A study of B2B e-market in China: E-commerce process perspective

Jing Zhao
a,
*, Shan Wang
b
, Wilfred V. Huang
c
a
Center for International Cooperation in E-Business, College of Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, PR China
b
Department of Management Science, School of Business, Renmin University, 59 Zhong Guan Cun Avenue, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, PR China
c
College of Business, Alfred University, Alfred, NY 14802, USA
1. Introduction
The way businesses perform commerce is changing sig-
nicantly. E-commerce has resulted in new business relation-
ships and enabled new markets, new business, and new
marketing paradigms [1,12,15]. B2B is an e-market between
enterprises and is generally more protable than the B2C market
since the volume of trade is 10 times that of the B2C market
[21]. It links buyers and sellers via online transactions and is
both efcient and effective. As B2B transactions increase on the
Internet, it has become critical for rms to rely on web-based
supply chains in order to provide near-real-time response in the
marketplace [5,9,19,24].
Our research was initiated to develop a conceptual model that
was suitable for analysing B2B e-markets in China: to help in
seeking effective strategies in creating an effective e-market in the
Chinese business environment. The model highlights (1) the
critical value creation activities in each phase of the transaction
process, and (2) the importance of transactional control, especially
in the context of China. The strategies for controlling transactions
are also illustrated.
Our results offer a new way of studying the B2B e-market to
explore e-commerce strategies and innovative market mechan-
isms directed towards the needs of customers. The model can be
used by businesses as a reference point to guide their e-market
process design, especially for businesses in developing countries
with similar business environment to China.
2. B2B electronic markets in China
2.1. The development of B2B e-markets in China
The Chinese government showed early interest in the impact of
B2B e-business on the Chinese economy and capabilities of Chinese
organisation, and began building a nationwide data communica-
tion network in 1993. Today, the network reaches more than 2200
cities and towns [4]. With the infrastructure in place, the
government has built advanced and unied public data and
multimedia communication platforms that form the national
Internet backbone. Various government ministries, banks, major
China-based conglomerates, universities, and research institutions
are the primary users of these services. Some have become
dominant players in e-commerce today.
In 1998, government ministries and some forward-thinking IT
rms spearheaded e-commerce development by creating com-
mercially oriented derivatives of the existing Internet backbone.
The networks resulted in B2B e-markets. Their roles include
aggregating suppliers and buyers, and providing trustworthy
and secure market information. Examples of support sites are
[13,23]:
Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 18 January 2005
Received in revised form 7 November 2007
Accepted 21 January 2008
Available online 23 April 2008
Keywords:
B2B e-market model
Transaction process
Controlling complexity
Value creation strategies
E-commerce activities
Value creation factor
A B S T R A C T
In China, B2B electronic markets are still in their early stages of development. The lack of basic business
infrastructures has delayed the development of e-markets. The intervention and support of government
and IT rms was needed to provide technical support and services to e-markets. We developed a
conceptual model to aid in evaluating value creation strategy in B2B e-market; it can also be used to
determine the complexity of such activities in Chinese B2B e-markets. Based on a case study of two
Chinese e-markets, a process-oriented approach was found to be more suitable in modeling the value
creation and therefore was selected. The model addressed two major factors: the transaction process and
controlling complexity. The crucial value creation activities and strategies in the four phases of the
transaction process are identied, and the controlling complexity of these activities is evaluated in the
model. Our results offer an approach for studying the dynamic structure of e-commerce processes while
focusing on the special issues of e-market development in China.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 27 67885183; fax: +86 27 87801763.
E-mail address: yuzp@cug.edu.cn (J. Zhao).
Cont ent s l i st s avai l abl e at Sci enceDi r ect
Information & Management
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ i m
0378-7206/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.im.2008.01.007
China International e-Commerce Network is a window through
which businesses can nd the latest information on foreign trade
policies, management practices, government legislations and
regulations, and the general market environment.
China Materials Information Center shows the availability of raw
materials, equipment, and other inputs of production, so that
businesses can derive economic benets.
China Crops Exchange Network provides information on the world
crops market, and supports online trading in some parts of China.
China National Commodity Exchange Center and China Economic
Information Network and China market collectively form a virtual
exchange, facilitating the ow of goods.
National Inventory Adjustment Network was built by the Ministry
of Interstate Commerce help reduce inventory and improve
utilization of capital.
