Business participation in third-party controlled e-marketplace: an exploratory model

Previous research on the factors that influence a business's participation in third party e-markets identified a set of motivational and ability related factors. This paper explores further the question of the determinants of third party e-market participation using a multiple case study research design. Our findings suggest that motivation and ability related factors might play both an enabling and inhibiting roles in e-market adoption. However, we also found that these factors are limited to offer a complete understanding of participation in third party operated e-markets. In particular, in the context of emerging economies and emerging e-markets where both contextual factors and the offerings of market makers are crucial to an enterprise's decision to join and stay in e-market, the explanatory power of motivation and ability factors tend to be limited. The paper proposes an extended motivation-ability model to understand the drivers and inhibitors of participating in third-party operated e-markets. It further discusses the implications of the results of the study for both market and business decision makers