Introduction to Electronic Commerce, 3e (Turban)
Chapter 2 E-Marketplaces: Mechanisms, Tools, and Impacts of E-Commerce
2.1 True/False
1) EC enablers include electronic markets, e-stores, and e-catalogs.
2) Storefronts, malls, and portals are EC mechanisms that support the entertainment EC activity.
3) The functions and efficiency of an e-market are the same as that of a physical marketplace.
4) The emergence of electronic marketplaces has resulted in lower information search costs for
buyers and lower transaction and distribution costs for sellers.
5) Although both marketplaces and marketspaces can sell physical products, the marketspace can
also sell digital products.
6) Front end refers to activities that support online order fulfillment, inventory management,
purchasing from suppliers, payment processing, packaging, and delivery.
7) An intermediary is a third party that operates between sellers and buyers.
8) Travelers using airline Web sites to book their flights directly without the use of travel agents
is resulting in the reintermediation of travel agents.
9) Electronic storefronts, Internet malls, and exchanges are major B2B e-marketplaces.
10) A shipment court is a common storefront mechanism.
11) A Webstore is a single company’s Web site where products or services are sold and usually
has an online shopping cart associated with it.
12) Brokers and infomediaries are two types of online intermediaries.
13) WebMD, which is the largest U.S. medical services company, is known mainly for its
webmd.com consumer portal, but its core business is being an e-intermediary.
14) Search engines not only “search and match,” but also have capabilities that can be used to
perform routine tasks that require intelligence.
15) An electronic shopping cart is an order-processing technology that allows customers to
accumulate items they wish to buy while they continue to shop.
16) Shopping carts for B2B are fairly simple, but a shopping cart for B2C may be more complex.
17) An auction is a market mechanism that uses a competitive process by which a seller solicits
consecutive bids from buyers or a buyer solicits bids from sellers.
18) Auctions are based on dynamic pricing.
19) Reverse auctions are bidding or tendering systems in which the buyer places an item for bid
on a request for quote system; then potential suppliers bid on the job, with the price reducing
sequentially, and the lowest bid wins.
20) E-auctions are becoming less important selling and buying channels for companies and
individuals.
21) In the one buyer, many potential sellers dynamic pricing configuration, the sellers use a
forward auction.
22) English, Yankee, Dutch, and free-fall are the four major types of forward auctions.
23) A limitation of e-bartering for businesses is the excess capacity items such as office space,
storage, factory space, idle facilities, and labor cannot be bartered.
24) RSS is a social-networking software tool for individuals.
25) Businesses cannot compete in virtual worlds.
2.2 Multiple Choice
1) Eastern Mountain Sports’s multifunctional employee workbench that facilitates collaboration
among internal and external stakeholders is
A) Extreme Deals.
B) WebFOCUS.
C) E-basecamp.
D) RSS.
2) Electronic markets are the EC mechanism supporting the
A) communicate, collaborate and learn EC activities.
B) presence and delivery, find information, compare, and analyze EC activities.
C) improve performance EC activities.
D) entertainment EC activities.
3) Which of the following are EC activities supported by Web 2.0 tools and social network
services?
A) presence and discovery
B) trading, buy, sell, exchange
C) entertainment
D) compare and analyze
4) Each of the following is a main function of traditional and electronic markets except
A) matching buyers and sellers.
B) facilitating the exchange of information, goods, services, and payments associated with
market transactions.
C) financing the transformation of raw materials into finished products.
D) providing an institutional infrastructure, such as a legal and regulatory framework that
enables the efficient functioning of the market.
5) Digital products have different cost curves than those of regular products because in
digitization
A) most costs are variable, and fixed costs are low.
B) most costs are fixed, and variable costs are very low.
C) most costs are fixed, but variable costs are high.
D) all costs are variable.
6) The portion of an e-seller’s business through which customers interact, including the seller’s
portal, electronic catalogs, shopping cart, and payment gateway is the
A) front end of the business.
B) back end of the business.
C) infrastructure for the business.
D) intermediary in the business.
7) Activities related to order aggregation and fulfillment, inventory management, purchasing
from suppliers, accounting and finance, packaging, and delivery are done in the
A) front end of the business.
B) back end of the business.
C) infrastructure of the business.
D) intermediary in the business.
8) The elimination of various types of agents that mediate between buyers and sellers, such as
travel and insurance agents, is referred to as
A) automation.
B) disintermediation.
C) remediation.
D) e-distribution.
9) Online markets that are owned and operated by a single company and that are either sell-side
or buy-side are known as
A) private e-marketplaces.
B) commercial portals.
C) e-malls.
D) B2B marketplaces.
10) Public e-marketspaces are
A) usually B2B markets.
B) often owned by a third party or consortium.
C) usually regulated by the government.
D) all of the above.
11) Major department and discount stores are classified as
A) general malls.
B) specialized malls.
C) regional stores.
D) pure-play stores.
12) Each of the following is a specialized mall except
A) newegg.com.
B) walmart.com.
C) cattoys.com.
D) 1800flowers.com.
13) Web sites with audio interfaces that can be accessed by a cell phone best describes
A) mobile portals.