China Commercial Airlines Reservation System, China Securities and
Investment Information Network, China Futures Information Net-
work, China Online Banking System, and Beijing E-Commerce
Project and Shanghai Information Center, etc., also aid the process.
These networks relieve businesses of substantial initial invest-
ment, yet provide them the ability to experiment with and
understand e-commerce. Entrepreneurs, especially SMEs, have
derived substantial prot fromthe use of the network. Some of the
e-commerce networks have gradually evolved from information
intermediaries to being able to bring together buyers and sellers
and provide them aggregated information and services.
2.2. The business environment of Chinese e-markets
Various aspects of the Chinese consumer economy, such as
purchasing habits, modes of exchange, and payment methods, are
different from those of developed countries. IT has not yet been
widely deployed. The development of full-scale e-commerce
processes may encounter the following obstacles [16,28]:
The business infrastructure for supporting e-commerce is not in
place. Hempel and Kwong [8] commented on problems, such as
nancial, logistic and legal infrastructures that are taken for
granted in developed economies. Purchasing in small enterprises
is still made with cash. Also it will take time for the e-commerce
procedures and transactional processes to be accepted due to
human resistance to change. Inefcient transportation systems
and the absence of professional distribution outsourcers also
prevent businesses from going completely online.
Corporate culture in most enterprises does not promote the
innovation of IT. Business alliances and partnerships are domina-
ted by longstanding personal old-boy connections [27]. More-
over, the enterprise IS is still under-utilized and most business
executives will not implement e-commerce under current con-
ditions. A random sample of 1300 managers in 520 large state-
owned enterprises and local backbone enterprises released by the
National Council on Economics and Commerce in 2001 indicated
that 69% of businesses hosted their own websites, 21.6% had a
proposed e-commerce strategy, 4.1% completed procurement
over the Internet and 3.4% engaged in Internet marketing [14].
Trust and security are barriers to the development of
e-commerce in China. Currently, credit problems plague the
Chinese economy. It is estimated that immature credit system
and regulation allow a loss of 1020% of the national GDP [25].
Data from State Administration of Industry & Commerce
indicated that, each year the loss from contract frauds and
violations was about 5.5 billion RMB, and the loss from low
quality goods and counterfeits was around 200 billion RMB. In
the planned economy, the government controlled companies,
and a credit system was not needed, as it was considered a
mechanismof the market economy. The virtual characteristics of
the online business impose special challenges to trust and credit
problems [2,7,18]. Among the complaints announced by the
China Association for Quality Promotion, online frauds ranked
fth, after food, automobiles, appliances, and travel [6].
3. Case studies
3.1. Methodology
We used two case studies to build a model that could help us
highlight some special issues such as trust and security in the
Chinese B2B e-market. Case research is effective when new
theories need to be generated, or constructs need to be polished to
describe a real life setting [17,26]. Since e-markets are new
phenomena, especially in China, theories must be built, and the
business infrastructure of the country cannot be separated from
the e-market phenomenon.
We investigated two e-markets in China, Alibaba and China
National Commodity Exchange Center (CCEC) from 1998 to 2006.
These were chosen because of the excellent design of their e-
commerce processes. Interviews and onsite observations were our
primary data collection method.
In Alibaba we interviewed cooperate executives and staffs for a
total of 8 h and spent 1 day in observing their business processes.
One research assistant attended a 7-day training session on the
Alibaba transactional process.
To obtain data on CCEC, we interviewed cooperate executives
and staffs face-to-face at the China International E-Commerce
Annual Conference and also by phone for a total of 6 h.
We also learned from peers who had investigated both
operations, and received secondary data fromtheir websites. These
multiple sources of data reduced the probability of subjectivity.
During case investigation, we were particularly interested in the
organizations development of online transaction processes using
web technology, and also the way the markets handled security
and trust issues to alleviate buyers and sellers concerns.
3.2. Case description
3.2.1. China National Commodity Exchange Center
The CCEC, an online B2B Exchange rm in China, enjoyed
success ever since its introduction of a B2B systemearly in 1997. Its
registered members, both current and past, have exceeded ve
million. The B2B exchanges offer more than 500 classied products
in 26 industries for its members. It collects and distributes
extensive information about commodities and enterprises and also
provides various trade functions, such as online negotiations,
signing agreements, inviting tenders, bidding, purchasing and
selling, settlement, and distribution services. Buyers and sellers
can complete entire transactional processes through the CCEC e-
commerce system, including the contracting, payment, and
delivery of digital products in real time. In the rst 3 months of
2007, their transactional volume of online sales reached 5.3 million
RMB [3].
