Third-party E-commerce Platform Research Articles

Simulation Modeling and Analysis on the Value-Added Service of the Third-Party E-Commerce Platform Supporting Multi-Value Chain Collaboration

Service-oriented third-party e-commerce platforms have emerged as a new trend in the manufacturing industry. This paper aims to investigate the platforms’ value-added service (VAS) and charging strategies with a dynamic evolution analysis. Considering the change in the user numbers and characteristics of the e-commerce industry, this paper proposes a system dynamics model composed of multi-value chains and a third-party e-commerce platform. The simulation results indicate that the platform should reduce VAS investment and appropriately increase the VAS fee in the early development period. After the number of users stabilizes, the platform should appropriately increase its VAS investment and reduce the VAS fee. When the VAS fee is low, the platform profit first increases and then decreases as the VAS level increases. Differently, the platform profit will first decrease, then increase, and finally decrease as the VAS level improves when the VAS fee is low. This paper further finds that the strong cross-network effect of manufacturers is not always beneficial to the platform.

Strategies selection for building e-commerce platforms for agricultural wholesale markets: A tripartite evolutionary game perspective.

The rapid advancement and widespread implementation of digital technology have created opportunities for the e-commerce transformation of agricultural wholesale markets. The building of e-commerce platforms in this process is of utmost importance and should be approached methodically. This article analyzes the interests and behavioral choices of the agricultural wholesale markets, local government, and wholesalers by establishing a tripartite evolutionary game model. It applies replicator dynamics equations to describe the evolutionary strategies of each party. The findings of the study indicate that the behavioral choices of agricultural wholesale markets, local government, and wholesalers are influenced by their initial intentions. Furthermore, there exists a degree of alignment between the choices made by agricultural wholesale markets and wholesalers. The building of e-commerce platforms by agricultural wholesale markets can be facilitated through direct and indirect government subsidies; this also motivates wholesalers to adopt and utilize these platforms. Agricultural wholesale markets may further incentivize wholesalers to utilize their own e-commerce platforms by offering additional benefits. On the other hand, if the agricultural wholesale markets demonstrate strong initial inclinations toward using third-party e-commerce platforms. In this scenario, the local government has the potential to promote the widespread use of these platforms by providing both direct and indirect financial incentives to these markets, as well as actively encouraging wholesalers to participate in them. This study presents policy recommendations for agricultural wholesale markets and local government to support the effective implementation of e-commerce platforms in the agricultural wholesaler markets and facilitate a smooth transition to e-commerce in agricultural wholesale markets.

Assessing Operational Efficiency and Technological Progress: An In-depth Study of China’s E-payment Concept Listed Companies Using DEA-Malmquist Index

Electronic payment (e-payment) enterprises are third-party e-commerce platforms that provide services for buyers and sellers through network service platforms. This study evaluates the operational efficiency of 42 e-payment concept listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2014 to 2019, using the data envelopment analysis (DEA)-Malmquist index model. The research results show that the overall operational efficiency of e-payment concept listed companies is in a good state, but some companies are constrained by constant or decreasing returns to scale, and should improve their management ability, streamline their organization, integrate their internal resources, accelerate their structural adjustment, reduce their invalid input, and increase their output level. Moreover, e-payment related enterprises should increase their research and development investment, pay attention to technological innovation, and enhance their core competitiveness. Facing the ever-changing market and more and more competitors, enterprises should use time and opportunity as competitive resources, seize the initiative, and avoid being eliminated by the market. This study provides a comprehensive and objective evaluation of the operational efficiency of e-payment concept listed companies in China, and offers some suggestions for improving their performance and competitiveness in the e-payment industry.

