Electronic marketplaces

Electronic marketplace/E-commerce In addition to the many databases available and person-to-person contacts, E-commerce in plastics has been conducted through suppliers web sites or the dot-commerce independent web sites that link material buyers with sellers in transactions or auction formats. During the year 2000 five plastic producers/suppliers and various elastomer producers/suppliers created a new and important business model of a joint-venture web site. It provides multiple companies to join forces to do business. This is a strategy some observers call competition and others regard as just another form of selling in. an electronic format. Regardless of how it is perceived, the model will help propel e-commerce into the mainstream of processor procurement due to the size and wealth of the companies involved. The plastic model example is the largest online business-to-business site todate. 

Schoop, M., Koller, J., List, T., Quix, C. A three-phase model of electronic marketplaces for software components in chemical engineering. In Schmid, B., Stanoevska-Slabeva, K., Tschammer, V. (eds.) Towards the E-Society, Proceedings of the First IFIP Conference on E-Commerce E-Government, E-Business, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 507-522. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2001)... 

The US Federal Trade Commission presented a report to Congress in May 2000 on Privacy Online Fair Information Practices in the Electronic Marketplace. It is worth mentioning because of the useful way it breaks down components of the overall challenge. The report states that consumer-oriented businesses would be required to comply with four basic information practices, that is Notice, Choice, Access, and Security. 

Unlike applications based on electronic data interchange (EDI) and other previous uses of computer networks, the Internet has brought integration and versatility to existing computer and network technologies to the extent that firms and consumers are said to be in a virtual economic arena. A variety of commercial and economic activities faU within the realm of electronic commerce as long as they are carried out in the electronic marketplace. In this chapter, we present an overview of business and industrial applications of the Internet technologies. 

Economic activities revolve around markets where sellers, buyers, and other agents must meet and interact. Therefore, the structure of the electronic marketplace plays an imprortant role in achieving ultimate economic efficiency. How the marketplace is organized is a question that deals with the problem of matching sellers with buyers in the most efficient maimer, providing complete and rehable product and vendor information and fadlitating transactions at the lowest possible cost. 

Besides successful online versions of classified ads, another type of online auction deals with perishable goods, which need to be sold quickly. Excess airline tickets and surplus manufacturing products comprise the second type of products sold in online auction markets. For these products, the electronic marketplace offers the necessary global market reach and responsiveness. 

In the late 1960s and 1970s, more Asian companies entered the U.S. marketplace. The typical attitude within U.S. management was that their products were of lesser quality and they would not hurt our business. Remember the small portable radios from Japan At first they were of poor quality, but the Japanese companies endeavored to try to improve their products and to be more competitive. Within a few years they became a major force in the electronics marketplace. Even today I see companies that still view their competition and market as only within the United States. 

Brazil Plastics on the Internet Brazilian plastics industry s electronic marketplace, supported by INP, Brazil s National Plastics Institute, (in English, Portuguese and Spanish) http //www.plastico.com.br British Plastics and Rubber Provides on-line updated gateway to plastics sites on the Internet with a directory to around 1,350 UK companies supplying machinery and materials for processors. http //www.polymer-age. co.uk/start.htm... 

You will not be able to perform, compete, and survive In our industry if you are not participating in an electronic marketplace. It s that simple. We will not allow Transora to fall. 

Sarker, M., Butler, B., and Steinfeld, C. (1995). Intermediaries and cybermedi-airies a continuing role for mediating players in the electronic marketplace. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(3). 

Bakos [12] focuses on the impacts of one important aspect of e-business, that is, the reduced search cost for the buyers, on price and the efficiency of allocation of the electronic markets. He shows that electronic marketplaces will increase price competition and reduce seller monopoly power. Socially optimal allocation may be possible if search costs become low enough. 

Alba, J., J. Lynch, B. Weitz, C. Janiszewski, R. Lutz, A. Sawyer, and S. Wood, Interactive Home Shopping Consumer, Retailer, And Manufacturing Incentives To Participate In Electronic Marketplaces, Journal of Marketing, 61, July (1997), 38-53. 

After considerable evaluation, in November 2000, the firm elected to implement the Ariba Buyer e-Procurement System in conjunction with its existing American Express Purchasing Card program to automate its indirect buy. On the back end, they integrated the Ariba system with the Pfizer financial system to optimize payment processing and eliminate steps that added no value. The firm did evaluate electronic marketplace options only to conclude that their scale was so large that such an alternative offered little added value. 

On the other hand, there are some difficulties and barriers to the implementation of CPFR, for example (1) reduced control and power if the company is using an electronic marketplace for communicating CPFR information, it may result in a loss of information control (2) problems with scalability the electronic marketplace may have difficulties to balance tailored and standardised solutions in a way that both customer satisfaction and efficiency remain high and (3) fees although the company only needs to pay for investment in one communication link (the one to the electronic marketplace), it needs to pay transaction fees or service fees to the marketplace (Ferreira et al, 2001). Sheffi (2002) addressed the perception that demand management, fulfilment, joint optimisation... 

Jung, Y., Lee, A. Design of social interaction environment for electronic marketplaces. In DIS OO - Designing Interactive Systems Processes, Practices, Methods, Techniques, ACM Press, New York (2000)... 

The third option would be for the buyer to diversify by earmarking multiple suppliers for the same item, and purchasing online from electronic marketplaces. One way of managing demand volatility is to place a small order and then follow it up with additional orders if demand picks up. The availability of multiple suppliers greatly simplifies placement of follow-up orders. Multiple suppliers also help protect against supply uncertainty. 

E-business is a term used to cover trading with a firm s suppliers and business customers - that is, business-to-business - by electronic means. A feature of B2B is the formation of online trading communities (see for example Ariba, www.ariba.net) and electronic marketplaces. Such structures have been enabled by the explosion of Internet technology and seek to offer cost reductions in procurement of both direct and indirect goods and also in the processing of such transactions. The relationship of these terms in the context of the e-supply chain is shown in Figure 8.2. 

Park, N. K., Mezias, J. M., Song, J. (2004). A resource-based view of strategic alliances and firm value in the electronic marketplace. Journal of Management, 50(1), 7-27. 

Grieger, N. (2003). Electronic marketplaces A literature review and a call for supply chain management research. European Journal of Operational Research, 144(2), 280-294. 

Bakos, J.Y., 1991, Information links and electronic marketplaces the role of interorganizational information systems in vertical markets. Journal of Management Information Systems 8 (2) 31-52. 

---