Electronic Marketing in Principle and Practice

Abstract

Electronic marketing has evolved in agricultural marketing thought over the past 20-25 years, with a distinct acceleration since the late 1970's. The first evidence of an electronic market, called "Selevision," for Florida citrus fruit was found in the mid 1940's (Cassidy). However, it was not until a teletype auction was developed for butcher hogs in Ontario during the early 1960's (Peer) that electronic marketing gained much interest. After the development of a few successful telephone auctions (teleauctions) for livestock, principally pigs, and an unsuccessful teleauction for eggs in the U.S. during the 1960's, the concept was advanced when Schrader, Heifner and Larzelere proposed a computerized egg exchange in 1968 (Schrader et al.). Academic interest increased followed the publication of a conceptual assessment of electronic markets as part of the "Marketing Alternatives for Agriculture" series from the National Public Policy Education Committee in 1976 (Henderson et al., 1976). Attention became more focused in 1978 when USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service announced an initiative to partially finance pilot electronic marketing projects. My purposes are to (1) define the concept of electronic marketing as it 'applies to agriculture, (2) describe applications of electronic marketing in agriculture, and (3) review some of the reasons for increased interest. These reasons, in turn, imply some performance expectations. The subsequent papers by Schrader and Sporleder bring r ..

Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

“…Purchasing and selling through the Internet may enhance efficiency by "increasing the accuracy with which prices reflect true market conditions" (Henderson, 1984). Intensity of use, in terms of the amount of purchases made or the number of tasks carried out through the Internet, may also affect the returns to computer adoption (Feder and Slade, Putler and Zilberman).…”

Designing an electronic auction market for complex ‘smart parts’ logistics: Options based on LeBaron's computational stock market

“…While financial electronic marketplaces date back to the founding of NASDAQ in 1971, supply-chain EMs did not materialize until later (e.g., Peer, 1976;Sporleder, 1980;Bell et al, 1983;Henderson, 1984;Malone et al, 1987). Only after 1990 do we see research and commentary on electronic supply-chain auction markets beginning to emerge (Schmid et al, 1991;Neo, 1992;Borman et al, 1993;Schmid, 1993;Lee, 1996;Gudmundsson and Walczuck, 1999;Wenninger, 1999;Kaplan and Sawhney, 2000;Van Hoek, 2001).…”

The Information Age: Implications for U.S. Agriculture

“…The extension of electronic marketing and teleshopping systems promises to change the way in which agri-marketing and agri-input f i r m s operate and are organized. Electronic marketing promises to facilitate the continuing decline of central assembly agricultural markets and displace local agricultural commodity brokers (Henderson, 1984;Sporleder, 1983). Local agri-input dealers and merchants are likely to be negatively affected by teleshopping systems as the farmer could bypass them and buy directly from the manufacturer at a lower cost (Nowels, 1985).…”