Duopolistic Competition between Independent and Collaborative Business-to-Business Marketplaces

This paper studies imperfect price competition between two intermediaries in an electronic business-to-business matching market with indirect network externalities. The intermediaries differ with regard to their ownership structure: an independent third party incumbent marketplace competeswith a challenging collaborative buy-side consortium marketplace in terms of attracting buying and selling firms. When firms can register exclusively with at most one intermediary, the incumbent is only able to deter entry if the number of firms taking ownership in the consortium is sufficiently small. Otherwise, the consortium can successfully enter and monopolize the market. When firms can multi-home, i.e. they register simultaneously with both intermediaries, the consortium can always enter while both intermediaries stay in the market with positive profits.B2B e-commerce, intermediation, network externalities, matching.

Investment Timing Game of B2B E-commerce Platforms Under Network Externality

In the competitive investment environment of B2B E-commerce platform, the first mover has the advantage of network externality while the followers have the advantage of declining IT cost. Aimed to investigate the optimal Information Technology (IT) investment timing strategy under the interplay of network effect and declining IT cost, this paper develops an option game model under the uncertainty environment where the market demand is stochastic and the random command shock follows a geometric Brownian motion process. By solving this option game model, we offer the payoffs and threshold of platform as leader, follower or simultaneous investor. Equilibrium results show that there exist two kinds of equilibrium strategies, simultaneous equilibrium and sequential equilibrium when we take into account the interaction of network effect and IT cost decline and platforms choose which strategy depend on the relative magnitudes of network externality and IT cost decline level

Partnership and Service Operation Systems in Improving the Performance of Samsat Service Operations in West Java

The government has regulated the pattern of identification and registration of motor vehicle ownership administration and the pattern of imposition of taxes, including compulsory donations of traffic accident funds through the One Roof Motor Vehicle Administration System, abbreviated as SAMSAT. The performance of service operations at the SAMSAT office in West Java Province has not reached the optimal stage. This is allegedly related to the implementation of service operations and partnership systems. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of partnerships and service operating systems on the operational performance of SAMSAT services in West Java. The research method used in this study is survey research. The unit of analysis is the SAMSAT office in West Java Province with an observation unit that is an apparatus from the SAMSAT office in West Java Province spread over 27 districts / cities. Based on a small population size, a census of the entire population is carried out. Causality analysis is used to determine the causal relationship between variables, using PLS. The results of the study show that partnerships and service operating systems have a significant effect on operating performance. System operating performance has a more dominant influence than partnerships in increasing SAMSAT operating performance. The results of this study have implications for the SAMSAT apparatus in West Java Province that efforts to develop operational performance of SAMSAT services can be done by prioritizing the development of service operating systems and supported by the development of closer partnerships with related parties

Duopolistic Competition between Independent and Collaborative Business-to-Business Marketplaces

This paper studies imperfect price competition between two intermediaries in an electronic business-to-business matching market with indirect network externalities. The intermediaries differ with regard to their ownership structure: an independent third party incumbent marketplace competes with a challenging collaborative buy-side consortium marketplace in terms of attracting buying and selling firms. When firms can register exclusively with at most one intermediary, the incumbent is only able to deter entry if the number of firms taking ownership in the consortium is sufficiently small. Otherwise, the consortium can successfully enter and monopolize the market. When firms can multihome, i.e. they register simultaneously with both intermediaries, the consortium can always enter while both intermediaries stay in the market with positive profits. --B2B e-commerce,intermediation,network externalities,matching

Adoption of Software Platforms: Reviewing Influencing Factors and Outlining Future Research

Software platforms have received attention as the dominant model for cooperative software development. Growing the ecosystems around software platforms through increasing adoption by users and developers is of great importance for platform owners. However, there is a lack of research on how to increase adoption and growth of software platforms systematically. To address this issue, we conduct a literature review and make an in-depth analysis to uncover and organize factors that drive adoption of software platforms. Additionally, we derive effective directions of these factors on the respective sides. Finally, we outline three avenues for future research: aligning research on platform governance and platform launch and growth, taking an evolutionary, growth-oriented perspective on governance of software platforms and further detailing platform launch and growth strategies towards a design theory for platform launch. This paper contributes to the understanding of software platforms by reviewing factors driving adoption and triggering network effects

Dynamic Optimal Pricing Strategies for Knowledge-Sharing Platforms

The sharing economy is a fast-growing business model, and the sharing resources have crept from physical assets (e.g., vehicles and houses) to intangible assets (e.g., skills and knowledge). Online knowledge-sharing platforms allow sharers to offer knowledge products in various forms and can generate revenue through charging users subscription and/or transaction fees. How to charge bilateral users is an essential and complex decision-making problem that puzzles knowledge-sharing platforms. This study proposes a dynamic optimal pricing model that involves multiple development stages based on the optimal control theory. In addition, the inherent features of knowledge products and sharers’ social capitals are considered. The applicability and utility of the proposed model is verified through numerical experiments on an empirical dataset from the China’s largest knowledge-sharing platform named Zhihu. The results reveal that the platform can adjust its pricing strategies to achieve different optimization goals and this is conducive to its sustainable development

Network Effects In Two-Sided Electronic Market: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis Of Online P2P Lending Market

With a two-sided model, this paper reports an empirical research investigating online Peer-to-Peer lending marketplaces, PPDai.com in China and Prosper.com in US. We observe that the platform’s profit-maximizing pricing strategies for the agents in the online P2P lending marketplaces are mainly related to the network effects between and within the two sides. Agents’ inter-group and intra-group network externalities depend on the demand-supply relationships, which is unlike the assumptions of negative intra-group network externalities and positive inter-group network externalities in the previous theoretical research of electronic commerce. Besides, as assumed in the theoretical model, it demonstrates significant negative price elasticity of demand and supply on both platforms. Based on the theoretical model and empirical results, we analyze the two platforms’ profit-maximizing pricing strategies, and explain the rationality and deficiency of the strategies. The findings enhance our understanding of the two-sided electronic market, which could shed light on how the platforms make price strategies in this kind of electronic market

Why did electronic B2B marketplaces fail?

Dynamometer tests have been carried out to evaluate the performance, emissions and wear characteristics of an indirect injection diesel engine when fuelled by 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 per cent blends of ordinary coconut oil (COCO) with ordinary diesel fuel (OD). The test was conducted for 100 h using each of the test fuels to monitor the eVect of COCO blends on the wear and lubricating oil performance. OD fuel was also used for comparison purposes. The operating performance of the engine and the emission characteristics of exhaust gases were compared. The eVect of blended fuel on the engine’s wear and lubrication characteristics in terms of wear metal (Fe), water concentration, oxidation, viscosity, total base number and additive depletion was analysed. The performance and emissions characteristics results showed that 10–30 per cent coconut oil blends produced slightly higher performance in terms of brake power than OD. All the COCO blends produced lower exhaust emissions including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and particulate matter. The wear and lubrication oil characteristics results showed that COCO blends up to 30 per cent produced similar results to OD. This programme will give useful information for further research and development in the future if COCO is used as an alternative to OD