Search results

This study aims to propose a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.

A descriptive research design was applied and data was gathered from 389 respondents across industries and different-sized services firms in Norway using a self-administered questionnaire.

Results show that the proposed six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators can be applied to manage seller–customer relationships in a business-to-business environment.

A six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators is tested successfully in services firms.

Increasingly, services firms will need to work closely with business-to-business sellers to proactively adapt to market changes through a co-creation approach to build long-term seller–customer relationships.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has focused on relationship marketing in business-to-business relationships that proposes a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.

With the rapid development of the digital economy, an increasing number of digitalized two-sided platforms have deployed the tying strategy to leverage their market power from the core two-sided product to other two-sided products in the competitive market, which transforms the competition among single platforms into that among platform ecological networks. To clarify the mechanism of the formation of the digital platform ecological networks, this paper aims to analyze the expansion and stability of platform ecology by exploring the impacts of network externalities and sellers’ heterogeneity on the tying strategy of two-sided platforms.

This paper develops a game model of two-sided platforms based on Choi and Jeon (2021), which highlights the decisive influence of non-negative price constraints (NPC) on platforms’ tying motivation. Taking the operating systems market as an example, we expand from the perspective of platform service differences to relax the NPC and explore the internal logic of platform ecosystem expansion.

Platforms have an incentive to charge lower prices or even subsidize buyers when the network externalities on the sellers’ side are relatively strong. When the product is highly differentiated and heterogenous, platforms are motivated to tie to capture more buyers with a lower price and grab excess profits from sellers. Eventually, tying is able to consolidate the two-sided platform ecological networks by excluding competitors, capturing user value and deterring entry.

In order to describe the characteristics of platform ecological network more generally, this paper extends the research based on the analyses of Choi and Jeon (2021) by (1) allowing horizontal differences between tied products and (2) relaxing the NPC. Unlike Choi and Jeon (2021), this paper allows platforms to charge users of two-sided platforms at negative prices (or to subsidize them). (3) Setting simultaneous pricing in two-sided platforms. Classical two-sided market theory stresses that the presence of cross-network externalities can give rise to a “chicken and egg” problem.

The very criticism of public policy being rigid and generalized on one hand, and insouciant and noncustomizable on the other has to be addressed to cope up with the comingled economic, social and environmental challenges. Policies that fail the litmus test of changing and challenging conditions will run the risk of not achieving their purpose and obstructing the ability of citizens, communities and businesses. This paper draws the case of Bangladesh to explore the principles of adaptive policies in the surfacing of the recently adopted Digital Commerce Management Guide 2021 under the National Digital Commerce Policy, 2020.

This is a qualitative paper that is based on both primary and secondary data. While secondary data on the policy crafted a strong call for increased adaptiveness, primary data extracted from the interviews presented several lacking and loopholes from respondents’ firsthand experiences. Based on secondary content and primary data from consumers and business owners of the most-used social commerce platform (a form of digital commerce), Facebook commerce, hereto referred to as F-commerce, this paper discusses the possible characteristics of adaptive policy-making for more innovative, contextual, gender-inclusive, efficient and environmentally sustainable policies.

The paper points out some reform and adjustment scope for the recently introduced digital commerce policy to make it more adaptive to the present and upcoming policy context.

It must be mentioned that there is a dearth of research on digital commerce policy and the platform as a whole.

Hence, this paper offers a fresh perspective toward time befitting policy formulation in the digital commerce sector and set in motion the policy attention that this platform requires.