Business-to-business (B2B) electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) are one of the most heralded developments in recent years. These marketplaces bring together businesses buying and selling goods and services in an online buying community. E-marketplaces promise to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of procurement activities by replacing traditional manual processes with automated electronic procedures and by expanding the number of available trading partners. Despite the technology availability and the high potential benefits, very few e-marketplaces have succeeded. This three-year study identifies and investigates two major B2B e-marketplace stumbling blocks: attracting a sufficient number of members, and then influencing these members to use the e-marketplace. This investigation uses a variety of qualitative techniques to solicit information from nearly fifty executives representing four B2B e-marketplaces with contrasting membership and use levels. Within each e-marketplace, the study solicited information from high and low use organizations, buying and selling organizations, and a nonparticipant organization. The interview data was analyzed using line-by-line analysis from grounded theory. The analysis involved assimilating the unique stories of each manager into drivers that affect e-marketplace membership or use. These drivers were then compared to membership levels and/or use levels. The analysis resulted in three research models. Each research model is a data-driven representation of factors driving B2B e-marketplace membership, B2B e-marketplace use, and a particular organization's B2B e-marketplace use. Each model contains several unique drivers and offers a comprehensive picture of what is happening in e-marketplaces. These findings enhance management's understanding of e-marketplaces, their role in business, their challenges, and ways of overcoming these challenges in order to reap the benefits of e-marketplace participation. This study brings one of the first grounded theory investigations of B2B e-marketplace membership and use to the limited academic research in this area. This research offers insights to a number of theories, including transaction cost economics, institutional theory, resource dependency theory, and public goods theory.

Consumers frequently face mismatch risk as goods they purchase may be deemed inappropriate or below expectations. Due to this risk, consumers may avoid purchasing such goods and consequently hurt retailers. Can the emergence of peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces benefit retailers? On the one hand, P2P marketplaces can mitigate some of this risk by allowing consumers to trade mismatched goods. On the other hand, P2P marketplaces impose a threat on retailers as they compete with them over consumers. We develop a two-period model that highlights the effects introduced by P2P marketplaces. We show that a P2P marketplace benefits both the retailer and consumers when the wholesale price is sufficiently high and hurts them both when the wholesale price is low. The introduction of a P2P marketplace can relieve consumers from the mismatch risk and induces the retailer to post a higher price. However, when the wholesale price is low, the platform manages to extract most, or all, of the consumers surplus and directly hurts consumers, and eventually the retailer who experiences lower sales in both periods. With a high wholesale price the P2P marketplace is limited in its ability of extracting consumer surplus, which increases the retailer sales and benefits both the retailer and consumers. We further observe that social welfare is generally higher unless the wholesale price is relatively low.

Over 1800 metric tons of wool is produced in Sweden on a yearly basis, only 300 is used. This project involved creating an online marketplace where wool producers and the general public alike could turn to regarding the purchasing and selling of Swedish wool, as well as general information regarding wool. The goal of this project was to reduce the wastage along with the negative effects it has on the environment, partially by making it easier to buy and sell wool, but also by tackling surrounding problems such as localization and subjectivity when selling. To further understand the wastage, but also wool and its properties, multiple contextual inquiries were conducted alongside a survey. The result is a marketplace, more specifically, a web application, which consists of a section to buy wool and a section to sell wool. Furthermore, the web application also consists of a section with general information regarding Swedish wool and a map showing wool nearby. / Det produceras över 1800 ton ull i Sverige varje år, endast 300 används. Detta projektarbete bestod av att skapa en webbtjänst i form av en köp- och säljmarknad som underlättar den svenska ullhandeln, samt sprider information angående svinnet. Själva köp- och säljmarknaden består av ett flertal sektioner. Tjänsten är utformad utifrån resultat av kontextuella undersökningar samt enkäter som bidrar till en mer användarvänlig upplevelse. På marknadsplatsen finner man bland annat en karta som illusterar för användaren var ull finns tillgängligt. Det övergripande målet med projektarbetet var att minska svinnet av svensk ull samt dess negativa effekter på miljön. Detta genom att underlätta handeln av lokalproducerad ull samt förebygga problem som den subjektivitet som kan uppstå vid försäljning, vilket i sig kan ses som en följd av avsaknaden av ett klassificeringssystem. Projektet resulterade i en väl fungerande webbtjänst med stöd för handel av ull.

