Social media data is increasingly becoming a valuable asset for marketing teams, and businesses are regularly coming up with new and innovative ways to make use of this data. A social media network (SMN) is able to connect enterprises with their customers, partners and even competitors. Public trading and relations-oriented structures of social media networks (SMN) have encouraged organizations to engage more actively with other transactional partners. Organizations are seeking to tap into the relationship development potential these websites offer, especially the network effect of each individuals or organisations social graph. It is recognized that these relationships (when utilised) are able to create value for network participants. This paper discusses SMN tools and outlines a methodology and procedure that supports the identification of domain specific networks within a global business-to-business environment. Research is carried out using SMN data about firms in the pharmaceutical industry. We use our own methodology to uncover market participants, linkages and prominent issues that may help new firms to position themselves effectively in a new marketplace. SMNs provide a considerable source of information and new methods are required to fully leverage their potential value. This paper explores how SMNs can be used as an effective source of business intelligence by analysing a popular SMN platform.

During the Web era e-procurement has witnessed a steep rise in marketplace deployment; this has been followed by a substantial number of failures. A number of larger technology providers are now left to support both small and large businesses. Flexibility has been a key enabler in supporting network evolution across a varied number of domains. The aim of this study is to investigate flexibility around marketplace evolution, success and failure. In particular, explore the inter-relationships between architectural flexibility and the evolving Web and Internet. A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out in order to uncover the changes that have taken place over the past fifteen years. A conceptual model is produced early in the research in order to provide contextual underpinning. We employed a manual search of 5 journals. Of the 22 relevant studies, one addressed research trends around e-procurement in pharmaceutical organizations. Three addressed eprocurement in financial organizations. A number of flexibility categories are uncovered by the SLR and then used as a means to support flexible e-procurement marketplace (EPM) design and adoption, recognising EPM evolution over the volatile study period. Flexibility categories are uncovered and comprise technical, organisational, environmental and strategic (TOES) concerns.

Abstract-This paper focuses on the electronic procurement marketplace and the selection of suppliers, aided by flexibility factors. By judiciously employing decision flexibility and the associated dynamic control amongst autonomous EPM nodes, improvements are possible. Empirical data for this study was collected from pharmaceutical organization in UK using a discrete choice interview and analyzed using grounded theory techniques. The importance of flexibility was highlighted and prioritized with respect to supplier selection.Index Terms-Electronic procurement marketplace (EPM), flexibility factors, supplier's selection. I. INTRODUCTIONThe changes of Web-based procurement marketplaces (Electronic procurement Marketplace-EPM) has altered different aspects of life; how businesses run with continuous changes, how organizations interact with their suppliers, and how people get use to Web evolution. Recently, rapid changes in business requirements and environments on the web-based marketplaces have put massive pressure on organizations to keep up and be more responsive and flexible. Moreover, the flow of failure in some EPM's and the success of others have led business managers to question the relative merits of each EPM. Flexibility in emerging organizational networks is also a concern [7] especially in a case of selecting suppliers. Organizations discover that it is essential to adopt EPM in order to achieve effectiveness and efficiency, with the majority of firms and suppliers being satisfied with its performance [19]. One such transformation is to consider of flexibility factors to remain competitive in a network environment. EPM's require to deliberate fundamental changes in technical, organizational, environmental and strategic in order to be responsive and flexible to the changes. From technical point of view, EPM's are faced with number of number of changes in hardware and software applications that need to be synchronized as Vizared (2001) stated. From an organizational perspective, flexibility can be applied at a number of internally or externally levels, for example to the variety of actual and potential procedures in order to increase the control capability of the management and improve the controllability of the organization and environment. Considerably, the ability or inability of management to predict new events happening in their organizational environments could be resulted in unbalancing between flow of orders and products [23]. Conceivably, ability in identifying the changes in business strategy of the organization could be creating a new product and market combination, using market power to deter entry and control competitors, or engaging in political activities to counteract trade regulation [8]. From these flexibility perspectives, it could also be critical when applying new technologies (including platform or process changes to EPMs being utilized) and renewing products or services [1], [8].Consequently, being able to identify and analyze flexibility challenges influencing supplier's selection ...

Social media tools are increasingly used for relationships management among marketplace actors (e.g. organisations, suppliers and individuals). As markets become ever more global and dynamic, new entrants find themselves struggling to fully understand the marketplace, companies operating with it and changes that occur. The authors discuss Social Media Network (SMN) tools and outline a methodology and procedure that supports the identification of domain specific networks within particular global business-to-business environments. Research is carried out using SMN data about firms in the pharmaceutical industry. The authors use their own methodology to uncover market participants, linkages and prominent issues that may help new firms to position themselves effectively within a new marketplace. SMNs provide a sizable source of information and new approaches are required to fully leverage their considerable value. This paper explores how SMNs can be used as an effective source of business intelligence by utilising two popular SMN platforms.