Author List: Koh, Tat; Fichman, Mark;
MIS Quarterly, 2014, Volume 38, Issue 4, Page 977-966.
Online business-to-business (B2B) exchanges are proliferating, giving firms numerous platforms from which to choose. Many firms are also multihoming, using competing platforms concurrently. In this study, we examine how selling and buying activities on B2B exchanges affect multihoming buyers’ preferences for exchanges. We posit that these activities influence buyers’ perceived returns and risks of using the exchanges, and impact buyers’ preferences. Using a unique dataset of 118 buyers’ participation in two B2B exchanges over seven months, we find that buyers prefer exchanges with more selling activities. However, buyers’ preferences and buying levels on the exchanges are non-monotonically related. At low buying levels, an increase in buying by others positively affects buyers’ preferences. This effect may result from observational learning, where individual buyers learn from other buyers’ behaviors. On the other hand, as buying level increases further on the exchange, competition among buyers also increases. Consequently, buyers lower their preferences for the exchange. In addition, we find that the effects of selling and buying activities on buyers’ preferences change over time. Our results highlight the need to correctly model buyers’ homing behavior; failing to do so could bias the picture of competitive dynamics between platforms and lead to suboptimal strategies by exchanges.
Keywords: Online platforms; B2B exchanges; multihoming; network effects; observational learning
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List of Topics

#62 0.295 price buyers sellers pricing market prices seller offer goods profits buyer two-sided preferences purchase intermediary traditional marketplace decisions intermediaries selling
#101 0.178 edi electronic data interchange b2b exchange exchanges interorganizational partners adoption transaction trading supplier factors business suppliers impact network commerce efficiency
#74 0.109 high low level levels increase associated related characterized terms study focus weak hand choose general lower best predicted conditions implications
#173 0.098 effect impact affect results positive effects direct findings influence important positively model data suggest test factors negative affects significant relationship
#242 0.068 market competition competitive network markets firms products competing competitor differentiation advantage competitors presence dominant structure share using incumbent make important
#75 0.065 behavior behaviors behavioral study individuals affect model outcomes psychological individual responses negative influence explain hypotheses expected theories consequences impact theory
#187 0.064 learning model optimal rate hand domain effort increasing curve result experts explicit strategies estimate acquire learn referral observational skills activities
#98 0.062 platform platforms dynamics ecosystem greater generation open ecosystems evolution two-sided technologies investigate generations migration services implications interplay disruptive control markets