درک B2B و وب سایت: تسریع هماهنگی و انگیزه

This paper explores business-to-business (B2B) marketing on the Internet, and how the confluence of the two may transform the B2B landscape. Specifically, it discusses the notion of linkage value to demonstrate why the B2B phenomenon on the Internet is so significant. It then considers the mechanisms and enablers that have made the Web such an important B2B marketing channel. It also explores how the Web can reduce transaction costs, thereby facilitating more efficient exchanges and markets. The concepts of links and nodes are then introduced and the processes of disintermediation, reintermediation, disaggregation and reaggregation are explored. Finally, Web B2B configurations are considered by way of a model that describes four archetypal configurations, and the factors that are antecedent to these modes and how the Web may influence them.

Sociologists have for many years explored the value of social capital, or the number of nonredundant links in a person's social network [1]. In the same way, the value of the business-to-business (B2B) paradigm vs. the business-to-consumer paradigm can be emphasized through recourse to simple network analysis. In the business-to-consumer market, links (l) between a business and its customers (n) increase in simple linear proportion to the number of customers, i.e. l=n. Double your customer base, double your links. In the same way in the B2B paradigm, the links between businesses increase as a function of the number of nonredundant unique links. However, here the dynamics are quite different. Three players have three possible links, four players have six possible links and five players have 10 links. Extended to n businesses the number of links, 4l become n!/(n−2)!. Thus, in linkage value, the B2B market increases by just under the square of the number of links compared with the business-to-customer market where linkage value increases monotonically with the number of links. Consequently, the B2B market is potentially of much greater significance than the business-to-consumer market. The oft-quoted trading volumes [2] give credence to this hypothesis.Using the sociological construct of social capital and transaction cost theory, this paper has examined B2B marketing in an on-line context. Network and transaction cost analysis are powerful tools for businesses to evaluate market potential. Based on the insights developed in this article, Table 4 contains a checklist of questions that managers should ask to analyze and spot opportunities in on-line markets. References to specific tables and figures within the article are provided to guide the questioner.

In this era of value maximization, firms can indeed apply network theory on the Web in a practical way to add value and reduce costs. Specifically, the paper has focused on the economic theory of transaction costs and has provided examples of the various types of transaction costs that the Web can shrink, as well as examples of how learning costs can be reduced. On the value-adding side of the equation, it has demonstrated how the Internet facilitates direct, unmediated linking of exchange parties. The new virtual nodes that are arising on the Web to facilitate the B2B transformation are in effect new intermediaries. While much has been written regarding the Web's ability to facilitate disintermediation, the new nodes represent a process of reintermediation. Indeed, the Web has facilitated and accelerated two distinct processes and their corresponding complements. Business-within-business (B1B) has seen the processes of disaggregation and its complement reaggregation, while B2B has seen the processes of disintermediation and reintermediation. Managers will take these processes seriously, and seek to implement them where possible, while for researchers and consultants alike, they will provide stimuli to explore opportunities to increase knowledge and profit. The model that synthesizes and explains the multitude of B2B interactions on the Web and the processes that underlie them are mapped on the two useful and salient dimensions of control and mode. The dimension of control sheds light for managers on the problem of how to coordinate or control economic activity [6], where coordination is viewed as ranging from directed to emergent. The dimension of mode drawn from contract theory [7] focuses on the nature of the interaction. This essentially has to do with the temporal commitment of the two parties and the concomitant norms or shared expectations of the interaction. This dimension is delineated by transactional and relational interactions. It is reiterated that the extremes of each dimension (economic coordination and mode of interaction) are Weberian ideals. They are employed to delineate a conceptual space, not to imply real-world exclusivity. Often, real-world B2B interactions comprise elements of each. B2B interactions can now be thought of as attempting to maximize one of four processes: matching, aggregation, integration and creativity. Matching comprises the emergent–transactional quadrant, aggregation the directive–transactional, integration the directive–relational quadrant and creativity the emergent–relational quadrant. More specifically, matching comprises the temporal and spatial connecting of buyers and sellers. Economic control is emergent from the interactions between multiple buyers and multiple sellers, while the mode of interaction is transactional. Aggregation comprises the collection by one central buyer of products and services from a disparate range of sellers. The buyer adds incremental value by offering customers convenient access to a wide selection of offerings at current prices, often coupled with extensive product information—the customer is thus offered lower search and transaction costs, combined with a more diverse supply base. Integration comprises the process of directed synergistic coupling of organizations in such a manner as to achieve significant added value. Economic coordination is typically achieved by directive control, while the mode of interaction between parties is relational. The focus is on producing a highly integrated value proposition, through a directed coordination of relationally coupled parties. Creativity comprises the process whereby a disparate group of organizations come together in some form of reticulation to produce innovations, which would be difficult to achieve on their own. As these are longer-term projects, the mode of interaction is relational with parties investing trust and commitment in the process. However, as each player brings unique skills or resources to the venture, there is typically no one controlling firm. The mechanisms that embody this creative process include collaborative networks, alliances and joint ventures.