Proprietary versus internet technologies and the adoption and impact of electronic marketplaces

In this paper we provide a trans-disciplinary view on electronic markets and their impact beyond the dyadic use of EDI. Electronic marketplaces and business-to-business (B2B) exchanges are proliferating now that the Internet has made cooperation and collaboration easier and cheaper. The key question addressed is: will these newer forms of electronic markets lead to other mechanisms of integration and governance than the old EDI-based e-markets and Interorganisational systems? We argue that the characteristics of pre-internet electronic marketplaces structurally differ from those of internet-based electronic marketplaces, and that this results in different adoption and integration patterns. We provide a model and a set of integrative propositions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.