B2B Website Research Articles

PERANCANGAN BUSINESS TO BUSINESS PADA TOKO TUNAS BARU SIMPANG PINOH

The Tunas Baru store has challenges in service both conventionally and via Whatsapp. The owner only employs two employees so resellers have to queue. In addition, the large number of orders via WhatsApp makes it difficult for owners to reply to chats one by one and prepare orders so that mistakes can occur in preparing orders. The purpose of this study is to design a B2B website at the Tunas Baru store to ease the work of the owners and employees, make it easier to order goods and save time on sales transactions at the Tunas Baru store. This research is in the form of a case study with a research method using Design Science Research (DSR). The development method uses Rapid Application Development (RAD). The programming languages ​​used are PHP, Javascript, HTML and MySOL database server. The system modeling uses UML (Unified Modeling Language). This research produces a B2B website at the Tunas Baru store that can be used by owners to manage product data, display sales reports, manage product stock, view payments, view orders and manage users level. Then the resellers can search and order goods through the website. In addition, website users can register to become a resellers of the Tunas Baru store

Dairy Farm

In today's world where every aspect of our lives if finding its way over the internet, it becomes a necessity for us to use the internet. The internet has been benefitting millions but certain portions of the society remains unversed with its advantages. Considering today's scenario, buying products by physically moving to places has become a real task for people. To provide an ease to this situation online e-commerce web applications are developed to provide an aid to the people in buying products at the comfort of their homes. On the same lines, the idea of this web application was developed . The basic idea of the whole project is to develop an android application similar to B2B websites and applications for a specific target product, i.e. the dairy products. This android application is built for a specific target product, which is of immense importance in our day to day lives. Every household requires milk and dairy products and there has not been any significant advancement in this specific area. This application tries to bridge the gap between the milk producers and their processors as they are often not in direct contact with each other and hence suffer due to these reasons. This will save their time and resources which are often wasted in the search for the right manufacturers for them. The application will benefit the producers, the processors as well as us being the users. The producers will benefit from the application as it will widen their reach and can even make them go global. On the other hand, The consumers can see and compare the rates and prices of the different dairy products from different producers and hence choose the most suitable one for them. The application will also try to incorporate the facility to contact the producers so that the consumers can reach them through either phone or message. A lot of factors will be taken into consideration while searching for products. The application will have two modes for its working: one for the consumers and other for the producers.

An Empirical Study on Response to Online Customer Reviews and E-Commerce Sales: From the Mobile Information System Perspective

Response to online customer reviews helps increase sales. Extensive research has been carried out on this topic discussing tactics of response, while few scholars looked at it from the social network perspective. The problem is not how to respond but to whom to respond. Essentially, it is an effective online social network, not a response itself that generates trust and sales. In this paper, our main work is to use basic theoretical tools of social network theory to reveal the nature of the relationship between online response and performance. We use a web crawler to scrape data and get a sample of 3379 sellers from a B2B website. The regression results are consistent with the theoretical derivation and provide strong evidence for our assumptions and hypothesis. Sellers’ response to online customer reviews, especially to negative reviews, has a significant positive effect on its sales. Seller’s product price and product heterogeneity play moderating roles in the relationship above. Therefore, sellers should actively participate in online social conversations and get embedded in online social networks. Sellers should see pricing and product diversification strategies as important factors in the networking process. E-commerce platform companies should provide the necessary technical support to accelerate the formation of online communities. Producers should cooperate more with sellers and make full use of the customer review information for product improvement and innovation.

Interorganizational processes in buyer–supplier dyads: An information intensity perspective

ABSTRACTIn an increasingly global business environment, organizations interact with partners, suppliers and customers who are geographically spread and exchange information regularly. Without a robust information technology infrastructure, the speed and effectiveness of this information exchange is limited. Business-to-business (B2B) electronic business applications are a class of interorganizational information systems (IOIS) that facilitate such information exchange arising out of interorganizational processes (IOPs). The success of any e-business initiative depends on the successful implementation and the actual use of such IOIS. This study uses the concept of information intensity (II) to identify the information sharing requirements arising from IOPs, thus presenting opportunities for B2B Web site use, with specific reference to organization-specific customer-facing and supplier-facing IOIS. We use data from four buyer–supplier dyads, eight medium- to large-scale organizations in the Indian context and identify a generic set of dominant IOPs in buyer–supplier interactions. Through these we present the sources of II in IOPs along three dimensions – complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity which influence the feature set in the IOISs. We conclude with implications for IOIS design, implementation and use.