Dynamic pricing and sales effort in dual-channel retailing for seasonal products

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>This paper studies the joint strategies of dynamic pricing and sales effort involving a seller and a third-party e-commerce platform (TPECP). The seller sells seasonal products through both offline and online channels, and the latter is opened on the TPECP. Considering a dual-channel setting, this paper fills a gap in the studies of joint strategies of dynamic pricing and sales effort. This paper formulates dynamic decision models and investigates them under both centralized and decentralized decision-making cases. Furthermore, a revenue-cost sharing contract is proposed to coordinate the two parties' decisions in the decentralized case, and it is validated theoretically and numerically. The key findings are as follows: For a given selling slot, the optimal online price decreases and the optimal sales effort level increases in the centralized case as the inventory level increases and remains below a threshold; however, when the inventory level exceeds the threshold, both the optimal online price and sales effort level remain fixed as the the inventory level increases in both cases. In addition, for a given inventory level below the threshold, the optimal online price decreases and the optimal sales effort level increases over time in both cases; however, when the inventory level exceeds the threshold, over time, the optimal online price increases and the optimal sales effort level decreases in the centralized case, and both the optimal online price and sales effort level increase in the decentralized case. Finally, a numerical experiment and some management implications are provided.</p>

A Consensus Decision-Making Model considering Empathetic Preferences and Power Structure of the Poverty Alleviation E-Commerce Supply Chain

This article focuses on the conflict consultation process and empathetic decision-making behavior of a poverty alleviation supply chain composed of farmers, retailers, and third-party e-commerce platforms (e-platforms), and proposes an empathetic preference-based consensus decision-making model. The impact of empathetic preferences and power structure on the consensus reaching process are analyzed. The results indicate that consumers’ empathy increases the consensus wholesale price and sales price of products, while retailers’ and e-platforms’ empathy increase the wholesale price and reduce the sales price of products. The empathetic preferences of consumers, retailers, and e-platforms are helpful for increasing the profits of farmers. The retailer’s empathetic preference is not beneficial to its own profits and the supply chain, while the e-platform’s empathetic preference can help to improve its own income and increase the overall profit of the supply chain at first, before decreasing. Moreover, the power of retailer is positively correlated with the profits of farmers and the retailer, and negatively correlated with the profits of the e-platform and supply chain. The sales price and commission price are negatively correlated with the power of retailer, but the wholesale price is not related to the change in power structure.

Impact of Entrepreneurial Bricolage on Performance of E-Commerce: Case Study in Jordan

Most of SMEs are is emerging and flourishing as the number of entrepreneurs who start an online business is continuously growing. Third-party e-commerce platforms (such as eBay and Taobao) offer small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) fantastic chances to overcome technology barriers and access e-commerce markets. However other market entry impediments, such as resource limits and institutional challenges, still exist for SMEs. To shed light on how SMEs could possibly cope with these issues, the study apply entrepreneurial bricolage theory to the setting of online firms functioning on third-party e-commerce platforms. By using a novel approach for investigating the links between various types of entrepreneurial bricolage and the performance of online stores. Survey data from a sample of small online retailers on Alibaba's Taobao.com, China's largest third-party e-commerce platform, was used to test the research hypotheses (NYSE: BABA). The result shows that the Input bricolage has a favorable influence on efficiency, and market bricolage has a beneficial effect on sales.

Can e-commerce platforms build the resilience of brick-and-mortar businesses to the COVID-19 shock? An empirical analysis in the Chinese retail industry

We proposed a research model that examined the differences between the contributions of large, third-party e-commerce platforms and self-operated e-commerce platforms to businesses’ resilience to the COVID-19 shock. The difference-in-differences approach was employed to analyze a substantial sample of Chinese retailers. The study found that (1) under the baseline condition, the large, third-party e-commerce platforms built significant resilience for the brick-and-mortar businesses, (2) resource constraints induced by factor immobility weakened the contribution of large, third-party e-commerce platforms to the businesses’ resilience in regions of severe shock, and (3) the physical retailers’ self-operated EC platforms built resilience in regions of severe shock.

Green Product Quality Supervision Strategy in Online Shopping With Consumer Evaluation and Complaint

