Electronic marketplaces and innovation: the Canadian experience

This paper examines electronic marketplaces as one ‘digital economy’ innovation. Great expectations existed for electronic marketplaces in the late 1990s, leading to the establishment of hundreds of new venues for B2B buying and selling. It was feared that the improved efficiency over traditional market mechanisms meant existing business relationships and methods were doomed. Another concern was voiced; namely that smaller nations and peripheral regions would lose trade to electronic marketplaces in central locations. These issues are examined in a study of electronic marketplace innovation in Canada, leading to an assessment of their prospects there, as well as more generally.