Determinants of Business-to-Business (B2B) Website Use by a Buyer-Supplier Dyad

This article is based on one of the manufacturers of automotive components in India referred to as Avanti Enterprises (AvE). It describes the implementation of a Business-to-Business (B2B) website by AvE for its suppliers and highlights the factors that led to use of this website, by one particular supplier. As an example, this supplier is referred to as Bhusan Industries (BHI). The case is based on a dyad of primary organization (AvE) and the user organization (BHI) to discuss the level of use of a B2B website by the dyad and describes the factors related to the primary hosting organization and the user organization that determines use. The article aims to: understand why a website is used; to describe the website features and how they are used; describe the primary organization characteristics; how and why those characteristics influence the website use; to describe the user organization characteristics; and how and why they influence the website use. Sources of data include company documentation, interviews, industry databases, secondary case studies relevant to the framework and company websites.

Investigating the online customer experience – a B2B perspective

PurposeThis paper explores the online customer experience (OCE) within business-to-business (B2B) websites. The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of website credibility and information quality on the OCE during search for information and services. In addition, this paper acknowledges the role of customer support within the offline environment and thus explores the potential role of online customer support during a customer’s online experience.Design/methodology/approachAn online experiment was conducted with 195 participants along with an associated questionnaire for data capture. Three tasks were developed for participants which they had to complete on three different business advisory websites. The online experiment gave all participants the experience of using a business advisory website. In order to analyse the hypothesised relationships, structural equation modelling was used.FindingsThe results outlined that the credibility of the website and the quality of the information on the website have a significant effect on the OCE in a B2B context. The research highlights the need for online customer support with a service representative during search on a B2B website. The credibility of the website as well as the success of the search drives the need for online customer support. The lack of online customer support will result in customers becoming dissatisfied with their experience if they have an unsuccessful search.Practical implicationsManagers of B2B websites should acknowledge the importance of website credibility cues and information quality cues. Each of these variables drive the success of a customer’s search and in turn the customer’s impression of the experience. Additionally, managers ought to provide customers online support, through functions such as an online help desk or a live chat function, as those who have an unsuccessful search expect to be able to seek online support from a company representative, the same way as they would do in the offline environment. Online customer support can act as a service recovery tool for website providers.Originality/valueEmpirical research on the OCE within B2B websites is limited and somewhat out-dated. Due to technological advancements and changing customer expectations, this research has filled a knowledge gap on the OCE in a B2B perspective. Website credibility and information quality have been overlooked in previous research in relation to the OCE. In addition, this study outlines the need for online customer support resulting from the need to clarify information and the success of the search.

Detection Of Duplicate And Near-Duplicate Content For Web Crawlers

There is an abundance of duplicated web documents on the internet. For example, two documents online could be very similar to each other except for a very small portion, such as URLs and advertisements. While such differences are not important with regards to web searches, they do tamper with web search results due to duplication. Therefore, if web crawlers could check the duplication percentage of newly crawled pages by a previously crawled page, the quality of web search will significantly increase. The main objective of this research is to propose a method which is able to check the duplication ratio of the content on the page with the one already crawled previously. The solution includes running a web crawling algorithm in order to calculate the ratio of duplication at the time of web crawling. In order to effectively achieve the goals of this research, Charikar’s SIMHASH finger printing-technique has been used. Using this, a new technique for the purpose of detection of exact and near duplication method will be devised which will work to check the duplication ratio with the newly crawled page. The experiment is carried out on multiple pages of two major B2B website namely Ali Baba and Trade key. More than 300 pages from two similar categories on each portal were selected for this experiment. These selected pages were first calculated using a third party duplication detection tool to set the bench mark. The results obtained from the test looked to be very promising and close to the benchmark set. The system running time was very short. However, the results show an average curve variation of 10% away from the bench mark which in this case is fine. Based on the results obtained from the experiment carried out, it can be said that Charikar’s SIMHASH finger printing technique can be effectively used to detect duplication and near duplication.