Before 1997 Chinas main outlet to the international market
was the Chinese Export Commodities Fair (CECF), often known as
the Canton Fair. CECF took place every spring and autumn and
attracted thousands of Chinese companies seeking opportunities
to trade with foreigners. However, their practices were ineffective
and uneconomical in terms of labour, materials, and nance. In the
spring of 2005, there were 35 exhibition districts, including 27,000
international standard exhibition places. However many compa-
nies were not able to participate due to lack of time and space.
J. Zhao et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248 243
The advent of CCEC removed the limitation imposed by the
traditional way of holding trade fairs. Not only did it provide cost
savings, but also opportunities for SMEs to play a role in
international trade. CCEC is a non-stop trade fair where companies
can negotiate business online at anytime. CCEC is a result of the
efforts of the National Economic and Trade Council. As an operator
of the Gold Trade project designed to promote e-commerce
under the auspices of 13 government ministries and commissions,
the center undertakes pilot and demonstration tasks. CCEC is thus
one of the pioneers of B2B e-commerce in China. It has branches in
more than 200 localities throughout Chinas 40 provinces,
municipalities, and autonomous regions with additional sites still
in planning or under construction.
CCEC, with government support, has the responsibility of
supervising and controlling all transactional processes. It ensures
the security of buyers funds and sellers products using an
application suite of by laws, scientic management methods, and
comprehensive services. The greatest value created by CCEC is on
its integrated operation enabling a complete solution of monitor-
ing both buyers and sellers. The transaction process is shown in
Fig. 1.
3.2.2. Alibaba
Alibaba is the dominant e-market in China, with a market share
of more than 60%. Its two main sites, Alibaba International
(www.alibaba.com) and Alibaba China (www.China.Alibaba.com),
were established in 1998 in Hong Kong and in Hangzhou, which is
a medium-sized city located in East China. Alibaba International is
an English site with international trade orientation. It now has
300,000 visits daily. Alibaba China is a Chinese site for domestic
trade. It has more than 7 million registered users. Its featured
functions are: product listing, requests for quote/information, real
time negotiation (TradeManager), buyer/seller credit reports
(CreditDirect), news and business intelligence, online payment,
online community, online auction, search engine advertising,
hosting trade shows, etc. Users are charged an annual subscription
fee for the services.
Alibaba.com offers an open environment for SMEs, who can
join with minimum requirements. It ensures a reliable online
payment process through a third-party payment website
(Alipay). Its premium TrustPass
1
Membership is another notable
credit enhancing mechanism. Only members who have com-
pleted an authentication and verication procedure conducted
by a third-party credit agency are granted this qualication. It
serves to provide transparency of the identity and legitimacy of
sellers and potential trading partners via Alibaba.com. Informa-
tion quality for TrustPass
1
membership is also guaranteed, and
thus it provides buyer condence. More than 85% of all buyers
prefer to do business with members who have TrustPass
1
qualication. The transaction process of Alibaba.com is shown in
Fig. 2.
While the transactional processes of Alibaba.com and CCEC are
similar, the major difference is that CCEC maintains communica-
tion and feedback fromthe negotiation phase to the delivery phase,
thus ensuring honesty of both buyer and seller in the decision-
making process. Alibaba, however, provides the credit mechanism
through TrustPass
1
member identity verication and third-party
payment websites for buyers and suppliers to make their
transaction directly.
4. The B2B e-market model based on the e-commerce process
The success of CCEC and Alibaba was based on their ability to
offer real value to their buyers and sellers, helping them conduct
better transactions at lower cost and low risks. The value creation
activities occur in each step of their transactional processes, so a
process approach was adopted to develop the conceptual model.
This approach allowed us to detail the effective strategies in
building a B2B e-market in China. CCEC and Alibabas services and
ways of addressing risks are similar. However, Alibaba is more
successful since its transactional process is better in providing
service modules for user study, information sharing, and operating
transactions.
4.1. Value creation of CCEC and Alibaba activities
The B2B e-market model consists of a matrix of two-
dimensions: transactional process and controlling complexity.
