واسطه اطلاعات و مزیت رقابتی در بازار های دیجیتال B2B

Digital platforms are radically transforming the organisational structure of value chains and the way companies organise their business. Because they are so complex, b2b networks are mainly involved in this process and new infomediaries are emerging to reorganise company relations. Apart from several articles, there has been little meaningful debate regarding the driving forces behind these changes. This paper focuses on the competitive role of these new actors, and provides a conceptual framework which aims to show how these new virtual infomediaries are affecting strategic company resources and reshaping the dynamics of competition. We present three European cases of b2b digital marketplaces to illustrate how competitive infomediation works.

The spread of the Internet has led to several changes in business organisation and company strategy. By providing a wide range of opportunities linked to digital platforms, companies can now de-construct traditional vertical value chains and convert them into more flexible and synchronic value aggregations. Electronic commerce is the main driving force behind this transformation since companies can now carry out transactions in goods, services and information in digital form. In this sense, online business-to-business relations play a central role in changing the structure of vertical value chains. Since b2b transactions are much more complex than those involving the final consumer, b2b e-commerce develops in a more complex scenario.1 For instance, infomediaries are needed to reorganise b2b networks because, unlike what occurs in the b2c environment, companies are unable to directly exploit the benefit of e-commerce on their own.2 New categories of intermediaries (trading hubs, auctioneers, vortals, …) are now emerging in the b2b environment and creating marketspaces where supply and demand might match by using organised virtual platforms.3 Apart from several reports and research studies on this topic, there has been little meaningful debate regarding the driving forces behind these changes. The de-construction of businesses, the spread of infomediation roles and the creation of new b2b marketspaces are only in part a technological phenomenon since they emerge as companies explore and find new and better ways to establish business relations.4 In our opinion, what drives the transformation of old vertical value chains into new b2b marketspaces is a profound impact on competitiveness (see Figure 1).