Authors: Hans Georg Gemünden; Katharina Holzle; Thilo A. Müller
More and more companies use information technology (IT) and especially the Internet to find, build, and maintain business relationships to their suppliers and/or customers. In recent years, the use of Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic platforms has increased dramatically. In the beginning, these platforms were mainly used as trading platforms, i.e. marketplaces, where buyers and sellers met to buy and sell their products. Between 1998 and 2001 more than 1500 such marketplaces were founded in Germany. Today, there are only around 150 active marketplaces left. However, these platforms are more successful than ever. An increasing number of industrial companies – especially larger ones – demand from their suppliers to interact electronically. Not only purchasing functions are fulfilled through these platforms but also in increasing amount of cooperative functions, e.g., project management, research and development, or supply chain management. Consequently, the management of inter-organizational cooperation and relationships has to meet new challenges. In this paper, the authors examine the current literature of the use of IT in business relationships. We will show that the deployment of IT in business relationships has different effects on relationship functions (i.e. purchasing, market information and product development functions). Drawing on an empirical base of 138 industrial customer questionnaires, the authors show that the use of IT in a buyer-seller relationship depends heavily on the IT know-how of both partners and their available IT resources. The findings are discussed and the authors provide managerial implications for decisions makers from both buyer and supplier organizations. Furthermore, the authors develop an outline for future empirical research on electronic interaction platforms.
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Publish Year: 2003
Conference: Lugano, Switzerland (2003)