A framework to localize international business to business web sites

The main purpose of this study is to propose and apply an analytical framework to help B2B marketers assess and develop web sites that are localized not only for the B2B marketplace but also for international markets. This study deals with an area that has not received much attention in academic research as previous studies have mainly focused on B2C web sites. The study focuses on B2B web sites and provides a framework to assess web site localization. A content analysis of American and Korean web sites was conducted to analyze the proposed framework. The overall results show that U.S. companies have not accomplished a high degree of localization for B2B markets. The study results indicate that most U.S. companies focus primarily on the translation of web content from English to Korean to create web sites.While it is true that globalization has brought us closer than ever to Mcluhan's (1964) idea of a global village, major differences across countries and regions exist and play a significant role in how consumers react to web site designs and content. Therefore, this framework is vital to business seeking consumers globally. Using this framework should allow businesses to localize their B2B web sites and included key areas that appeal to local consumers.The study concludes by providing marketers insights into factors that can help them better localize their international B2B web sites.

Study on Enterprise Network Based on B2B Website Platform

A new type of enterprise network based on B2B website platform, which is expanding constantly, has appeared now. Such new enterprise network based on B2B website platform is different from traditional network in competition and cooperation among members, dynamics of enterprise network and scope of network. An enterprise joins a B2B website platform in order to complement each other’s advantages and create competitiveness. According to the basic features of B2B platforms, we selected 4 indexes including correlativity, centrality, scope and stability of network to analyze the effect of B2B enterprise network on enterprise performance.

Developing a B2B web site effectiveness model for SMEs

PurposeThe study examines SMEs' investment in B2B web sites and the relationship between organizational drivers such as adoption readiness and constraints and evaluation of investments. We investigate how these drivers influence the perception of B2B web site benefits and the effect a great understanding of issues has on stakeholder satisfaction in the investment.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach is used to test the hypotheses, which are developed from the literature. Following a pilot study, a survey of 1,000 Australian SMEs with B2B web sites is used to collect the data, which is analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques.FindingsFindings reveal the mediating relationships between organizational drivers and their influence on SMEs' perceptions of benefits and stakeholder satisfaction and support the B2B web site evaluation effectiveness model. Further insights show that SMEs do not understand the complementary nature of the organizational drivers that support strategic alignment and therefore fail to realize benefits from their web sites.Research limitationsLimitations of the research are noted and discussed with regard to constructs and the views of survey respondents.Practical implicationsResults suggest that SMEs consider reallocation and/or prioritization of resources and business objectives in order to improve their IT investment evaluation practices. This would have a direct impact on the level of IT benefits realized, and ultimately affect the degree of stakeholder satisfaction with B2B web site adoption.Originality/valueA key contribution is the development of a B2B web site evaluation effectiveness model that supports greater understanding of how SMEs can gain more value from their B2B web sites.

The Influence of High- and Low-Context Communication Styles On the Design, Content, and Language of Business-To-Business Web Sites

Language and communication, especially high- versus low-context communication styles, have been shown to lead to differences in Web sites. Low-context communication provides the lowest common denominator for intercultural communication through the Internet by making messages linear, articulated, explicit, and therefore easier to understand in the absence of contextual clues. Based on theories of intercultural business communication and recent empirical studies, this article investigates how communication styles influence Web site design and content. It is hypothesized that, for the global audience, Web sites from low-context communication countries are easier to find, use colors and graphics more effectively, make navigation more user-friendly, contain more corporate and product information cues, and offer more contract- and relationship-related content than Web sites from high-context communication countries. This article also contributes to international business communication by investigating the choice of languages in business-to-business (B2B) Web sites. Empirical findings confirm the influence of high- versus low-context communication styles through systematic content analysis of 597 B2B Web sites in 57 countries. High-context communication style may be detrimental to the design of global Web sites, making them less readable, less effective in their use of colors and graphics, and less interactive for the globally dispersed users.

