Business Participation in Third-party Controlled E-marketplace: An Exploratory Model

Abstract

Previous research on the factors that influence a business's participation in third-party e-markets identified a set of motivational and ability related factors. This paper explores further the question of the determinants of third-party e-market participation using a multiple case study research design. Data were collected from three companies in China. Our findings suggest that motivation and ability related factors might play both an enabling and inhibiting role in e-market adoption. However, we also found that these factors are limited to offer a complete understanding of participation in third-party operated e-markets. In particular, in the context of emerging economies and emerging e-markets where both contextual factors and the offerings of market-makers are crucial to an enterprise's decision to join and stay in e-market, the explanatory power of motivation and ability factors tend to be limited. The paper proposes an extended motivation-ability model to understand the drivers and inhibitors of participating in third-party operated e-markets. It further discusses the implications of the results of the study for both market and business decision makers.