Competition and strategy in electronic marketplaces

Electronic marketplaces are evolving in both business to business, and business to consumer contexts. Although the initial hype surrounding all types of marketplaces appears to have overstated their short-term impact, established companies across all types of industrial sectors are entering into collaborative, industry-wide initiatives to agree common technical and trading standards to improve the effectiveness of the interactions between buyers and suppliers on a global scale. An overview of contemporary developments is presented, and common patterns across different sectors are identified. Two case studies of business and retail markets are analysed. It is shown that the nature of relationships is complex and multifaceted, and differences in product-market characteristics, relationship strategies and market structure affect the design of information flows and common industry-wide business processes.