Green consumption is an important foundation for achieving stable and long-term economic development goals. With the rapid development of e-commerce and people’s widespread attention to sustainability, more and more consumers purchase green products online. Therefore, we consider consumer feedback mechanisms including evaluation and complaint and construct an evolutionary game model of green product quality supervision with the participation of governmental supervision department, third-party e-commerce platform, online seller and consumer, which analyzes the four parties’ evolutionary stable strategies. To verify the theoretical results, we conduct a numerical simulation by Matlab 2020b. Moreover, we study the conditions that make evolutionary stable strategy combination exist based on Lyapunov’s First Method. And we find that when consumer chooses complaint, (0, 0, 1) is likely to become an only evolutionary stable strategy combination. At this time, the online seller chooses to provide high-quality green product, third-party e-commerce platform chooses not to strengthen inspection, and governmental supervision department chooses to strictly supervise. Conversely, when the consumer chooses no complaint, (1, 0, 0) and (0, 0, 1) may become an evolutionary stable strategy combination. At this time, the online seller cannot be stable in providing high-quality green product. What’s more, governmental supervision department increases the penalty, which can incentivize a third-party e-commerce platform to strengthen inspection. Third-party e-commerce platform increases the reward and can promote online seller to provide high-quality green product. On the one hand, this paper enriches the theoretical basis of online shopping green product quality supervision. On the other hand, compared with existing literature, it extends the main body of the evolutionary game to four paries and broadens the application scope of the game model. In addition, it has put forward feasible suggestions for the government supervision department to strengthen the quality supervision, and provided decision-making support for the third-party e-commerce platform to assume the responsibility of quality inspection.

Cross-border e-commerce as a foreign market entry mode among SMEs: the relationship between export capabilities and performance

PurposeAlthough cross-border e-commerce has become increasingly popular among small and medium-sized enterprises as a foreign market entry mode, research on the determinants of its success is scarce. Drawing on the resource-based view, this study aims to examine the relationship between a firm’s information technology, international marketing and export operations capabilities and its cross-border e-commerce strategic and financial performance.Design/methodology/approachPartial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from a sample of Italian exporters in the food and beverage industry.FindingsThe results highlight the mixed effects of information technology, international marketing and export operations capabilities on both e-commerce strategic and financial performance. Moreover, the use of third-party e-commerce platforms reduces the effect of exporters’ information technology capabilities on their e-commerce financial performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe majority of exporters in this study had implemented cross-border e-commerce only recently; hence, longitudinal data on the success factors of e-commerce are not available.Practical implicationsWhile cross-border e-commerce may work as an accelerator of the overall export performance, export managers are urged to approach it strategically with a clear medium-term view to develop the required capabilities.Originality/valueThis study was one of the first to examine the drivers of small and medium-sized exporters’ cross-border e-commerce performance. Moreover, unlike most previous analyzes, it focused on e-commerce as a foreign market entry mode rather than a supplement to offline exporting activities.

Farmers' choice between endogenous vs. exogenous e-commerce: alignment with resources and performance goals

PurposeThe literature shows that e-commerce adoption brings many benefits to farmers and agricultural businesses. However, the literature offers very limited guidance on the most effective ways for them to utilize e-commerce platforms. In this study, we unfold how a farmer's choice between endogenous (their own) vs. exogenous (third-party) e-commerce platforms should be aligned with the external (support from agricultural cooperative) and internal (usage of quality labels) resources they can leverage and the performance goals they want to achieve (market expansion vs. price premium).Design/methodology/approachOur study draws on transaction cost economics (TCE) and resource-based theory (RBT) to test the conceptual model with data from a cross-sectional survey of 324 farmers from two provinces in PR China.FindingsOur findings show that external and internal resources shed additional light on the effectiveness of endogenous vis-à-vis exogenous e-commerce platforms. For farmers who rely on exogenous e-commerce, support from an agricultural cooperative appears to be critical in increasing their market expansion. On the other hand, farmers seeking to earn a price premium should focus on developing their own e-commerce platforms, while at the same time emphasizing the quality labels of their agricultural products.Practical implicationsFarmers should pay close attention to the value-added benefits provisioned through farmers' cooperatives, as well as the benefits of acquiring quality labels for their agricultural products. However, the decision to utilize these resources should be aligned with the chosen e-commerce platform (endogenous vs. exogenous) as well as with the performance goal the farmer wants to achieve.Originality/valueOur work goes beyond the traditional focus on transaction costs and efficiency of e-commerce channels and provides specific insights into when an endogenous or exogenous e-commerce model might provide benefits for farmers. On top of this, we argue and show that this decision should reside with the farmer's ability to leverage external and internal resources, envisioned through support from an agricultural cooperative and the quality labels of agricultural products.

