Fostering Customer Bargaining and E-Procurement Through a Decentralised Marketplace on the Blockchain

【Author】 Martins, Joao; Parente, Manuel; Amorim-Lopes, Mario; Amaral, Luis; Figueira, Goncalo; Rocha, Pedro; Amorim, Pedro

【Source】IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

【影响因子】8.702

【Abstract】Firms have available many forms of collaboration, including cooperatives or joint ventures, in this way leveraging their market power. Customers, however, are atomic agents with few mechanisms for collaborating, leading to an unbalanced buyer-supplier relationship and economic surpluses that shift to producers. Some group buying websites helped alleviate the problem by offering bulk discounts, but more advancements can be made with the emergence of technologies, such as the blockchain. In this article, we propose a customer-push e-marketplace built on top of Ethereum, where customers can aggregate their proposals, and suppliers try to outcompete each other in reverse auction bids to fulfil the order. Furthermore, smart contracts make it possible to automate many operational activities, such as payment escrows/release upon delivery confirmation, increasing the efficiency along the supply chain. The implementation of this network is expected to improve market efficiency by reducing transaction costs, time delays, and information asymmetry. Furthermore, concepts such as increased bargaining power and economies of scale, and their effects in buyer-supplier relationships, are also explored.

【Keywords】Contracts; Collaboration; Economics; Aggregates; Supply chains; Blockchain; buyer-supplier relationship; decentralized marketplace (DM); reputation system; supply chain management (SCM)

【发表时间】2022 JUN

【收录时间】2022-03-24

【文献类型】期刊

【主题类别】

区块链应用-电商领域-