In Search of New Perspective on Electronic Marketplaces

While Electronic Marketplaces (EMs) have existed for the past 30 years, recent technological developments and changing consumer preferences have led to the emergence of Global Online Marketplaces (GOMPs), such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, which we view as a new type of EMs. Moving away from traditional linear thinking inherent in supply chain management, these GOMPs operate as Digital Platform Ecosystems (DPEs), which require platform thinking, rooted in network economics. Surprisingly, while researchers have recognized that EMs exhibit the characteristics of DPEs, current research remains predominantly stuck in applying supply chain thinking rather than embracing platform thinking. We argue that such a mismatch can inhibit our ability to comprehend the nature of GOMPs as new type of EMs. To address this gap, we perform hermeneutic literature review encompassing 75 articles from various fields of inquiry, spanning from 1991 to 2018. The purpose of this literature review is to first investigate which aspects of the DPE literature are addressed in the current EM literature, and second, to bridge the two streams of literature by outlining research gaps, which scholars can address in order to provide better understanding of the characteristics, development and impact of GOMPs as new type of EMs.