CRITICAL MASS ATTAINMENT IN E-BUSINESSTRADING COMMUNITIES

摘要

I research about critical mass attainment in e-business trading communities. The term “critical massrnattainment” here denotes the boundary of my study. The term “trading community” is defined by not just thernmarket place host, but also by buyers, sellers, potential participants and other related actors (e.g. Standardsrnorganizations). Critical mass theory is my underlying research logic. The theory formalizes “why a smallrnsample of the population chooses to make big contribution to collective action while the majority does little orrnnothing” (Oliver et al. 1985). I view trading communities as a collective good. Thos who join in and contributernto trade during the infancy stages of a trading community are assumed to make a big contribution. My researchrnthus aims to differentiate those who joined and participated in a trading community earlier from those who didrnlatter. The differentiation is not only made in terms of just characteristics such as size and purchasing volumernbut also in terms of joining rationale. I assume that a trading community attaining critical mass is due tornsatisfied buyers and sellers. My research results would help trading communities in improving their marketingrneffectiveness and trading partners in evaluating a trading community. I do a positivist case study research.rnUnstructured interviews is my primary research method. Two initiatives that I study are Gatetrade and IBXrnmarketplaces. The first is Government to Business (G2B) and the second is Business to Business (B2B) inrnnature. The following are two examples of relationships that I have identified based on 25 interviews that I havernso far conducted. I) A trading partner’s commitment to an e-biz community is directly related to asset specificrninvestments that he or she has made for joining. Ii) An organization would more likely trade through an E-bizrncommunity when its purchasing practices within an organization are centralized instead of decentralized.