Publicação
Understanding business relationships between SME service providers and electronic marketplaces
| Resumo: | The study seeks to analyze and understand the business relationship between SME service providers and Electronic Marketplaces. These platforms have increasingly stood out in the market, as the final consumers frequently use them to satisfy their needs. In this way, developing a business relationship with a Marketplace can be a good growth opportunity for SMEs. The study objective was pursued through a qualitative and multiple case study. Data collection included continuous participant observation over a 12-month internship on a company owing a Marketplace platform, through interviews with seven small and micro companies from different sectors that establish or have already established business relationships with these platforms, and secondary data. The interviewees in this study were the top managers and/or founders of the companies studied. The main conclusions are the perception of value is the decisive factor for companies to continue or break their business relationships. From the moment they no longer reflect a competitive advantage, it no longer makes sense to be partners. Furthermore, certain characteristics such as informal competition, customer perception of the service, customer ‘distrust, and the need to reach certain audiences lead SMEs to establish business relationships with Marketplace. |
|---|---|
| Autores principais: | Faustino, Marta Sofia Correia |
| Assunto: | Business relationships networks value creation SME service providers Marketplaces Relações de negócio redes criação de valor PME prestadoras de serviço Marketplace |
| Ano: | 2023 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | The study seeks to analyze and understand the business relationship between SME service providers and Electronic Marketplaces. These platforms have increasingly stood out in the market, as the final consumers frequently use them to satisfy their needs. In this way, developing a business relationship with a Marketplace can be a good growth opportunity for SMEs. The study objective was pursued through a qualitative and multiple case study. Data collection included continuous participant observation over a 12-month internship on a company owing a Marketplace platform, through interviews with seven small and micro companies from different sectors that establish or have already established business relationships with these platforms, and secondary data. The interviewees in this study were the top managers and/or founders of the companies studied. The main conclusions are the perception of value is the decisive factor for companies to continue or break their business relationships. From the moment they no longer reflect a competitive advantage, it no longer makes sense to be partners. Furthermore, certain characteristics such as informal competition, customer perception of the service, customer ‘distrust, and the need to reach certain audiences lead SMEs to establish business relationships with Marketplace. |
|---|