Contributions.and. Implications. of. this.Study

The most important contribution of this study is the representation of a process-based
categorization of B2B models and their assessment. This approach can also be used as a
benchmark for the evaluation and comparison of other new and upcoming B2B business
models and processes based on these models

The authors assume that similar studies or parts of these are used by consulting companies
in approaches to carry out analyses of models and process chains or SWOT analyses. The
process-based approach in this cross-sectional study is presented with some selected B2B
buy- and sell-side models. A longitudinal study could provide more meaningful and deeper
insights.
Future research in this domain could examine:
� Details.of.the.processes:.Lists introduced in this paper for the B2B fields of buyand
sell-side. A major goal should be to increase the depth for the classification and
refinement of existing models: A survey methodology could be used to determine the
frequency of these processes used by different B2B models in the marketspace.
� Expansion.of.the.process:.Lists to other models such as B2B-marketplaces, e-collaboration,
or to the extended supply chain. This could widen the universe for classification
of B2B models and lead to standardization in the categorization.
� Establishment.of.process.B2B.model.arrays:.(Showing models and processes in a
table format) for simplified analysis of similarities and differences between models.
Such matrices can also be used for fitting software products to different business models
or in the support of �Make or Buy� decisions in different stages of organizational
readiness.