The Impact of Internet-Based Electronic Marketplaces on Buyer-Supplier Relationships

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of electronic marketplaces (EMs) on buyer-supplier relationships using a case study approach. Three aspects were investigated: economic benefits, structural changes, and participant satisfaction. Contrary to the literature that treats the emergence of EMs as evidence of "moving towards markets," we first confirmed that EMs benefit both long-term and short-term relationships. They are separate entities that can cause structural changes in the direction of either markets or hierarchies/networks. We found evidence that corporate participants are moving towards more use of EMs to support both long-term

Determinants of marketer satisfaction with the choice of electronic marketplace type

“…It is suggested from a disconfirmation of expectations perspective (Churchill and Superant, 1982) that the product/market characteristics suggested by TCT models, as well as company size and prior experience with EMs, have little direct impact on goal setting for EM type choice. In fact, a variety of marketing literature (Clark, 2000) and EM literature (Wang, Archer and Zheng, 2005 and Christainaase and Markus, 2003) suggests instead that formal and informal management expectations are more strongly driven by management perceptions of fit with the broad internal and external environments of the firm.…”

“…Transaction cost theory (TCT) has contributed to understanding of the matching of product-market characteristics to the type of EM employed via numerous prescriptive models (Malone et al 1987;Bakos, 1991 andMahadevan, 2003). In addition, recent literature has indicated that company size (Hadaya, 2004), prior experience (Hadaya, 2004;Corbitt, 2003), and role (buyer or seller) (Rask and Kragh, 2004;Wang, Archer and Zheng, 2005) all impact marketers' perceptions of performance for electronic marketplaces once they have been adopted.…”

“…This view of managerial expectations and performance as being multidimensional is particularly germane to providing a broad scope and a unique contribution to the study of EM satisfaction. There are some guidance and precedence for this approach in the electronic markets literature in the research of Christianaase and Markus (2002) and Wang, Archer and Zheng (2005). In both works, "super constructs" (from a blended theory perspective) are used to explain formation of and motivations for participation in electronic marketplaces.…”

“…Transaction cost theory (TCT) has contributed to understanding of this problem via prescriptive models (Malone et al, 1987;Bakos, 1991 andMahadevan, 2003) that suggest which types of electronic marketplaces that are optimal based on product/market characteristics. Recent literature has suggested that company size (Hadaya, 2004), prior experience (Hadaya, 2004;Corbitt, 2003), and role (buyer or seller) (Rask and Kragh, 2004;Wang, Archer and Zheng, 2005) all impact marketer's perceptions of performance for electronic marketplaces. This thesis, however, also posits that while TCT models based on fit with product/market characteristics offer explanatory value regarding marketers' judgments of an electronic marketplace choice performance, these characteristics are not explicit considerations in forming performance expectations a priori.…”

“…This thesis, however, also posits that while TCT models based on fit with product/market characteristics offer explanatory value regarding marketers' judgments of an electronic marketplace choice performance, these characteristics are not explicit considerations in forming performance expectations a priori. The author suggests instead that formal and informal management expectations are most strongly driven by management perceptions of fit with the broad internal and external environments of the firm, as per Clark (2000) in the general marketing literature and Wang, Archer and Zheng (2005) and Christainaase and Markus (2003) in the EM literature. iv…”