Business Models for ASP Marketplaces

ASP (Application Server Provider) marketplaces provide a fundamental alternative to the classical business model of software licensing. At this point, it is still unclear why and when customers prefer the ASP model over more traditional approaches. To make ASP more attractive, more knowledge about possible pricing and product strategies is needed. In this paper we describe different business models for ASP marketplaces. We first compare the cost structures of the classical licensing model with the new server-based approach. Then we illustrate how price and product differentiation may improve overall market efficiency. In particular, we show that by selling different software versions for different prices, ASP marketplaces may obtain near-optimal revenues with products that are relatively inexpensive, disaggregated, and customizable. Consumers can thus choose between a wide variety of product lines to fit their differing budgets and requirements

On Internal Knowledge Markets

In large organizations, knowledge can move rapidly or slowly, usefully or unproductively. Those who place faith in internal knowledge markets and online platforms to promote knowledge stocks and flows should understand how extrinsic incentives can crowd outintrinsic motivation

The Potential of Critical E-Applications for Engaging SMEs in E Business: A Provider Perspective

YesAgainst a background of the low engagement of SMEs in e-business this paper investigates the emergence of, and potential for, critical e-applications defined as `an e-business application, promoted by a trusted third party, which engages a significant number of SMEs by addressing an important shared business concern within an aggregation.¿ By a review of secondary data and empirical investigation with service providers and other intermediaries the research shows that such applications can facilitate the e-business engagement of SMEs. There are three key findings, namely: the emergence of aggregation specific e-business applications; the emergence of collaboratively based `one to many¿ business models; and the importance of trusted third parties in the adoption of higher complexity e-business applications by SMEs. Significantly this work takes a deliberately provider perspective and complements the already considerable literature on SME IT adoption from a user and network perspective. In terms of future research the importance of a better conceptual understanding of the impact of complexity on the adoption of IT by SMEs is highlighted

B2B Electronic Marketplaces in Supply Chain Management: Analyzing Recent Research Activities

Since their rise during the 1990s, business-to-business (B2B) electronic marketplaces have been subject to numerous scientific articles. Especially during the dot-com era, these research efforts have been accompanied by several start-ups such as CommerceOne, with mixed market success. For researchers looking for promising areas of IS research, these facts raise the question whether B2B electronic marketplaces still constitute a viable option which is worth focusing on. The work at hand strives to answer that question by conducting a literature analysis covering the period from 2005 to 2009. We examined 11 major IS-journals as well as three major IS conferences in search of articles dealing with or relating to B2B electronic marketplaces. The analysis of the data gathered throughout that process provides an overview of the B2B electronic marketplace research of the past five years from multiple perspectives. Our analysis indentifies several research opportunities for researchers, e.g., by indentifying research methods that have not been applied to examine certain topics, or by identifying geographical regions that have been under-researched regarding the application of B2B electronic marketplaces. Further, our work will help practitioners seeking reliable information regarding B2B electronic marketplaces to indentify publication outlets relevant for this field of research

The Use of Hosted Enterprise Applications by SMEs: A User Perspective

This paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the engagement of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in hosted enterprise applications (high complexity e-business applications) in the UK by investigating the relevance of organisational and technical factors through conducting interviews with SME users of hosted applications. The emergence and development of the application service provider (ASP) sector has attracted much interest and highly optimistic forecasts for revenues. Of particular interest in this paper is the emergence of service offerings targeted specifically at SMEs. The paper starts by considering information technology (IT) adoption by SMEs in general before reviewing the provision of hosted enterprise applications in the US and UK. The empirical data collected from SME users of hosted enterprise applications is then analysed in order to produce the key findings and conclusions. From an SME user perspective the key findings to emerge from the study include: i) confirmation that ICT infrastructure was no longer a barrier to adoption, ii) the pragmatic approach taken to security issues, iii) the use of both multiple information systems (hosted and resident) and service providers, iv) the attractiveness of the rental cost model and v) the intention to continue or extend their use of hosted applications within the enterprise. The early promise of the ASP sector appears not to have been generally realised for SMEs in the UK. This study explores the experience of early adopters of this new IT related innovation and identifies some significant business gains experienced by SME users. It also highlights the opportunity for gaining competitive advantage by using hosted enterprise applications to reduce costs. There are very few empirical studies of hosted applications which take a deliberately SME user perspective and this paper make an important contribution in this emerging field

Organizational factors for successful entering to e-marketplace: Case of large organizations in Slovenia

The appeal of doing business on the Web is clear. By bringing together large numbers of buyers and sellers and by automating transactions, e-marketplaces expand the choices available to buyers, give sellers access to new customers (buyers), and reduce transaction costs for all participants. Entering the e-marketplace is related to the business process of reengineering, connecting of information systems, gaining new knowledge with training and learning, and making investments in new information technologies and software. Such organization must take very careful steps to prepare itself for a successful entrance on the e-marketplace. Only this kind of approach will enable the organization the full use of the available opportunities and will bring expected business results. The paper presents the different types of e-marketplaces and the use of e-marketplaces for business. Furthermore, the results of the research that was done among 250 large organizations in Slovenia are presented. The current status of the use e-commerce and e-marketplaces in large organizations in Slovenia is introduced. In addition, organizational factors found by large organizations to be important for a successful entrance to the e-marketplaces are presented. We conclude the paper with recommendations for the organizations that intend to enter e-marketplace

E-Markets and Changing Trends

This paper discusses the role of e-markets as intermediaries in the Australasian B2B e-space. The discussion and findings of this paper are from a research project that investigated the business and operational issues of these intermediaries as highly volatile business entities in 2002 and an evaluation of these same e-markets in 2005 to determine the changing trends. This paper presents business opportunities, revenue models from intermediary services, factors contributing to success and the challenges e-markets faced in 2002 and in 2005