The Classification of Types of Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce: A Framework Construction

Based on the degree of information sharing between buyers and suppliers as well as thelevel of supplier power, we suggested a framework that can be useful for classifyingtypes of business to business (B2B) electronic commerce (EC) in the manufacturingfirms. According to this framework, four kinds of B2B EC were theoretically proposed,classified, and empirically confirmed. These four are: an electronic marketplace,electronic procurement, electronic partnerships, and electronic distribution. Many priorstudies have investigated and proposed some kinds of B2B EC. However, these studiesfocused mostly on one or two types of B2B EC, and did not develop or suggest aframework for the classification of forms of B2B EC. The framework constructed inthis research can be utilized variously. Specifically, when a firm wants to initiate B2BEC with its suppliers, this framework can help a firm to decide and select an appropriatekind of B2B EC. This framework can also be applied to evaluate whether the properform of B2B EC has been adopted or not