ISBM at the Penn State Smeal College of Business – Academic Institute supporting B2B Research. Switch to the ISBM-Corporate website.
Although they are less widespread than B2C platforms, B2B platforms can succeed by focusing on three key considerations.
While maintaining relationships between different parties proves imperative across business contexts, the task often becomes challenging in the business-to-business (B2B) domain. Perceptions of fairness in retailer-supplier relationships are a key issue in B2B relationships. Due to multiple suppliers often having active relationships with the same retailer, these perceptions can lead to conflicts. Recent research by Lee and Griffith (2019) studied the social comparisons that occurs, and focus on distributive fairness, reference discrepancies, and tie strength.
This article, focusing on AI, platforms, and network effects, distinguishes between products that are “like air” (that one needs continuously and is critical for survival) versus “like hair cuts” (that one needs only once in a while and can do without). The authors describe the notion of a ‘modern business model’, and demonstrates how these companies are more resilient.
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