For Chinese e-markets, transactional processing was slightly
different fromthe denition in the four phase models (information,
agreement, settlement and communication) proposed by Schmid
and Lindemann [20] and Selz and Schubert [22]. The settlement
phase was divided into payment and delivery due to their different
value creation strategies. Communication occurs in every stage
of the transactional process in the China e-market, so it is not
seen as a separate phase. Therefore, in our model, four phases
of transactional process are identied: information, negotiation,
payment and delivery. They are connected and sequenced
Fig. 1. The transaction process of CCEC. Fig. 2. The transaction process of Alibaba.com.
J. Zhao et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248 244
according to the trading process. The control dimension includes
supervision and control of transactional process for security and
trust. If the transactional process is common to all e-markets,
controlling complexity allows us to showthe special feature of B2B
e-market development in China.
Table 1 illustrates how CCEC and Alibaba operated in the
framework of our model. It provides an insight of the execution of a
successful strategy in the business climate of China. The main
activities of e-markets in each phase of the transaction process are
shown, as is the complexity of controlling them.
4.1.1. Personalized and customized services
Because the number of registered members in CCEC increased
dramatically from 9000 to 5 million between 1999 and 2002,
customers from different backgrounds (small to large enterprises)
expected exibility in selecting sellers and products, and control in
building and operating their own online transactions.
In the information phase, CCEC provided a Members ofce,
which enabled customers to have an ofce to manage their
business information. CCEC customers could therefore control,
revise, change, or dispose of their business information, including
registration, issuance, counter offers, partners offers, contract
signing, and trade codes.
In the negotiation phase, CCEC provided customization and
exibility to customers through multiple modules, such as online
catalogues, a negotiation house, and Sample House services.
Customers selected these services as they wished. Diversied
services allowed new opportunities to be created by matching
sellers with buyers quickly. Customization is enhanced though the
active involvement of managers in the B2B exchange who were
available to help customers.
Table 1
CCEC and Alibabas e-commerce activities
Fig. 3. CCECs fullment process. (1) Sign contract, (2) pay deposit, (3) transmit
information, (4) request for delivery, (5) deliver goods, (6) bill of lading, (7) request
for payment, (8) pay money, (9) transmit information, (10) transmit bill and receipt,
(11) verify report, (12) request for settlement and (13) settlement.
J. Zhao et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248 245
In these two phases Alibaba also offered personalized and
customized services. Hundreds of product categories from 42
industries were present in this market. Members were offered a
utility called Ali-assistant (or My Alibaba) to manage their
product listing and internal websites. A wide array of trading
functions was available for buyers and sellers, such as online
auctions, online categories hosted in each members site, and real
time negotiation conducted through Trade Manager. Unlike
CCEC, the staffs in Alibaba were not much involved in matching
buyers and sellers. Alibaba provided three other services: Ali-
college, an online school maintained by Alibaba, showed users
how to conduct business online; Ali-forum, an online discussion
site, offered a blog hosting service; TrustPass
1
was a credit rating
and user authentication service. Through these services, Alibaba
was able to provide users better service with less human
involvement.
4.1.2. Structure and control of the fullment process
CCECs payment process is intertwined with the delivery phase;
it involves multiple players from transportation and storage
providers to customs agents and banks. CCEC and its branches act
as a neutral supervisor.
The structure of the fullment process involves CCEC and its
branches, a specied bank, a buyer, and a seller and contracted
transport companies as actors (see Fig. 3). The system aggregates
information from the different participants and delivers this data
to the appropriate parties. Due to the extensive involvement of
CCEC branches located national wide, CCEC provides a reliable,
secure and efcient transactional environment under controlled
conditions. But this approach is costly, and can only succeed with
the support of the Chinese government. However, this process is
especially useful since intentionally delayed shipments and
payments occur.
Alibabas fullment process involves a seller, sellers bank, a
buyer, buyers bank, and Alipay, a third-party payment service and
a subsidiary of Alibaba (see Fig. 4). Alibaba does not supervise the
entire process or help arrange deliveries. It is up to buyers and
sellers to nd a transportation company for goods delivery.
Alibabas local branches do not get involved in the fullment
process but focus on marketing the e-market service. This reduces
Alibabas ability to control the process, but allows it to reduce
operating cost signicantly. Alibabas payment process is more
exible than CCECs, since buyers can use different banks. The
control of transactional risk is achieved through an escrowservice,
where payment is held by Ali-pay, until buyers conrm receipt of
goods. In case of disputes, Ali-pay agents will intervene. The
reputation rating system, in which buyers and sellers can rate each
other or leave comments after each transaction, also reduces
fraudulent behaviours.
