Abstract
In our paper we challenge the widely held view that B2C (Business-to-Consumer) e-commerce markets are or at least tend to be frictionless, approaching the ideal-type frictionless market in microeconomic theory. The social consequences would be numerous, affecting the impact on consumers and on respective state policies. We discuss arguments for and against the assumption of a frictionless, highly competitive B2C e-commerce market and present the results of an empirical study on success factors in B2C e-commerce. In addition we provide a survey of empirical studies of the intensity of competition in B2C e-commerce. We argue that the intensity of competition is lower than widely expected and that the dot corn shakeout might further increase concentration in B2C e-commerce Finally, we discuss policy implications based on the theoretical and empirical analysis. We conclude that the rather technology-centred arguments for a frictionless market are outweighed by arguments and by empirical evidence against a frictionless market based on industrial economic considerations.
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Latzer, M., Schmitz, S.W. (2004). B2C e-commerce: a frictionless market is not in sight — arguments, empirics and policy implications. In: Preissl, B., Bouwman, H., Steinfield, C. (eds) E-Life after the Dot Com Bust. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11659-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11659-3_3
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