Factors Contributing to Success in B2B E-Marketplaces

Understanding B2b E-Marketplace: Defining And Characterizing B2b E-Marketplace

An e-marketplace is “a form of doing business that uses Internet technology to bring together multiple vendor and customer firms at a single Web site or platform (see Figure 1), that provides a variety of mechanisms enabling the parties to straightforwardly conduct their business transactions, that is led by a third party who is either neutral and unconnected to the exchange that is to take place, or one of the two parties involved (buyers or sellers), and that offers several value-added services that improve the relationships between buyers and sellers” (Janita & Miranda, 2013).

Figure 1.

E-Marketplaces

The e-marketplaces can be classified according to their transactional content as vertical or horizontal (Barrat & Rosdahl, 2002). Vertical e-marketplaces offer goods and services directly related to the production process of a specific industrial sector, for example OneAero (for the aviation industry) or Chemical1.com (for the chemical industry). Horizontal e-marketplaces offer indirect goods and services common to all industrial sectors, and necessary although not strategic to firms' activities in different sectors of industrial activity (Popovic, 2002), for example Eventoplus.com (it offers services and products related to events) or Adquira (it offers indirect goods and services such as: office supplies, cleaning and safety services, etc.).

A second classification of e-marketplaces is in terms of ownership (Kaplan & Sawhney, 2000; Ordanini & Pol, 2001). Partial or consortia e-marketplaces are those created and run by one of the participants (buyer or seller), for example Obralia (building and construction industry, created by buyers). Impartial e-markets are those created and run by a neutral third party uninvolved in the exchanges that take place, for example Mundoacero (acero industry).