4.1.3. Strategic partners network
CCECs payment and delivery are handled through a network of
nancial institutions, logistics companies and CCEC branches. Such
a logistic network offers convenience and cost saving potential to
users. The ability to track and supervise transactions by
coordinated CCEC branches adds to the safety of transactions.
Both parties in the Chinese market normally rely on personal
relationships to ensure execution of contracts; legal actions
seldom take place. Hofstedes research [10,11] suggested that
China has a long-term orientation, indicating a societys long-time
perspective. In China, arrears and quality issues may arise, as in
other nations, so both parties are worried about problems in virtual
market, having reservations about security and trust in online
trading. In the B2B e-market, it needs a strategic partners network
of the bank, the transportation entity, and the quality inspection
entity to provide a secure and reliable process.
CCEC now develops and guides afliated branches that are
managed by the provincial economic and trade councils. These
branches formstrategic alliances with banks, nancial institutions
and other trade fullment partners (quality assurance, insurance,
and delivery companies) that initiate joint-ventures with IT
companies and local government agencies for special exchange
markets. The coexistence of a strategic network involving both
business alliances and government governance has greatly helped
CCEC expand its market and customer base.
Alibaba also maintains a network of business partners,
including banks and third parties (mainly business credit rating
companies and authentication agents). Although Alibaba has tried
to maintain good relationships with the government, it is a private
entity. Furthermore, Alibaba does not help the buyer or seller
arrange for delivery of goods. However, the Ali-pay partially
alleviates any problem of quality inspection and refund since it
supports product return and refund.
In summary both Alibaba and CCEC provide support in all four
phases of a transaction. Even though Alibaba helps less in the
delivery phase, it aids participants in meeting a contract
effectively. It is interesting that buyer and seller prefer to operate
their own online transaction under controlled transactional risk.
Alibaba has reached beyond the needs of users and is considered
more successful than CCEC. Alibabas transactional process design
requires less human involvement and the scalability of Alibabas
network has reduced its operational cost.
Fig. 4. Alibabas fullment process. (1) Sign contract, (2) deposit money in full amount, (3) request delivery, (4) deliver goods, (5) inspect goods and send conrmation, (6)
settlement with Ali-pay, and transfer money to sellers banks account and (7) rate each other.
J. Zhao et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248 246
4.1.4. Controlling complexity
In the information phase, the control of complexity is low; data
about buying and selling business is freely disseminated. Most e-
markets in China have this basic capability. The payment and
delivery phases entail an end-to-end goods delivery and monetary
transaction from suppliers to buyers. Shipment of bulk commod-
ities involves multiple players from various transportation and
storage providers, etc. The e-market has to coordinate these
players so that the right information is delivered to the right
person at the right time while supervising the execution of the
transaction in a secure and reliable manner. It is necessary to create
a partner network to accomplish collaboration, requiring a higher
level of control of complexity.
4.2. Value creation strategies of e-markets in China
The model with critical value creation strategies is shown in
Table 2. This offers a perspective for exploring critical strategy
components of value creation.
The value creation factors in the four phases for the current
business climate in China are therefore:
Information phase: providing quality information to potential
users
The crucial duties for the e-market involve managing
information content, providing any classied information, and
helping buyers and sellers to issue and obtain information more
quickly and easily. Customization is recommended to enhance
the value of information available to each buyer/seller.
Negotiation phase: matching buyers with sellers and delivering
exchange mechanisms
Electronic market managers need to offer online negotiations
(tendering and bidding), contract signing, account management,
etc. The principal challenges are to lay down rules of exchange in
a neutral, effective manner for fair and efcient negotiations by
customers, and to offer services to aid in purchasing decisions.
Payment phase: controlling the risk for secure and reliable
transactions
Financial transactions take place between buyers and sellers.
Customers demand secure, reliable, and exible payment. While
the nancial system in China is being modernized, the e-market
must be creative in identifying alternative payment methods and
effectively controlling risk.
Delivery phase: managing collaboration
End-to-end goods delivery from suppliers to buyers, together
with payments forms the fullment process. Thus shipment of
bulk commodities involves multiple players. As an emerging
industrial economy, China does not yet have the logistics
infrastructure to support online commerce in an effective and
efcient manner. The most critical challenge has been to ensure
the smooth ow of information, products, and services among
the players. Collaboration is a critical component of customer
satisfaction.
