Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce
分析了B2B电子商务带来的四种潜在生产力提升：交易自动化、新型市场中介、供需整合和垂直一体化变化，并考察了在线中介的特征与市场结构。
Just as the industrial revolution mechanized the manufacturing functions of firms, the information revolution is automating their merchant functions. Four types of potential productivity gains are expected from business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce: cost efficiencies from automation of transactions, potential advantages of new market intermediaries, consolidation of demand and supply through organized exchanges, and changes in the extent of vertical integration of firms. The article examines the characteristics of B2B online intermediaries, including categories of goods traded, market mechanisms employed, and ownership arrangements, and considers the market structure of B2B e-commerce.