product: Symbolic capital and price formation in the wine field. Sociological Perspectives 60(1): 206–222.

10.

Berger

Luckmann

(1967) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Penguin Books.

11.

Blue

(2017) The sociology of consumption. In: Korgen

(ed.) The Cambridge Handbook of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 265–274.

12.

Callon

Méadel

Rabeharisoa

(2002) The economy of qualities. Economy and Society 31(2): 194–217.

13.

Cong

Bremer

Mirosa

(2020) Functional beverages in selected countries of Asia pacific region: A review. Beverages 6(2): 1–17.

14.

Fairhurst

Grant

(2010) The social construction of leadership: A sailing guide. Management Communication Quarterly 24(2): 171–210.

15.

Fan

Liang

(2008) Anonymous fair transaction protocols based on electronic cash. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 13(1): 131–151.

16.

Fligstein

(2001) Social skill and the theory of fields. Sociological Theory 19(2): 105–125.

17.

Ginee (2022) 5 top marketplace Indonesia Q1 2022 Sumber Peluang Bisnis! Ginee. Available at: https://ginee.com/id/insights/top-marketplace/

18.

Granovetter

(1985) Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology 91(3): 481–510.

19.

Gregg

Scott

(2006) The role of reputation systems in reducing on-line auction fraud. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 10(3): 95–120.

20.

Hoffmann

Glückler

(2022) Navigating uncertainty in networks of social exchange: A relational event study of a community currency system. Socio-Economic Review 2022: mwac066.

21.

Ignatow

(2020) Sociological Theory in the Digital Age, 1st edn. London: Routledge.

22.

Kawa

Wałęsiak

(2019) Marketplace as a key actor in e-commerce value networks. Logforum 15(4): 521–529.

23.

Khan

Grigor

Winger

, et al. (2013) Functional food product development – Opportunities and challenges for food manufacturers. Trends in Food Science and Technology 30(1): 27–37.

24.

Lee

(2019) The social construction of a market: Institutional transformation of the imported automobile market in Korea (1987–2018). Journal of Asian Sociology 48(2): 263–286.

25.

Lestari

(2021) Opportunities and challenges of functional foods and nutraceuticals development during Covid-19 Pandemic. BIO Web of Conferences 41: 02009.

26.

Mannheim

(1936) Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

27.

Mead

(1934) Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

28.

Mises

(1949) Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (Third revised edition). San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes.

29.

North

Thomas

(1973) The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History. Cambridge University Press.

30.

Nowak

Raffaelli

(2022) The interconnected influences of institutional and social embeddedness on processes of social innovation: A Polanyian perspective. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 34(3–4): 319–342.

31.

Nurmajesty

Hardjosoekarto

Herwantoko

, et al. (2022) Symbolic and material valuation of Jamu: Economic sociology of Indonesian Jamu market. Asian Journal of Business Research 12(1): 99–123.

32.

Park

Jaworski

Maclnnis

(1986) Strategic brand concept-image management. Journal of Marketing 50(4): 135–145.

33.

Pavlou

Dimoka

(2006) The nature and role of feedback text comments in online marketplaces: Implications for trust building, price premiums and seller differentiation. Information Systems Research 17(4): 392–414.

34.

Podolny

(1994) Market uncertainty and the social character of economic exchange. Administrative Science Quarterly 39(3): 458–183.

35.

Pratt

(2007) Food values: The local and the authentic. Critique of Anthropology 27(3): 285–300.

36.

Punziano

De Falco

Trezza

(2023) Digital mixed content analysis for the study of digital platform social data: An illustration from the analysis of COVID-19 risk perception in the Italian Twitter sphere. Journal of Mixed Methods Research 17(2): 143–170.

37.

Resnick

Zeckhauser

Friedman

, et al. (2000) Reputation systems. Communications of the ACM 43(12): 45–48.

38.

Sammut-Bonnici

(2015) Brand and branding. In: Cooper CL (ed) Wiley Encyclopedia of Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1–3.

39.

Sari

Prihadyanti

Hidayat

(2019) Drivers of industry convergence: The case of functional food industry in Indonesia. STI Policy and Management Journal 4(1): 65–76.

40.

Schneider

(1974) Economic Man: The Anthropology of Economics. New York: Free Press.

41.

Schutz

(1970) On Phenomenology and Social Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

42.

Serpe

(2021) Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research Series Editor. Berlin: Springer. Available at: http://www.springer.com/series/6055

43.

Solek

(2021) Need to revise or apply the concept of market definition with a view to ‘Zero-Price’ and overarching markets. Journal of European Competition Law & Practice 12(8): 593–603. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/jeclap/article/12/8/593/6179397

44.

Staab

(2019) Digitaler Kapitalismus: Markt und Herrschaft in der Ökonomie der Unknappheit. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

45.

Storr

(2010) The social construction of the market. Society 47(3): 200–206.

46.

Tadelis

(2016a) Reputation and feedback systems in online platform markets. Annual Review of Economics 8: 321–340.

47.

Tadelis

(2016b) The economics of reputation and feedback systems in e-commerce marketplaces. Available at: www.computer.org/internet/

48.

Täuscher

Laudien

(2018) Understanding platform business models: A mixed methods study of marketplaces. European Management Journal 36(3): 319–329.

49.

Thompson

(2020) Mediated interaction in the digital age. Theory, Culture and Society 37(1): 3–28.

50.

Umesh

(2018) Physical marketplace or virtual marketplace: The choice that modern businesses need to make. In: Adhikari

(ed.) Strategic Marketing Issues in Emerging Markets. Singapore: Springer, pp. 317–324.

51.

White

(1981) Where do markets come from? American Journal of Sociology 87(3): 517–547. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2778933

52.

Zulhamdani

Hardiyati

Purwaningsih

, et al. (2020) The development of functional food in Indonesia: Based on regulation compared to other countries. Proceedings of the 16th ASEAN Food Conference 1: 153–165.