This paper identifies factors that are driving success in the business-to-consumer area of e-commerce in the US and analyses their applicability to the German market. Some of the success factors refer to critical mass phenomena and are likely to be effective in Germany once a certain threshold has been overcome. For others, specific functional solutions have been developed historically in Germa...

Great progress has been made over the past few years in the study of the impact of IT on inter-firm trade relationships and markets. Most works in this area focus on firm boundaries (purchasing or outsourcing) or buyerseller relations in general. Although these works are based on reasonable theoretical grounding and many of them have been tested empirically, they do not provide a complete expla...

Electronic business (e-business) presents several new opportunities and challenges to business organizations through the expansion and enhancements of their markets. However, competing in global electronic markets (e-markets) has forced organizations to continually invest in information technology (IT). Although IT can provide a competitive advantage, its edge is only temporary and lost as comp...

We consider marketplaces where buyers and sellers iteratively encounter to trade. Given some specific trade conditions, the question that we address is what strategies should buyers and sellers use to maximize gains. We focus on electronic markets where supply shortages are common. Under such market conditions sellers can only satisfy a subset of the purchase-orders they receive from buyers. Co...

This article provides an overview of Internet-based electronic markets as a mechanism to support the procurement of non-production related items (indirect procurement). We describe the general concept and provide a number of representative examples. We also put the approaches in perspective with earlier research on electronic markets and intermediaries, point out similarities with other concept...

Recent research on the usage of electronic markets in Digital government has mostly focused on the government’s Executive branch. The paper discusses three conceptual concerns that obstruct the broader application of electronic market mechanisms to the Legislative branch of the government instead. A systematic examination of these concerns shows that most of them can be addressed with little ef...

‘Old economy’ companies are increasingly setting up marketplaces for procurement of supplies, either alone or as part of a consortium of competitors within an industry. In this paper we develop a framework for governance structures of electronic markets and contrast different structures by using a case study in the automotive industry. Focus is General Motors’ decision to join the industry mark...

In this paper, a model is built to analyse the influences of search costs on market equilibrium. According to the results of a simulation, we conclude that the equilibrium prices of e-markets are not always lower than those of conventional markets, especially under certain combinations of return costs and search costs. In addition, some managerial insights are derived from the simulation result...

Much has been written in recent years about the changes in corporate strategies and industry structures associated with electronic coordination of market activities. This paper considers the advent of electronic market coordination in the home mortgage industry, focusing on Computerized Lean Origination (CL O) systems. Case studies of five CLOs (First Boston’s Shelternet, PRC’s LoanExpress, Ame...

The need to reduce uncertainty and maintain flexibility in today’s competitive environment is increasing. Firms are looking for exchange partners who can fulfill not only price, volume and delivery requirements, but also meet higher-order needs for quality, responsiveness, and innovation. This paper reviews literature in management, economics and IT to identify the choices and challenges firms ...