Industrial Networks and B2B E-Commerce; A Conceptual and Contingent Exploration

The B2B e-commerce bubble appears to have burst. In the breathing space that has emerged we have chosen to attempt to conceptualise the relationship between two kinds of B2B markets and two types of e-technology. The market forms we have labelled “competitive” and “relational”. The former is based on the classical economic notion of purely competitive markets and the latter corresponds to what we would consider the defining phenomenon of IMP research and writing. The two etechnology forms are virtual marketplaces, where buyers and sellers exchange in cyberspace, and EDI like systems where buyer – seller relationships are mediated by various forms of e-technology. The question we seek to answer therefore becomes “How likely, in theory, are these two e-technologies to flourish under the two different market regimes?” We have used a simple Critical Realist model of explanation that assumes that events occur as the result of combinations of certain driving forces and certain contingencies. We argue for mutual causal relationship between e-technology and B2B market forms and therefore reject naïve technological determinism. For both competitive and relational markets we describe the driving forces and contingencies that we believe lead to their occurring and suggest how the chosen etechnologies might be facilitated or constrained by these market “forces”. Finally we suggest what may actually be happening in terms of the adoption of these two technologies in practice and offer suggestions are so areas of future research.