B2B electronic commerce seems to have a high growth in Korea, but it is hard to find the profitable business model. Because of this situation, many Korean B2B e-Marketplaces face serious financial problems.
The purpose of this thesis is to suggest the successful strategic direction for B2B e-Marketplace operation with a case study on MRO e-Marketplace that is the most actively transacted e-Marketplace in Korea. This study is progressed by three stages. First, define the success factors on B2B e-Marketplace such as technology, organization, operation, product and service, strategy, and market aspects from the existing research. Second, apply these factors to the case company and analyze it, and then do the customer survey to investigate their needs and evaluate the performance of e-Marketplace.
The implications of this study are to consider about the long-term relationship with buyers and sellers and build the differential strategies to meet their needs. Buyers think technological factors are more important while sellers feel transparency and trust are more important factors than others. So the differential approach would be appropriate for each of them. Additionally, because the current major business model is an e-Procurement model, it is more focused on the buyer side. It results in performance value recognition gap of e-Marketplace between buyers and sellers. Therefore, B2B MRO e-Marketplace needs to take a neutral role between buyers and sellers to keep the transparency and enhance competitiveness for the future B2B e-Marketplace operation.
