This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Perspectives
  4. Winter 2001
  5. Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce

  • David Lucking-Reiley
  • Daniel F. Spulber
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 15, no. 1, Winter 2001
(pp. 55–68)
Download Full Text PDF
(Complimentary)

Abstract

Just as the industrial revolution mechanized the manufacturing functions of firms, the information revolution is automating their merchant functions. Four types of potential productivity gains are expected from business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce: cost efficiencies from automation of transactions, potential advantages of new market intermediaries, consolidation of demand and supply through organized exchanges, and changes in the extent of vertical integration of firms. The article examines the characteristics of B2B online intermediaries, including categories of goods traded, market mechanisms employed, and ownership arrangements, and considers the market structure of B2B e-commerce.

Citation

Lucking-Reiley, David, and Daniel F. Spulber. 2001. "Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce." Journal of Economic Perspectives 15 (1): 55–68. DOI: 10.1257/jep.15.1.55

JEL Classification

  • L86 Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
  • D21 Firm Behavior
  • L22 Firm Organization and Market Structure