Our examination of Alibaba and CCEC showed that both
companies have managed to address the value creation and risk
control issues in their transactional processes. Alibaba better met
the needs of users while reducing their cost of operation and thus
achieving success.
Our model implies a planned and controlled approach in
identifying and integrating different business components and IS.
With the unique business environment in China, our model
provides a conceptual basis for analyzing and understanding the
primary e-commerce activities and the innovative e-commerce
strategies of electronic market in emerging markets.
5. Conclusions
The evolving B2B e-market in China provided a eld for dening
a new model of e-commerce markets. We have attempted to
approach the value creation strategies of a real B2B e-market,
describing and analysing them from a process perspective.
A case study of two Chinese online B2B e-markets was
presented. It showed the performance of e-business strategy
needs in the transaction processes of e-markets. Critical e-
commerce activities emerged from the analysis. They are
personalized and customized services, the structure and control
of transactional process, and strategic partners network. Payment
and delivery are, of course, important business activities.
A new B2B e-market model of e-commerce value creation was
proposed. It illustrated the relationship between the business
components that support the processes and the control of
complexity. It allowed us to capture and study the critical strategy
and activities rooted in the e-commerce process, which targeted
customers needs and had a direct impact on value creation under
current conditions.
The analysis of B2B e-markets in China offered important
managerial implications. Our model provided guideline in
identifying the effective strategy, crucial business activities and
value creation opportunities in each all phases of the e-commerce
process. It also showed that the key to creating value in e-market in
China was the selection of qualied partners and thus controlling
the risk in the payment and delivery channels for a secured and
reliable e-commerce process.
Finally, we must discuss some limitations of our study. First, its
time frame spanned 1998 to April 2006. However, the fast pace of
change in e-commerce companies suggests that some newservices
Table 2
B2B e-market model
J. Zhao et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248 247
of CCEC and Alibaba may have been missed. Second, we adopted a
process perspective and ignored others.
The model has helped explain the different value creation
strategies for Chinese e-markets. We hope it will aid in under-
standing how the unique business environment of other devel-
oping countries affect value creation strategies in their e-markets.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to editor and three anonymous
reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on the
paper. This research has been supported by grants from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants
70172034 and 70672064, the Humanities and Social Science
Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China under Grant
06JA630068 and Sciences and technology project of Wuhan
Municipality under Grant 200770834321.
References
[1] A. Barua, R. Chcllappa, A. Whinston, The design and development of internet and
intranet-based collaboratories, International Journal of Electronic Commerce
(1996/1997) 3258.
[2] J. Cai, Y. Zhang, X.Y. Qiu, The analysis of information dissymmetry in e-business
market, Jiangsu Commercial Forum 4 (2006) 6667.
[3] CCEC.com, http://www.ccec.com, May 15, 2007.
[4] T.M. Data, Data telecommunication development in China, China Information 48
(5) (1998) 1032.
[5] R.J. Glushko, An XML framework for agent-based e-commerce, Communications
of the ACM 42 (3) (1999) 106114.
[6] GUANGMING DAILY, March 27, 2006.
[7] X.M. Guo, J.K. Yang, The analysis of market transaction, credit economy and credit
hiatus, Journal of Finance 7 (2006) 96101.
[8] P.S. Hempel, Y.K. Kwong, B2B e-commerce in emerging economies: I-metal.coms
non-ferrous metals exchange in China, Journal of Strategic Information Systems
10 (2001) 335355.
[9] L.L. Henriott, Transforming supply chains into e-chains, Supply Chain Manage-
ment Review Global Supplement (1999) 1218.
[10] G. Hofstede, M.H. Bond, The Confucius connection: from cultural roots to eco-
nomic growth, Organisational Dynamics 16 (1988) 421.
[11] G. Hofstede, M.H. Bond, C.L. Luk, Individual perceptions of organisational cul-
tures: a methodological treatise on levels of analysis, Organisational Studies 14
(1993) 483503.
[12] S.L. Jarvenpaa, P.A. Todd, Consumer reactions to electronic shopping on the
WWW, International Journal of Electronic Commerce (1996/1997) 5988.
