An exploratory study of B2B marketplaces

A business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplace brings together buyers and sellers using the Internet to conduct or facilitate business transactions. They came onto the scene in the late 1990's. There are independent exchanges, those formed by industry consortia, and private exchanges which are formed for the exclusive use of the single owner and its suppliers and customers. E-marketplaces support nearly all major types of B2B transactions, such as sales via catalogs, contracts, auctions, procurement via reverse auctions and RFQ's (request for quotes), and trading via exchanges. At the height of the dot-com boom, there were approximately 2,500 B2B exchanges worldwide. There was tremendous hype and expectations surrounding them. They were to revolutionize the way companies do business and fundamentally transform industries and the global economy. But the B2B e-marketplace has experienced a shakeout, and most have merged, closed down, or been converted to software vendors. Only about 1,000 are still operating, and this number will likely decline further. Even so, there are still great benefits to be had in the B2B exchange arena. B2B digital marketplaces reduce transaction costs by automating purchasing and sales processes. They reduce information inefficiencies by making prices more transparent and aggregating relevant real-time industry news into one easily accessible place, and they diminish geographic limitations. This research examines the different types and strategies of B2B marketplaces, the rise and fall of exchanges, examples of successful marketplaces, and future trends in the area.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Minier, Denise Nicole, 1971-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Yossi Sheffi.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28580