Economic returns to firms from business-to-business electronic commerce initiatives: an empirical examination

Do firms derive economic returns from business-to-business(B2B) initiatives? How do returns to startup firms compare to those for established firms in B2B initiatives? How do returns to B2B initiatives around digital goods compare to those involving tangible goods? We offer a rigorous definition of B2B then conduct an empiricaltest ofincompletecontracttheory to examine the returnsto B2B electronic commerce (EC) initiatives focused on digitalgoodsversus tangiblegoods,and the returns to Internet firms versus brick-and-mortarfirms. While there seems to be little difference between digital and tangible initiatives, we find that the returns to Internet firms are significant while the returns to brick-and-mortar firms are not. We propose, based on the application of incomplete contract theory, that this result obtains because the addition of new partners in the EC channel undermines existing relationships in the conventional channel. At the same time, existing relationships in the conventio...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: ICIS
• Authors: Mani R. Subramani, Eric Walden
• Keywords: B2B Initiatives, EC Channel, ICIS 2000, ICIS 2001, Internet Firms