Submitted by Gisely Teixeira (gisely.teixeira@uniceub.br) on 2018-06-14T18:33:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 51500841.pdf: 741678 bytes, checksum: 7b573b41e34968091c11135319b01cb1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-14T18:33:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 51500841.pdf: 741678 bytes, checksum: 7b573b41e34968091c11135319b01cb1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018 / O presente estudo tem a finalidade de verificar se o marketplace pode ajudar a alavancar as vendas dos pequenos varejistas e quais os fatores envolvidos nesse tipo de negócio. Para a realização deste trabalho foram realizadas pesquisa exploratória e pesquisa aplicada a partir do ambiente do Elo7, maior marketplace brasileiro de produtos artesanais e autorais. Vinte empreendedores que comercializam seus produtos na plataforma responderam questionário com dez perguntas sobre o tema. Foi constatado que eles aumentaram suas vendas ao aderirem à plataforma e os benefícios não só advindos pelo tráfego de clientes, mas também pelos custos mais baixos dos serviços oferecidos e pela credibilidade do site.

Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / El estudio desarrollado entre los meses de julio a diciembre del 2016, tuvo por finalidad realizar la evaluación de factibilidad técnica, económica y estratégica de implementar un Marketplace de productos artesanales chilenos. Según el estudio de mercado, el consumo de artesanía, productos y alimentos artesanales no está desarrollado a través de internet, con limitada o nula penetración, ya que tan sólo un 12% de los consumidores (clientes B2C) ha comprado este tipo de productos por esta vía. Sin embargo, existe un alto número de personas que están familiarizadas con la compra a través de internet, es así como un 87,2% de los encuestados ha realizado algún tipo de compra en los últimos 12 meses a través de esta vía. De la mano con lo anterior, en relación a los productores artesanales (clientes B2B), el estudio de mercado permitió identificar que ellos comercializan a través de internet, sin embargo, no lo utilizan como principal canal para la comercialización de sus productos, y cerca de un 11% de los artesanos lo utiliza como principal canal de venta. Por otro lado, se determinó que existe amplio interés por parte de clientes B2B en comercializar productos artesanales mediante una plataforma web especializada. Según el estudio de mercado realizado, el 100% de los clientes B2B demuestra interés en vender a través de un Marketplace de productos artesanales. Algo similar ocurre con los clientes B2C, donde un 80% de los consumidores encuestados demuestran interés en comprar bajo este tipo de comercio. Por tanto, el Marketplace vendría a generar un punto de encuentro entre ambos clientes, que aunque actualmente no compran ni comercializan principalmente a través de este medio, demuestran interés en realizarlo, siendo una atractiva oportunidad de negocio. Como resultado del estudio de mercado, estimado para el año 2016, se determinó al grupo socioeconómico ABC1 como segmento objetivo para clientes B2C, el cual tiene un tamaño anual de mercado asociado de MM $96.884. Mientras que para los clientes B2B, se definió como segmento objetivo a los artesanos que cuentan con factura o boleta, que según el estudio de mercado realizado corresponden al 80% de los artesanos, abarcando un total de 11.000 artesanos. La estrategia a utilizar para posicionar al Marketplace, será una estrategia de enfoque, dirigida a los segmentos anteriormente mencionados. Dentro de esta estrategia de enfoque, se definirá una estrategia de precios bajos dirigida a los clientes B2B, junto con una mirada en diferenciación dirigida a los clientes B2C. Se estima una penetración de mercado de un 2% con respecto al tamaño de mercado objetivo, lo cual corresponde a MM$1.938. Como resultado de la evaluación económica y con un crecimiento en las ventas estimado en un 10% anual, se obtiene un VAN de MM$117,97 y una TIR de 25%, siendo el proyecto bajo estas condiciones, factible técnica, económica y estratégicamente. Por último, se recomienda ver la posibilidad de expandir a futuro el negocio al extranjero, montando Marketplaces en diferentes países, asociado a productos artesanales propios de cada país.

