The Impacts of E-SCM on the E-Tailing Industry: An Analysis from Porter's Five Force Perspectives

Abstract

The growing of e-tailing industry drives e-tailers and e-suppliers to search for radically new ways of doing business because they have to manage all activities from procurement to delivery in their e-tailing supply chain efficiently. Nowadays, E-SCM (Electronic Supply Chain Management, also can be called as the Internet-Based Supply Chain Management) is an important tool in which customer needs are simultaneously connected to the procurement of raw materials or components, product manufacture or assembly, logistics, product delivery and support services to achieve higher market share and profit. This paper analyzes the roles of E-SCM and the effects of E-SCM on e-tailing industry in terms of e-suppliers' and e-tailers' perspectives. The impacts of E-SCM on e-tailing industry structure are analyzed with five forces (competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, the threat of substitution and the threat of potential new entry) called as Porter's Five Force Analysis. In conclusion, the positive and negative impacts of E-SCM on e-tailing industry are presented, and some recommendations to e-tailing supply chain partners are given. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 8th International Strategic Management Conference