E-Commerce Supply Chain Models under Altruistic Preference

This paper reviews the decisions, coordination contract, and altruistic preference of an e-commerce supply chain (eSC) composed of a manufacturer and a third-party e-commerce platform (platform). The research derives optimal decisions in a decentralized model with altruistic preference; it is indicated that altruistic preference can help increase the sales price and sales service level. Although the platform’s altruistic preference is not beneficial to its own profits, it can help increase the manufacturer’s profits. Moreover, when the degree of altruistic preference is kept within a limit, the profit of the decentralized system is higher in a model with altruistic preferences, which indicates that altruistic preference can contribute toward maintaining a friendly, harmonious, and cooperative a relationship between the platform and manufacturers. Contrary to a traditional offline supply chain, where the sales price is the lowest in the centralized model, the sales price is highest in a centralized eSC model. In the proposed coordination contract, the platform with a certain degree of altruistic preference offers zero-commission sales service and charges a certain amount for a fixed professional service fee. The proposed contract is more applicable to products whose market demands are less affected by sales prices and more affected by the sales service level.

The Influence of Third-party E-Commerce Platform Price Limits on the Dual-Channel Strategy of Manufacturers

Abstract Powerful platform operators always set price limits for sellers on the platform. This paper establishes Stackelberg game models according to two pricing models when the manufacturer enters the third-party e-commerce platform and sells products online. The first is a seller-pricing model in which the manufacturer decides the online price. The second is a platform-pricing model in which the platform decides the online price. We obtain the equilibrium results for these two models and the condition that allows the manufacturer to adopt the dual-channel strategy by comparing the operation decisions and performance of supply-chain members in the two models. Results show that the dual-channel strategy of the manufacturer always decreases the profit of the traditional retailer. In comparison with the seller-pricing model, the platform-pricing model always erodes parts of the manufacturers profit obtained by the dual-channel strategy. The manufacturer will pass on the partial loss to the retailer using relative leadership in the platform-pricing model, which renders the profit of the retailer lower than that in the seller-pricing model. Also, price limits do not always bring the platform more profits; sometimes the platform is forced to set a low price.

Entrepreneurial bricolage and online store performance in emerging economies

Third-party e-commerce platforms (such as eBay and Taobao) provide great opportunities for small or minor sized enterprises (SMEs) to overcome technological challenges to enter e-commerce markets. However, SMEs still encounter other market entry barriers such as resource constraints and institutional challenges. We apply entrepreneurial bricolage theory to the context of online businesses operating on third-party e-commerce platforms in order to shed light on how SMEs could possibly cope with these challenges. We present a novel framework to explore the relationships between different types of entrepreneurial bricolage and online store performance. The research hypotheses were evaluated by survey data collected from a sample of small online stores operating on the largest third-party e-commerce platform in China, Alibaba’s Taobao.com (NYSE: BABA). Results show that input bricolage has a positive effect on efficiency performance and market bricolage has a positive effect on sales performance, and the relationships between input (and market) bricolage and store performances are significantly stronger with higher level of institutional bricolage. Contrary to our expectations, the effects of input bricolage on sales performance and market bricolage on efficiency performance are positive but not significant. The study contributes to the development of entrepreneurial bricolage theory literature by providing a fine-grained analysis of the varying effects of different types of entrepreneurial bricolage on organizational outcomes. The findings of the study also provide guidelines for SMEs to effectively make use of resources at hand through the practice of entrepreneurial bricolage.

Evaluation of Most Effective Third-Party E-Commerce Platform in Senegal

With the fast development of the new information and communication technologies and their current involvement in the business world, no country as less developed as it can be, can’t ignore them. Developed and emerging countries have understood it and have very early exploited the opportunities offered by these information and communication technologies. One of their most compelling opportunities is the emergence of electronic commerce. However, the e-commerce is not limited to the purchase and sale of goods and services through the Internet, but it requires a strategic regulation for its proper functioning; because its development passes through its proper functioning. In the majority of the less developed countries, e-commerce is still at its embryonic stage where the large part of online transactions happens in social networks like Facebook and Whatsapp. Senegal is one of those countries, therefore the objective of this research to find a solution on how to organize the Senegalese e-commerce market by proposing the most effective third-party e-commerce platform that can be suitable to its market. There are different types of e-commerce but the most known, used and that have proved their effectiveness are the B2B e-commerce, B2C e-commerce, and C2C e-commerce. According to the Statistics Portal, Statista, the B2B e-commerce worldwide gross merchandise volume was 7,300 billion USD in 2016 and the B2C e-commerce worldwide sales reached 1,859 billion USD the same year. As for the C2C e-commerce, eMarketer estimated its worldwide sales at 1,915 billion USD in 2016. Therefore, they are the third-party e-commerce platforms used as the alternatives and from which the best for the Senegalese e-commerce market is evaluated in the research through the use of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The results have shown the B2B third-party e-commerce platform to be the most effective for the Senegalese market; without overlap of alternatives within uncertainties as of the result of the sensitivity analysis.

