Markets and Design
Transactional markets exist for the buying and selling of information systems products and services. For instance, Albuquerque, Costa, and Martins (2018) considered geographical information systems within the context of Portuguese tourism marketing. Within the context of markets for adopting and integrating information systems among organizational environments, Trigo, et al., (2015) examined whether organizational size impacted the acquisition of information systems. With respect to the motivational attributes influencing the decision to acquire an information system, an understanding of relative performances among organizational components was necessary for identifying needed improvements and taking advantage of market opportunities (Trigo, et al., 2015).
Markets are where the introducing and exchanging of goods and services occur with respect to some form of economic system and corresponding price establishment (Skousen, 2014). Bagad (2008) indicated that marketing was a process whereby goods transited from being concepts to their eventual consumption among markets as a means of satisfying human needs and wants. Cumulatively, Bagad (2008, p. 410) defined marketing as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.” Stewart and Gugel (2016) indicated that successfully implementing marketing processes and activities involved some aspects of advertising and presenting various messages among intended audiences. Similarly, Moriarity (2012) indicated that marketing processes were necessary for bringing messages and concepts to audiences. Pickett (2016) indicated that an array of activities existed to facilitate marketing endeavors, but no guarantees existed that the corresponding processes were mature, optimized, or efficient.
Market design achieves some desirable outcome, such as allocation and pricing results (Weinhardt, Holtmann, & Neumann, 2003). Configurations toward the achieving of such results necessitate decomposing highly complex constructs into their constituent forms whereby the cumulative design tasks become smaller and testable (Weinhardt, et al., 2006). When designing markets, decomposition consists of four primary phases: conceptual design, embodiment design, detail design, and implementation (Neumann & Holtmann, 2004). Essentially, the crafting and designing of markets occurs through some forms of structured engineering processes (Weinhardt, et al., 2006). Gimpel, et al., (2008) indicated that market engineering served the purposes of designing and constructing areas for buying and selling goods and services and the provision of services associated with buying and selling.
Negotiation may occur throughout market design endeavors whose overall goals involve optimization (Vulkan, Roth, & Neeman, 2013). Gimpel (2007) considered market engineering within the context of negotiation processes. Faure and Sjöstedt (1993) indicated that the term ‘negotiation’ was a mutual decision-making process whereby the negotiating entities accommodated their conflicting interests with respect to generating a settlement that was acceptable mutually. Gimpel (2007) indicated that the focuses of market engineering and negotiation were designing systems and institutions that structured the interactions of organizations and individuals. Gimpel (2007) considered the job market for new physicians, California’s electric power market, and spectrum auctions with respect to the difficulties that are associated with interventions and experiments that were necessary for comprehending social and economic systems. Regarding the economic context, Lang, Schryen, and Fink (2011) indicated that an inseparable integration existed between economics and negotiations. Betterment among such process environments involved the automating of the negotiation process. The automating of negotiation processes contributed toward enhancements among market applications and fostered an interdisciplinary setting (Lang, Schryen, & Fink, 2011).
Numerous approaches to process improvement have existed toward optimizing and improving processes within the context of market engineering. Lattemann and Stieglitz (2007) examined market engineering processes from the perspective of integrating retail investors. By doing so, Lattemann and Stieglitz (2007) indicated that retail investors would have direct interaction with stock exchange representatives. The interactions between the parties were expected to generate direct customer involvement with specifying and designing both “market models and market innovations” (Lattemann & Stieglitz, 2007, p. 3). Such interaction contributed toward permanent increases of information regarding investor preferences (Lattemann & Stieglitz, 2007). Cumulatively, integration between customers and exchange representatives served as a catalyst for potential improvements within the trading system construct (Lattemann & Stieglitz, 2007).