Therefore, B2B exchanges become more flexible coordinating mechanisms with fewer inefficiencies and faster operations compared to physical undertakings. By participating in B2B exchanges firms can significantly increase their transaction efficiencies; hence, without loss of generality, firms can achieve cost-savings by employing B2B exchanges in their eCommerce efforts. Given the power of B2B exchanges to support business exchanges and offer several services to join best mba colleges, any firm could leverage their capabilities to receive value through eCommerce.

The low cost of Internet-based eCommerce increases the scope of B2B exchanges to touch all firms irrespective of size, nature of business and relationship orientation. Therefore, since B2B exchanges redefine how firms interact with each other, it is important to understand how firms can benefit from B2B eCommerce through their participation in these exchanges. The academic and business literature has primarily focused on the efficiency-based cost savings associated with eCommerce, mainly resulting from lower transaction costs, higher speed and less €friction'.

While participation in multilateral markets meant loss of electronic integration, the power of B2B exchanges enables markets to achieve comparable levels of technical and business integration as traditional dyadic relationships. Therefore, both buyers and suppliers benefit from these efficiencies. Nevertheless, perhaps the greatest value derived from B2B eCommerce can be absorbed by buyers through effective eProcurement resulting from better and more informed decisions in selecting suppliers and products, superior planning and forecasting, and obtaining more competitive pricing, better delivery terms, and higher product quality.

While efficiency considerations may not greatly depend on exchange type, effective eProcurement mainly results from the selection of an appropriate B2B exchange that dictates the supplier consideration set, the amount and quality of industry and product information, and accompanying services. Therefore, exchange type selection should have a significant impact on eProcurement effectiveness, which is usually determined and measured in terms of supplier performance-competitive price, timeliness of delivery, supplier flexibility, and product quality.

The information systems, marketing and organizational economics literatures on interfirm relations provide many moderating factors that may affect the selection of appropriate B2B exchanges. These factors can be broadly classified into three main categories - product, organizational provide mba scholarships, and market characteristics. Product characteristics include asset specificity and product complexity, among others. Company characteristics include procurement importance and novelty, switching costs, and purchase formalization and centralization.

Market situational characteristics include a firm's bargaining power, market liquidity, product availability, relationship reciprocity (trust), uncertainty, and bargaining power. Finally, the importance and novelty of the purchase to the firm also affects the procurement process. These moderating factors should be taken into account in the selection of appropriate types of B2B exchanges following the proposed classification. The existing literature covers a broad spectrum of relationships from basic buying and selling to joint ventures and network firms, in addition to exchanges governed by power asymmetry. Drawing from the literature on interorganizational relations, we attempt to develop an all inclusive typology for alternative types of B2B exchanges.