A N E XAMINATION OF I NTERDEPENDENCIES IN A B 2 C P LATFORM IN C HINA : T HE C ASE OF M . COM Research - in - Progress

Interdependencies between business units are fundamental to productive activity and when present will only reinforce heterogeneity. On the other hand, incongruences between heterogeneous business units are likely to occur given role, socio-economic, demographic and communication characteristic differences. This article explores interdependencies between business units and its impact on a rapidly expanding ecommerce firm. In late 2009, M.com— incidentally one of China’s top three B2C ecommerce platforms for consumer electronics— announced a split of its Information Systems department into front and back offices, with enterprise-wide ramifications. From our preliminary case study findings, we purport four interdependency types central to a B2C platform’s operating strategies─ sequential, reciprocal, pooling and coopetition. We present interdependencies-in-activity as a continuum that form the nuclei of how a B2C platform operates, such that they represent the integration of platforms’ front and back end Information Systems offices and, become the basis for which firm resources are rerouted.