Social e-business as support for construction e-procurement: e-procurement network dynamics

If correctly designed and implemented, construction e-procurement platforms may increase performance-based competition, stimulate suppliers' noncontractible investments, encourage trust development and promote project quality [9,17]. Therefore, e-procurement networks, which are constituted by buyers and suppliers, will be able to grow and consolidate, which is beneficial to buyers and suppliers [1] but also to e-procurement service providers, who will be able to increase profits. However, it is pertinent to ask if the e-procurement networks generated will tend to grow indefinitely, as it seems to happen in the well-known social networks [24], and what management approaches service providers should implement in order to encourage growth and obtain maximum benefits. It is also pertinent to discuss if Social ebusiness [10], which is an e-business approach that integrates several social networking tools, having in mind that social networking approaches should focus on collaborative processes, win-win relationships and supply chain integration instead of competition-based situations, may potentiate this growth. As stated by Grilo [14] an atmosphere of co-operation between firms,where they may have mutual expectation of long-term commercial interaction, is very important to the emergence and sophistication of innovative systems. Furthermore © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.