Business-to-business electronic marketplaces: evolving business models and competitive landscape

Business models, as the core architecture of value creation, provide an analytical framework for a systematic classification of business-to-business electronic marketplaces (EMs). That framework comprises transaction content, structure and governance. By their transaction content, EMs can be classified as horizontal, vertical and super-vertical; by their transaction structure as buyer-centric, seller-centric and third-party; by their transaction content and structure combined as MRO hubs, catalog hubs, yield managers and exchanges, and the former two further as lead generators, dealers and brokers; or by their transaction governance as independent, industry sponsored and private. The EM competitive landscape is evolving as some earlier business models prove non-viable and new models emerge. That evolving landscape is explained in part by the intermediation-disintermediation-reintermediation (IDR) process, EMs' quest for market leadership and their search for sustainable revenue streams.