Title: The impact of business-to-business electronic marketplaces: a field study

Authors: Shan Wang, Shi Zheng

Addresses: Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Business, Renmin University, Beijing, 100872, China. ' Department of Trade Economics, School of Business, Renmin University, Beijing, 100872, China

Abstract: Although business to business electronic marketplaces (EMs) are new phenomena and their impact on firms is still limited, its worth well keeping track of the impacts since more and more firms participate in EMs. This research is a preliminary study of the impact of EMs. Five aspects of EM impacts are studied, including business value of EMs, EM impact on price and competition, and buyer-supplier relationships, learning effects and satisfaction with EMs. The results of the survey show that buyers in EMs more and more demonstrate market-like purchasing behaviour, although, long-term relationships with existing suppliers are still valued. There are both tangible and intangible benefits of using the service of EMs. However, not all the benefits contribute to buyer and supplier satisfaction with EMs. Suppliers are more satisfied with tangible benefits but sellers are more satisfied with purchasing decision improvements as a result of the learning effect on EMs.

Keywords: business-to-business; electronic marketplaces; B2B; e-marketplaces; business value; buyer-supplier relationships; prices; competition; structural impacts; learning effects; purchasing behaviour; e-business; electronic business; market-like behaviour; long-term relationships; tangible benefits; intangible benefits; supplier satisfaction; seller satisfaction; purchasing decisions; purchasing improvements; Alibaba; Hong Kong; China; networks; virtual organisations; web based organisations; online organisations; networking; world wide web; internet.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2011.039996

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2011 Vol.8 No.3/4, pp.224 - 240

Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

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