Using clickstream data to enhance business‐to‐business web site performance

PurposeThis paper is designed to illustrate how clickstream data, collected from a B2B web site and then analyzed using web analytics software, can be used to evaluate and improve B2B web site performance. A number of issues in the application of clickstream data and web analytics software are to be identified and discussed.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach is used to present some of the technical issues in the field of web analytics and to demonstrate their value in B2B web site management. Three field experiments, focusing on incorporating ways to discourage shopping‐cart abandonment and the use of two different free‐shipping promotions, were used as the basic research method for collecting the data. Web traffic conversion funnels are used to conduct the analysis and present the findings.FindingsThe analysis of clickstream data using web analytics procedures serves as a useful tool in the enhancement of a B2B web site by investigating how visitors move through the web site conversion process and complete their purchase. Improved sales result from each of the three field experiments.Research limitations/implicationsResearchers may use the paper as evidence that web analytics methods can be applied successfully in a B2B application for a technology‐oriented company.Practical implicationsThe paper illustrates the use of clickstream data to measure the progression of web site visitors through the conversion process toward purchase.Originality/valueInsight is provided into the usefulness of web analytics as a framework for performance measurement that is used to drive success for B2B web sites.

Enabling e-transactions with multi-attribute preference models

This paper describes potential applications of multi-attribute preference models (MAPM) in e-commerce and offers some guidelines for their implementation. MAPM are methodologies for modeling complex preferences that depend on more than one attribute or criterion, and include multi-attribute utility theory, conjoint analysis, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process. There are numerous examples of applications in e-commerce that would benefit from the acquisition of information regarding the preferences of a consumer, a customer, an advice seeker, or a decision maker. Here, the focus is on applications of MAPM models in B2C and B2B websites, where preferences of consumers are assessed for the purpose of identifying products or services that closely match their needs. In this paper, we provide an overview of decision aids with the MAPM approach, emphasizing how the MAPM structure of an individual’s preferences may be assessed. This discussion is illustrated with examples of the use of alternative MAPM assessment approaches that are incorporated in existing websites. We then discuss how MAPM applications should be tailored for success in these environments.

Into the depths of the I‐E‐I framework: using the internet to create value in supply‐chain relationships

PurposeThe paper seeks to provide a better understanding of how industrial (B2B) organizations use their web sites as a marketing communication tool to create value through their supply (value) chain relationships.Design/methodology/approachA review of previous studies on B2B web sites results in the development of the “I‐E‐I (internet‐extranet‐intranet) framework”, with three research questions focusing on how each of the three levels of the I‐E‐I framework can be described. Via these research questions the framework is tested empirically over a ten‐month period in an industrial (B2B) web site setting. A qualitative, case study approach is used utilizing multiple sources of evidence.FindingsIt was found that in order to make online (communication) efforts more effective throughout the value chain, an inside‐out communication strategy is needed by the organization. Each level seems to have primary versus secondary stakeholders in terms of the access to and interaction with the web site level in which they are interacting. Overall, it was found that the deeper one went into the I‐E‐I framework, the more value that was created and that such value was both provided to and received from both the organization and the stakeholder.Originality/valueThe I‐E‐I framework developed in this study introduces a framework that can be tested empirically, discussed and debated in other settings and provide a springboard for more in‐depth studies on value creation in B2B web sites for both scholars and practitioners.

Understanding corporate B2B web sites' effectiveness from North American and European perspective

The globalization of economic activities has led multinational business-to-business (B2B) firms to use their corporate web sites extensively to communicate with their stakeholders. Using a field study of 368 business customers, this paper examines three factors of information that influence corporate web sites' effectiveness in a B2B context and whether these factors differ by web site user's national origin. Results indicate that informativeness of a corporate web site is important for both North American and European visitors. Quality of information is important for European users but not an important aspect for North American users. Usability is the most important factor for North American users but it is not important for European users. Implications of these results are discussed for managerial practices and further research.

Implications of buyer decision theory for design of e-commerce websites

In the rush to open their website, e-commerce sites too often fail to support buyer decision-making and search, resulting in a loss of sale and the customer's repeat business. This paper reviews why this occurs and the failure of many B2C and B2B website executives to understand that appropriate decision support and search technology cannot be fully bought off-the-shelf. Our contention is that significant investment and effort is required at any given website in order to create the decision support and search agents needed to properly support buyer decision-making. We provide a framework to guide such effort (derived from buyer behavior choice theory); review the open problems that e-catalog sites pose to the framework and to existing search engine technology; discuss underlying design principles and guidelines; validate the framework and guidelines with a case study; and discuss lessons learned and steps needed to better support buyer decision behavior in the future. Future needs are also pinpointed.