[13] X.P. Jiang, Electronic Commerce and Cyber-marketing, Tsinghua University Press,
Beijing, 1998, pp. 107132.
[14] Juns, E-Commerce Development in China, Beijing Jens E-Commerce R&D Center,
Available: http://www.juns.com.cn, 2002.
[15] R. Kalakota, A.B. Whinston, Electronic Commerce: A Managers Guide, Addison
Wesley, 1997, pp. 328.
[16] M.G. Martinsons, Electronic commerce in China: emerging success stories, Infor-
mation & Management 39 (2002) 571579.
[17] M. Miles, M. Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1994.
[18] T. Pan, Analysis on the Fraud in Cyber Market, Business Economics and Admin-
istration 6 (2006) 3134.
[19] M. Raghunathan, R.M. Madey, A rm-level framework for planning electronic
commerce information systems infrastructure, International Journal of Electronic
Commerce 4 (1) (1999) 121.
[20] B.F. Schmid, M.A. Lindemann, Elements of a reference model for electronic
markets, in: Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference
on System Sciences, vol. 4, 1998, pp. 193201.
[21] A.B. Sculley, W.W. Woods, B2B Exchanges: The Killer Application in the Business-
to-Business Internet Revolution, ISI Publisher, Chinese edition, Beijing Modern
Publication, 2001, p. 58.
[22] D. Selz, P. Schubert, Web assessmenta model for the evaluation and the
assessment of successful electronic commerce applications, in: Proceedings of
the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on SystemSciences, vol. 4, 1998,
pp. 222231.
[23] J. Tan, K. Tyler, A. Manica, Business-to-business adoption of e-commerce in China,
Information & Management 44 (2007) 332351.
[24] T.S.H. Teoa, C. Ranganathan, Adopters and non-adopters of business-to-business
electronic commerce in Singapore, Information & Management 42 (2004) 89
102.
[25] R.L. Wang, Breakthroughs in e-commerce strategy, 2006. Available: http://
www.yesky.com.
[26] R.K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, International Educational
and Professional Publisher, Thousand Oaks, 1994.
[27] J. Zhao, Analysis of Business to Business Electronic Markets in China: Theoretical
and Practical Perspectives, in: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference On
Enterprise Information Systems, France, (2003), pp. 377385.
[28] J. Zhao, S. Yu, Intermediary Electronic Commerce Model in China, in: Proceedings
of Second International Conference on Telecommunications and Electronic Com-
merce, Nashville, (1999), p. 208.
Jing Zhao is Professor of Management Information
Systems and the Director of the Center for International
Cooperation in E-Business in the College of Manage-
ment at the China University of Geosciences (CUG),
Wuhan, China. Prior to joining CUG, she has consider-
able experience in automobile manufacturing in China.
Her research interest focuses on modeling the impact of
e-business on the organizational transformation, e-
business value creation and B2B e-market. Her work
has been published in professional journals such as
Information & Management, IEEE Transactions on Engi-
neering Management, the Journal of Business Forum,
Family Business Review, Journal of Tsinghua University (Sci&Tech), and others. She has
co-edited special issues in Electronic MarketsThe International Journal. She has
been a co-chair for the Wuhan International Conferences on Electronic Business
(WHICEB 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007) since 2000.
Shan Wang is an assistant professor at the School of
Business at Renmin University. She received her Ph.D.
in MIS from McMaster University. Her research
interests include business to business electronic
marketplaces, supply chain management, the adoption
and impacts of e-commerce. Her work has been
published in several peer reviewed journals, such as
Supply Chain ManagementAn International Journal,
Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, and
Electronic Markets.
Wilfred Vincent Huang is the George G. Raymond chair
in family business and professor of management
information systems at Alfred University. He is the
technical director of Cisco Academy Training Center at
Alfred University and the coordinator of SAP Programin
Alfred University. He is also a certied quality engineer
(CQE) of American Society of Quality and Cisco certied
academy instructor (CCAI). He received the Ph.D.
degrees in industrial engineering from State University
of New York at Buffalo. His research interests include
entrepreneurship, e-business and data analysis. He has
published articles in European Journal of Operations
Research, International Journal of Computers and Industrial Engineers, Decision Support
Systems, Family Business Review, etc. He has been an associate editor of the
International Journal of Modeling and Simulation (IJMS) since 2001. He has served as
the division head of the Industrial Engineering Department of Alfred University
19911997.
J. Zhao et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 242248 248