Electronic B 2 B Marketplaces - Impact on B 2 B Transactions and Relationships ?

The last two years have seen a rapid development of the use of the Internet in doing economic transactions (E-Commerce). Now that the euphoria has subsided, it is necessary to closely examine which E-Commerce applications will remain and why. Our paper will focus on Electronic B2B Marketplaces. We first define and classify this category of e-commerce and present the value generating models deployed. Drawing on transaction cost and information economics, the paper examines which kind of B2B transactions so far benefit from being conducted over Electronic B2B Marketplaces and why. We hypothesize that the prevalent business models employed by current Electronic B2B Marketplaces support transactions that are governed in market structures, exploiting the electronic brokerage effect. Thus, Electronic B2B Marketplaces have not had any significant impact on existing B2B relationships. In fact, our theoretical analysis suggests that transactions done within strong existing relationships have not been very likely to move to Electronic B2B Marketplaces. Electronic B2B Marketplaces will need to provide further value generating services to attract these transactions. Such services include providing relevant and qualified information to reduce uncertainty in transactions, especially for goods and services with mainly experience or credence qualities. Other services may include providing new business applications for collaboration.