This thesis describes the process of conceptualizing and developing a recommendersystem for a peer-to-peer commerce application. The application in question is calledPlick and is a vintage clothes marketplace where private persons and smaller vintageretailers buy and sell secondhand clothes from each other. Recommender systems is arelatively young field of research but has become more popular in recent years withthe advent of big data applications such as Netflix and Amazon. Examples ofrecommender systems being used in e-marketplace applications are however stillsparse and the main contribution of this thesis is insight into this sub-problem inrecommender system research. The three main families of recommender algorithmsare analyzed and two of them are deemed unfitting for the e-marketplace scenario.Out of the third family, collaborative filtering, three algorithms are described,implemented and tested on a large subset of data collected in Plick that consistsmainly of clicks made by users on items in the system. By using both traditional andnovel evaluation techniques it is further shown that a user-based collaborative filteringalgorithm yields the most accurate recommendations when compared to actual userbehavior. This represents a divergence from recommender systems commonly usedin e-commerce applications. The paper concludes with a discussion on the cause andsignificance of this difference and the impact of certain data-preprocessing techniqueson the results.

More and more organisations are embracing a team approach in their quest to meet the demands of a turbulent marketplace. The dynamics of teams and teamwork are fascinating. Most managers in today’s collaborative and consultative environments need to develop teams and team leadership to achieve good results through others. Strong teams assist managers and they make organisations stronger, but the converse is also true – weak teams severely weaken organisations. Although there are many perspectives regarding teamwork, the general enthusiasm for teams and what they can accomplish remains strong. Work teams in South Africa are becoming a lucrative business. Already in the 1990s, no fewer than 82% of companies with more than 100 employees reported using team structures (Gordon, 2002). During the same period, as many as 68% of the Fortune 1000 companies used self-managed teams (Lawler, Mohrman&Ledford, 1995). There were two main reasons for undertaking this study: satisfying my own natural inquisitiveness regarding teams, and investigating teamwork and the expectations of employees of teamwork in 21st century South African organisations. I set out to explore, describe and understand the challenges teams have to face, as well as individuals’ expectations of working in teams. A qualitative approach, with due reference to the multiple levels of organisational behaviour (individual, groups and organisational level), was applied in this quest to understand team expectations and challenges in context. A total of 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and four focus group interviews were conducted amongst 38 voluntary participants. The transcripts were then thoroughly analysed and compared to identify shared themes and to explore differences and similarities in terms of team experiences and expectations. Four themes and numerous sub-themes evolved from the research. Theme 1 deals with the individual level expectations of teamwork, and represents the individuals’ need to be part of the organisation and to enjoy this experience. Theme 2 indicates the specific team level expectations of team work. Teams expressed a need for clear roles and to be rewarded if they reached those goals, as well as for team skills. Theme 3 deals with the expectations that leaders and organisations have when they implement teamwork. It turns out that organisations often implement teams and expect them to solve business problems without offering the relevant support to those teams. Theme 4 addresses the greatest challenges teams face in 21st century South African organisations. Virtual teaming and a loss of identity are identified as a few of these challenges. The themes as well as sub-themes are discussed in detail in Chapter 4. Based on the study findings, several recommendations are made based on the shared experiences and unique feedback of these 38 individuals from all organisational levels. I further identify various “team paradoxes”, as I call them, and indicate the relevance of these paradoxes in understanding teams. Some of the findings question existing premises regarding teamwork, establishing a foundation for possible future research. The truth is that there is still much to be done in terms of optimising team effectiveness and a better organisational understanding of the complexities of individuals working together in teams. / Thesis (PhD (Organizational Behaviour))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

We investigate to which degree one could trace Bitcoin transactions and characterize purchasing behavior of online anonymous marketplaces by exploiting side channels. Using a list of addresses found by the FBI on Silk Road servers, and information on the marketplace's official guides, we infer the role played by each address in the list and classify them based on heuristics. We then attempt to trace Bitcoin transactions and show that the anonymity set size is greatly reduced using product review data and the address classification performed on the previous step. Finally, using clustering techniques based on transaction graph analysis, we assign addresses into user wallets, then group these wallets together based on spending patterns, to be able to characterize purchasing behavior.

Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / El desarrollo de la siguiente tesis tiene el propósito de estudiar la factibilidad técnica, estratégica y económica de una plataforma online que ofrezca servicios kinésicos en el hogar, siendo el medio de conexión entre los demandantes y oferentes de este servicio. Para la realización de este análisis se realizaron 2 encuestas, una dirigida a Kinesiólogos de la Región Metropolitana donde se obtuvo una muestra de 246 personas, 110 hombres y 136 mujeres en un rango entre los 18 a 55 años, y otra dirigida a usuarios de servicios de kinesiología, de la misma región, donde se obtuvo una muestra de 98 personas, 40 hombres y 57 mujeres, en un rango entre los 18 a 55 años. De los resultados de la encuesta concluimos que los atributos más valorizados a la hora de contratar servicios kinésicos a domicilio son la capacitación del profesional y la rápida disponibilidad de éste. Por otro lado, dentro de las aspectos que menos gustan a los Kinesiólogos a la hora de hacer servicios domiciliarios es la lejanía del domicilio respecto a su lugar habitual (su hogar o lugar de trabajo). Estos antecedentes transforman a dichos atributos como factores claves del éxito de este proyecto. Con estadísticas de la Superintendencia de Salud y Fonasa, junto a datos obtenidos en la investigación de mercado, se determinó un mercado potencial con respecto a la demanda de servicios kinésicos de MM$36.165 en la Región Metropolitana. Se definió un mercado objetivo de MM$14.100, de los cuales, como objetivo estratégico, en un plazo de 5 años se espera alcanzar un 20% de aquella cifra, lo que corresponde a MM$2.800 en ventas de servicios kinésicos domiciliarios. Financiado con capital propio y búsqueda de inversores, la evaluación en un período de 5 años muestra como resultado un VAN de -$96.520.539 y una TIR de un 3%. Se concluye que si bien existe la factibilidad estratégica y técnica para su implementación, el proyecto no cuenta con la viabilidad económica para ser un negocio rentable. Considerando el análisis de la sensibilidad económica, se recomienda analizar la posibilidad de incluir otros servicios de salud a domicilio, con el fin de generar economías de escala y sacar mayor rentabilidad de los recursos tecnológicos y organizacionales implementados.

I denna uppsats presenteras de problem och utmaningar som finns vid utvecklandet av en marknadsplats för realtidsdata. Några lösningar på dessa utmaningar är också föreslagna. Med realtidsdata menas data från olika typer av sensorer som tex termometrar och luftfuktighets sensorer. Dessa kan bli placerade på olika platser där någon kan finna ett använde för dem, efter att ha köpt ett dataset från marknadsplatsen. Sensorerna kan sättas upp och datan kan säljas från individuella säljare på marknadsplatsen.Detta ämne är viktigt pga den ökande populariteten av ett “smart” hem. En marknadsplats för realtidsdata används för en “smart” stad, vilket är en naturlig fortsättning av det smarta hemmet. Men det är just nu i ett tidigt stadie och ingen grundlig forskning har utförts på området. Marknadsplatsen används i den smarta staden för att hjälpa användarna få tillgång och använda de olika sensorerna och applikationerna i nätverket.Denna uppsats är en fallstudie på ett företag relaterat till utvecklandet av “Internet of Things” produkter som är i planeringsfasen för att utveckla en marknadsplats för realtidsdata. Enligt tillvägagångssättet för en fallstudie, två metoder för att undersöka ämnet används: intervjuer och en systematisk litteraturstudie. Fyra intervjuer utförs på företaget, på några av de anställda, om de olika målen med den kommande marknadsplatsen. Litteraturstudien utförs för att få en bakgrund och kompletterande information om hur en marknadsplats för realtidsdata kan utvecklas. Dessa två jämförs sedan för att forma en slutsats.Flera olika områden hittades i både intervjuerna och i litteraturstudien, inklunderande tillit, privacy, interoperabilitet och användbarhet. Dessa är presenterade i slutsatsen i denna uppsats. / In this paper the difficulties and challenges of developing a marketplace for real-time data is presented. Additionally some solutions to these challenges are suggested. With the term real-time data that is used in this paper, it means live data from different kind of sensors for example thermometers and humidity sensors. These can be put out at different locations where someone can make use of them, after purchasing a dataset from the marketplace. The sensors can be put up and the data be sold by individual sellers on the marketplace.This subject is important because of the rising popularity of the smart home. A marketplace for real-time data is used for a “smart city”, which is a natural progression of the smart home. But it is in its early stages and as such no major research has been done in the area. The marketplace is used in a “smart city” to help users gain access and to use the different sensors and applications in the network.The study follow a case study researching methodology at a company related to development of Internet of Things products that is in the planning phase of developing a marketplace for real-time data. Following this case study research approach, two methods for investigating the topic are used; interviews and literature review. Four interviews are performed at the company, by the researchers on some of the employees, about the different aspiration of the upcoming marketplace. The literature review is performed to get a background and additional information on how a marketplace for real-time data can be developed and what is needed to make it happen. These two are then compared and analysed together to form the conclusion.Several different topics were found in both the interview and the literature review, including trust, privacy, interoperability and user usability. These are presented in the conclusion part of this paper.