Identifying Quality Factors in Construction Industry E-commerce
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2020
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
97+2
Series
Abstract
The study investigates quality in B2B e-commerce in the context of Finnish construction industry, which is sizable but struggling with prevalent inefficiencies. The case company, Onninen, along with other construction material suppliers have an important role in solving these inefficiencies. Sales of materials are moving online from traditional channels, but there is a disconnect between current e-commerce system capabilities and features, and customer and supplier staff needs. Hence, the objective of this study is to find quality factors of B2B e-commerce. E-commerce in both B2C and B2B instances is introduced, along with its changing role and other current phenomena. Quality factors and purchase stages in B2B e-commerce are determined based on a literature review on existing theories of traditional service, e-service and e-commerce quality. Respectively, a B2B Online Success framework is then grounded on this theory. Empirical data is gathered through semi-structured interviews on case company staff and clientele. Following, this data is analysed through thematic analysis and presented with the help of the newly created framework. Finally, key results of 8 quality factor themes are introduced with the framework and recommendations for the case company are given, along with recommendations for future research in the field.Description
Thesis advisor
Tuunainen, VirpiKeywords
B2B, ecommerce, e-commerce, quality