Twenty years of electronic markets research—looking backwards towards the future

Abstract

Over the past 20 years the field of electronic markets has seen a considerable proliferation and differentiation. This position paper takes the opportunity of the 21st volume of "Electronic Markets" to look back at important developments and insights, suggesting a framework that captures the multiple facets and indeed empirical breadth and depths of this concept. It comprises three perspectives which include the market environment, governance choices by economic actors as well as the entrepreneurial dynamics of firms who initiate and operate market platforms as their business. In addition, we propose to study the interplay of technological, market, and institutional drivers in order to understand the phenomenon of electronic markets, which is also a precondition for designing electronic markets. Both activities involve more than an economically motivated choice between the discrete alternatives of markets and hierarchies. Rather, electronic markets are configurations across multiple, interdependent dimensions: Technology is an important force in shaping the field, but needs to be complemented by considerations of the competitive environment and the setting of rules in order to ensure efficient and effective plays of the game. Based on this framework, this position paper develops six propositions for the future of electronic markets. Overall, the advantages of intermediated structures, an ongoing technological sophistication, as well as further innovation in market mechanisms and services make electronic markets an enabler for many inter-organizational value chains. While we are confident that the ingenuity of inventors will yield a flow of innovations, recent economic crises have shed a dark shadow over the sustainability of electronic markets. They call for suitable rules and regulation amenable to economic prosperity and stability to be agreed upon on a broad level.

Smart technologies for personalized experiences: a case study in the hospitality domain

“…The idea of one-to-one interactions is also in line with recent scholars suggesting a revival of the social component in electronic markets, as consumers and other members of the society are regaining control (Alt & Klein, 2011). As consumers have become active in the service consumption and production (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004), the empowerment of individual employees on the other end of the service continuum need to be considered as key counterparts in a technologyfacilitated interaction of tourism experiences.…”

“…Smart technologies have become pervasive in electronic markets across a number of areas, including the financial sector, retail and tourism (Alt & Klein, 2011). With the advancement of society and industries coupled with the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), it has become a critical endeavor to explore the potential of smart technologies for business strategies and competitiveness.…”

“…Particularly enforced by the new social and collaborative dimensions of technologies, society and the market place have undergone a shift towards consumers gaining increasing power and control (Alt & Klein, 2011). With consumers playing an interconnected and participatory role in the consumption and creation of experiences and extraordinary value (Buhalis & Law, 2008), it has become paramount for businesses to recognise the potential of technology in this process to engage consumers in a more personal way (Pine & Gilmore, 1999).…”

Electronic interaction research 1988 – 2012 through the lens of the Bled eConference

“…In addition to sub-conscious biases, the analysis that follows is expressly motivated by relevance to the real world of electronic interaction, and hence highly values publications that are accessible by practitioners in preference to those written by academics solely for other academics. An article that represents a counterpoint to this paper, with stronger theoretical pedigree and intellectual ambition, is Alt and Klein (2011). That paper is, however, concerned specifically with economic perspectives on electronic markets, which is a small sub-set of the broad field of view of the Bled eConference and the present paper.…”

Customer Satisfaction: Moderator of e-Business Performance and e-Business Liveability

“…To validate this research framework interviews have been conducted among policy makers from the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Trade. The interview questions were based on the e-businesses literature [8], [5], [11]. However, some e-businesses variables have been explored during the interview with e-businesses experts and these are discussed in section "result discussion" and later presented in the proposed research framework, which is shown in bold in Fig.…”