Effects of business to business e-commerce platform-governance mechanisms on seller firms’ performance

Abstract

The Chinese government’s quinquennial “Internet Plus” plan encompasses big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things for a broad range of industries. While the electronic commerce platforms that had segmented the business-to-business (B2B) market jumped at the opportunity to facilitate user firms’ performance, this coerced digitalization also provided sellers with a firm basis for becoming solely profit-seeking and engaging in unethical behavior. Seller firms’ core position is that a B2B e-commerce platform must supervise and manage seller firms to improve their performance. Drawing on symbiosis theory, this study proposes that platform-governance mechanisms (monitoring and community-building) enhance seller firms’ sense of belonging, thus improving relationship satisfaction and increasing seller firms’ performance. This study designs effective governance mechanisms for the B2B e-commerce platform according to its new roles. In addition to its economic role, the B2B e-commerce platform should assume “coordinator” and “supervisor” roles.