Title: The role of e-malls in B2C e-commerce: a classification framework and the comparison between Italian and US cases

Authors: Raffaello Balocco, Andrea Rangone, Paolo Cardano, Rodolfo Valacca

Addresses: Department of Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. ' Department of Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. ' Department of Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. ' Department of Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy

Abstract: In recent years, e-malls have played an important role in the B2C e-commerce landscape. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid in academic and professional literature to the analysis of this e-commerce model. The goal of the paper is to provide a detailed picture of the e-mall landscape in Italy, to propose a classification framework to define the essence of the different e-mall business models and to carry out a benchmark analysis with best practices in the USA to highlight the main differences between the Italian and the American markets.

Keywords: electronic commerce; e-commerce; e-business; business to consumer; B2C; e-malls; strategic framework; Italian market; Italy; United States.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2004.005023

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2004 Vol.2 No.2, pp.142 - 156

Published online: 23 Aug 2004 *

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