Cybermediaries in electronic marketspace: Toward theory building

The increasing importance of electronic commerce makes it essential to develop a theory of virtual value chains, This article considers the intermediation process between producers and consumers within electronic markets. We argue that, contrary to existing wisdom, intermediaries will play a hey role in electronic markets. Drawing oil channel evolution literature and transaction cost economics, we present a set of propositions regarding the emergence of cybermediaries and the development of virtual channel systems. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.