Reintermediation strategies in business-to-business electronic commerce

The literature on electronic commerce and electronic marketplaces has long recognized the importance of intermediaries and the functions they serve. T he Internet is most often discussed in connection with digital intermediari es as the displacement of traditional intermediaries. This article proposes a new conceptual framework For understanding how competition in business-t o-business (B2B) electronic commerce in the presence of information technol ogy (IT) innovations changes firm-level strategy choices and the structure of the marketplace. It also identifies and discusses the economic forces th at lead to these changes, and in this context describes a recurring pattern of intermediation, disintermediation, and reintermediation through an "IDR Framework." The article explains the impetus for technological reintermedi ation, where a disenfranchised traditional player is able to compete again by leveraging technological innovations with cospecialized assets. This per spective is built with the support of relevant literature from severe I ref erence disciplines and with evidence from a field study of intermediation o n the Internet in the corporate travel industry. The analysis reveals that traditional travel firms have access to a range of strategies that enable t hem to avoid disintermediation and retain highly profit able central roles in the marketplace in the long run.