Legal Duties and Tortious Liability of Third-Party E-Commerce Platforms

Legal Duties and Tortious Liability of Third-Party E-Commerce Platforms

Varieties of Entrepreneurial Bricolage and Online Store Performance

The heterogeneous role of entrepreneurial bricolage in influencing performance has been neglected but is an important omission as different entrepreneurial bricolage has discriminable functions. This study develops a novel framework that explores the potential effects of varieties domains of entrepreneurial bricolage based on sources of resources at hand on. We identify and measure 5 domains of entrepreneurial bricolage, and separately analyse their impacts on performances. As online stores on the third-party platforms suffering resource constraints, we conduct our survey on the largest third-party e-commerce platform in China, Alibaba's Taobao (NYSE:BABA) to do empirical examinations. Our findings show that physical bricolage, labor bricolage and institutional bricolage have positive effects on efficiency performance, skill bricolage and market bricolage have positive effects on sale performance, but skill bricolage also has negative effects on efficiency performance. Our explorative research offers foundation for further empirical examines in entrepreneurial bricolage theory. We offer solutions of how to growth for small business facing resource constraints in E-commerce context.

Early mover advantage in e-commerce platforms with low entry barriers: The role of customer relationship management capabilities

This research investigates whether early mover advantage (EMA) exists among entrepreneurial e-tailers operating on third-party e-commerce platforms. Contrary to traditional wisdom, the current research hypothesizes that e-tailers may enjoy early mover advantages because of the consumer demand inertia amplified by the nature of the Internet and the system design characteristics of e-commerce platforms. We also argue that customer relationship management capabilities help enhance early mover advantages in an online setting. We employ panel data on 7309 e-tailers to perform analyses and find empirical evidence that strongly supports the abovementioned hypotheses.

基于UML和MVC的畜牧业电子商务平台分析与设计

本文从畜牧业的需求特点出发，运用UML建模技术和MVC架构技术设计了畜牧业电子商务平台，不仅满足了畜牧业会员既买又卖的需求，也充分考虑了系统的可维护性和扩展性。本系统的设计可以为畜牧业开展电子商务或建立第三方电子商务平台提供新的思路。 According to the demand characteristics of animal husbandry, this article uses UML modeling technology and MVC architecture technology to design the animal husbandry e-commerce platform. It not only meets the needs of animal husbandry e-commerce platform users to buy and sell, and also considers the maintainability and expansibility of the system. The design of this system will provide new ideas for animal husbandry to develop electronic commerce or third-party e-commerce platform.

Analysis and Design of Mount Tai Tourism E-Commerce Service Platform

In response to the Tai'an City to seize new opportunities, "building strong economic and cultural city, to create an international tourist city," the goal, to contribute to economic development in Tai'an City, combined with the current actual situation Mountain Tai tourism industry, the paper constructed Mountain Tai tourism e-commerce service platform, and to promote e-commerce operations in the country. This article fully and semi positioned Walks Walks consumer groups, unlike Ctrip, the way cattle and other typical third-party e-commerce platform, Mountain Tai tourism e-commerce service platform can be used as a third-party e-commerce platform consignment of various travel services, but also independent Tarzan become tourist attractions, the official website of Mountain Tai tourism hub, is a full range of travel e-commerce platform.

The Third-Party E-Commerce Platform Based on the Trading Service

This paper presents a formal model of monopoly e-commerce platforms owned by a third party in spot trading modes using analyzing the transaction process and service supply chain relationship .for more benefits, the platform owner must aim at transaction services of staple commodities with high price elasticity and large quantities of market supply and demand, while reducing the marginal usage costs of buyers and suppliers with effective measures.