Title: Covisint in Europe: analysing the B2B auto e-marketplace

Authors: Katarina Arbin, Ulf Essler

Addresses: Center for Information and Communication Research (CIC), Stockholm School of Economics, PO Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden. ' Center for Information and Communication Research (CIC), Stockholm School of Economics, PO Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: Electronic marketplaces are a popular phenomenon, both for academics and for practitioners. One of the most discussed e-marketplace is Covisint, the ||big|| e-marketplace of the automotive industry. This paper analyses Covisint via transaction cost economics, the tool of choice when analysing e-marketplaces in academia. The empirical material consists of interviews with operatives and managers from customers and owners of Covisint, suppliers, potential customers that have chosen not to join Covisint, and Covisint themselves. The results indicate that Covisint has several problems: lack of incentives for suppliers to join the initiative, lack of participating organisations on the supplier side and an overall lack of ability to balance interests and objectives of the actors involved.

Keywords: Covisint; business models; e-B2B; automotive technology; electronic marketplaces; business-to-business; automotive e-markeplace; transaction cost economics; success factors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2005.006878

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2005 Vol.5 No.1, pp.31 - 45

Published online: 20 Apr 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article