Commercial exchanges in B2B markets
In addition to creating the rightculture a company needs to consider the characteris-
tics of the working environment and ensure that processes, technological infrastructure
and systems are effective and efficient. In the online trading environment it is often
extremely difficult to achieve a long-term sustainable advantage over the competition
and as a result the working environment can be very demanding. For example, in
Internet marketing organisations, there are two important variables that influence cus-
tomer satisfaction: the speed and accuracy of service delivery; and sustaining the
technical reliability of all online systems. The significance of these variables does mean
that it is important to ensure that the human resource management processes within an
organisation are focused on continually investing in upgrading employee skills to ensure
they are capable of fulfilling their job roles to a standard that exceeds that which is
achieved by competition. It is also important to understand what causes certain employ-
ees to consistently achieve high performance standards within the organisation and
then determine how effective management of these factors can contribute to sustaining
a market lead over competition.
This section has considered elements of the trading environment and how these fac-
tors can be affected by the online trading environment. A key conclusion that can be
drawn is that it is becoming increasingly important for businesses trading online to
understand the trading context as competition intensifies and expectations of stake-
holders intensify. The next aspect of B2B commerce to consider is the potential of online
markets and how businesses trade electronically.The nature of the markets in which B2B e-commerce and e-marketing take place is the
second major theme considered in this chapter. This section examines:
the potential of the electronic marketplace in terms of growth, volume and global
dispersion
how organisations are using Internet technologies for communications and e-commerce.The electronic marketplace
Rayport and Sviokla (1995) introduced the term electronic marketspaceand suggest it is a
new environment which has implications for the way in which businesses trade. The
speed of development of computer, network and Internet technologies has played a key
role in the rapid expansion of the marketspaceand subsequently the commercial practice
of electronic trading. It should be remembered, however, that electronic trading per seis
not a new phenomenon; commercial exchanges have taken place using electronic data
interchange (EDI) and dedicated data links between organisations for several decades.
Nevertheless, what is new is Internet technologies. Communication standards and proto-
cols create a virtual trading environment where any organisation with a computer and
access to the Internet has the potential to trade in global markets. It is the aim of this sec-
tion to focus on this potential and investigate growth, volume and dispersion of B2B
electronic markets (the technologies and management activities taking place have been
discussed in earlier chapters).Commercial exchanges in B2B markets