Diffusion process models and strategic performance theory for new B2B electronic ventures Available to Purchase

The Internet and its commercial applications in electronic commerce, particularly new ventures like B2B e‐markets, are experiencing a volatile introduction to the business environment. Businesses are restructuring and forming networks in an effort to accommodate and use this new phenomenon to their advantage. From this perspective, this article offers a conceptual framework on the process of creating these new ventures, the impact of network champions in the creation process and the strategic significance of the competency‐destroying innovation (Internet) for buyers and sellers who join the B2B e‐market. Several working propositions are developed from the extant literature that should be useful for empirical work on how new B2B e‐markets are implemented. The paper presents a refined proposition based on a field study of a B2B e‐market case.