Learning from failure: the myths and magic of electronic transportation markets

In the part 20 years, a variety of electronic markets have been set up for the allocation of capacities in road transportation. Although inefficiencies and cost pressures are high, the electronic markets have not succeeded so far. In this paper, we give an overview of the so-called electronic transportation exchanges and analyze the factors that were involved in the repeated failures. By using a multi-layer framework which integrates established research approaches for interorganizational systems (IOSs), we argue that the failures provide valuable insights for the configuration of electronic commerce systems in general, and in particular for the transportation exchanges that are currently emerging on the Internet