Reintermediation Strategies in Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce

The literature on electronic commerce (EC) and electronic marketplaces has long recognized the importance of different kinds of intermediaries and the different functions they serve [5]. The Internet is most often discussed in connection with digital intermediaries [76], as the displacement of traditional intermediaries. In this research, we propose a new conceptual framework for understanding how competition in business-tobusiness (B2B) EC in the presence of information technology (IT) innovations changes firm-level strategy choices and the structure of the marketplace. We also identify and discuss the economic forces that lead to these changes. In this context, we further describe a recurring pattern of intermediation, disintermediation and reintermediation through an “IDR framework.” We also explain the impetus for technological reintermediation, where a disenfranchised traditional player is able to compete again, by leveraging technological innovations with co-specialized assets. We build this perspective with the support of relevant literature from several reference disciplines and with evidence from a field study of intermediation on the Internet in the corporate travel industry. Our analysis reveals that traditional travel firms have access to a range of strategies that enable them to avoid disintermediation and to retain highly profitable central roles in the marketplace in the long run.