Electronic Business-to-Business Marketplace Transformation in the Chemical Industry: Will the Second Wave Succeed Where the First has Failed?

The global chemical sales are expected to be worth over €6,000 bn by 2030 and this offers a very significant market size for businesses to be transacted electronically. It is generally believed that the first wave of the electronic business-to-business marketplace featured very strongly into the chemical industry sometime in the late 1990’s, but in just over a few years many of these electronic marketplaces started to close down or being merged with others, and later on they too disappeared from the chemical industry. Many of them had failed to sustain themselves in the marketplace and survived. From 2005 onwards, it became apparent that the second wave of electronic marketplaces started to enter the chemical industry again. Electronic marketplaces were being set up by chemical manufacturers and distributors, with many of them even setting up multiple web storefronts, to promote their products. This research will look into the chemical distribution market size, supply chain activities, as well as the various electronic marketplaces present in the chemical industry. The Author will investigate into the reasons why the first wave of chemical electronic marketplaces did not manage to sustain themselves in the market and the possible reasons for their failure. The types of electronic marketplaces during the second wave were investigated in great detail. What are the differences in the types of electronic platforms in the second wave and will they stand a chance to survive this time round, when many of them have failed in the first wave? This research will attempt to investigate the possible strategies through the digital marketplace, by both chemical manufacturers and distributors, in their effort to capture greater market share.

Blockchain impact on the B2B sales market

Advances in ICT, such as the Internet, have led to the development of electronic marketplaces for business (B2B) where different sides of the market come into contact with each other. However, despite technological innovation, e-B2B sales markets still suffer from various problems inherited from traditional exchanges. The purpose of this study is to determine the blockchain impact on the B2B sales market when introducing a new generation of blockchain-based B2B platforms. The study presents approaches to the concept of a blockchain-based B2B trading platform. The problems in the traditional electronic B2B sales market, as well as the possibilities of blockchain-based B2B trading platforms in solving the problems of existing B2B markets, are identified. The authors determine that blockchain-based B2B trading platforms eliminate various problems that are currently damaging the B2B sales market worldwide and should have a positive impact.

E-Supply Chain Management: A Review

These days, internet-based electronic marketplaces (EMs) are widely expanded all over the world. They emerge in different industries, supporting the various exchanges of goods or services with and for different types of actors, and are following different business principles and models to face up to its competitors and fulfil its ambitions. Most observers have suggested that electronic marketplaces would emerge to prevail over the electronic business area. This article aims to propose a critical review based on existing literature, over the electronic marketplaces and imposes the supply chain management research in respect of this issue.

Decentralized Agent-based Electronic Marketplace Supply Chain Ecosystem

Electronic marketplaces have become an essential part of the business to business e-commerce. Supply chain concept is fully taking advantage of using the network effects in electronic marketplaces due to augmented added value from each participant. However, highly desirable network effects lead to one company monopoly over the whole marketplace. To prevent this effect, authors are proposing and devising a decentralized agent-based electronic marketplace for supply chain ecosystem. The goal of our research is to improve overall supply chain service quality by allowing companies’ agents to evaluate the service quality of their partners through the history of their transactions. Consequently, since in their procurement activities more informed decisions are being made instantaneously, continuously and autonomously at each node of a supply chain, supply chain service quality is being improved along the whole supply chain.