A central vision of B2B e-commerce is that of an electronic marketplace that would bring suppliers together with major buyers of goods and services for the purpose of conducting ''frictionless'' commerce. The hope is that these suppliers would compete on price, transactions would be automated and low cost, and as a result, the price of goods and services would fall. Numerous Internet marketplaces came into being during the Internet boom; however, an almost equal number disappeared following the Internet bubble burst. Still, many survive today based on a variety of models that are quite successful. If a right model is selected, it could help large organizations, like the DoD, achieve great efficiencies for their acquisition and procurement processes. The objective of the paper is to examine models for classifying and differentiating the business functionality provided by Internet marketplaces and to investigate the impact of the various models on government and DoD acquisition. The models will consider such variables as types of goods and services purchased, how these goods and services are purchased, pricing mechanisms, the characteristics of the markets, and ownership of marketplace.

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Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program

Sponsored Report (for Acquisition Research Program)