B) intelligent engines.
C) voice portals.
D) knowledge portals.
14) The type of broker that offers customers access to a variety of stores and provides them with
transaction services is
A) buy-sell fulfillment.
B) virtual mall.
C) metamediary.
D) comparison agent.
15) Functionalities provided by EC merchant server software include
A) electronic catalogs.
B) search engines.
C) shopping carts.
D) all of the above.
16) The presentation of product information in an electronic form and also serving as the
backbone of most e-selling sites describes
A) e-distributor.
B) Kindle.
C) e-magazine.
D) electronic catalog.
17) Each of the following is a type of EC search except
A) host search.
B) Internet/Web search.
C) enterprise search.
D) desktop search.
18) Popular search engines include each of the following except
A) Google.
B) Linux.
C) AltaVista.
D) Lycos.
19) Search tools that search the contents of a user’s or organization’s computer files, rather than
searching the Internet are
A) desktop search tools.
B) enterprise search tools.
C) search engine tools.
D) host search tools.
20) An order-processing technology that allows customers to accumulate items they wish to buy
while they continue to shop best defines
A) intelligent agent.
B) e-fulfillment agent.
C) electronic shopping cart.
D) mobile portal.
21) A market mechanism that uses a competitive process in which a seller solicits consecutive
bids from buyers or a buyer solicits bids from sellers best defines
A) electronic shopping.
B) request for proposal.
C) auction.
D) request for quotation.
22) The most common and traditional form of auctions in which one seller entertains bids from
many buyers best describes
A) forward auctions.
B) reverse auctions.
C) bidding auction systems.
D) tendering systems.
23) The dynamic pricing configuration where the resulting price is determined by each party’s
bargaining power, supply and demand in the item’s market, and possibly business environment
factors best describes
A) one buyer, one seller.
B) one seller, many potential buyers.
C) one buyer, many potential sellers.
D) many sellers, many buyers.
24) Benefits of e-auctions to sellers include
A) anonymity.
B) convenience of bidding anywhere and any time.
C) lack of differentiation.
D) optimal price is determined by the market.
25) All of the following are benefits of e-auctions to buyers except:
A) can liquidate large quantities quickly.
B) convenience of bidding anywhere and any time.
C) opportunity to bargain.
D) opportunities to find unique items.
26) Which of the following statements about bartering is false?
A) It is the oldest method of trade.
B) It is primarily done between individuals and private parties.
C) The problem with bartering is that it is difficult to find trading partners.
D) Intermediaries can be helpful, but they are expensive and very slow.
27) Impacts of auctions include
A) profit for individuals.
B) EC component in a business model.
C) highly visible distribution mechanism.
D) all of the above.
28) Social-networking software tools for online communication include
A) VoIP.
B) peer-to-peer social networks.
C) mashups.
D) social guides.
29) A form of blogging that allows users to write messages, usually up to 140 characters, and
publish them either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group that can be chosen by the
user describes
A) cybertexting.
B) microblogging.
C) tagging.
D) vlog.
30) Types of business activities in virtual worlds include each of the following except
A) creating and managing a virtual business.
B) conducting regular business activities, such as advertising.
C) providing services for those who build, manage, or make money with virtual properties.
D) assembling physical products.
2.3 Fill in the Blank
1) The three types of e-marketplaces are ________, ________, and ________.
2) ________ refers to an online market, usually B2B, in which buyers and sellers exchange
goods or services.
3) A marketplace in which sellers and buyers exchange goods and services for money (or other
goods and services), but do so electronically defines ________.
4) ________ refers to the portion of an e-seller’s business processes through which customers
interact, including the seller’s portal, electronic catalogs, a shopping cart, a search engine, and a
payment gateway.
5) ________ refers to the activities that support online order fulfillment, inventory management,
purchasing from suppliers, payment processing, packaging, and delivery.
6) ________ refers to the elimination of intermediaries between sellers and buyers.
7) A private e-marketplace in which one company makes purchases from invited suppliers
defines ________.
8) A private e-marketplace in which one company sells either standard and/or customized
products to qualified companies defines ________.
9) An ________ is an online shopping center where many online stores are located.
10) A portal accessed by telephone or cell phone defines ________.
11) ________ are electronic intermediaries that provide and/or control information flow in
cyberspace, often aggregating information and selling it to others.
12) An e-commerce intermediary that connects manufacturers with business buyers (customers)
by aggregating the catalogs of many manufacturers in one place describes ________.
13) The practice of identifying and enabling specific content across the enterprise to be indexed,
searched, and displayed to authorized users defines ________.
14) ________ are auctions conducted online.
15) A ________ is an auction in which a seller entertains bids from buyers, and bidders increase
the price sequentially.
16) The ________ is an auction in which the buyer places an item for bid on a request for quote
system, potential suppliers bid on the job, with the price reducing sequentially, and the lowest
bid wins.
17) The ________ is an auction model in which a would-be buyer specifies the price he or she is
willing to pay to any willing and able seller.
18) A ________ is an auction in which multiple buyers and their bidding prices are matched with
multiple sellers and their asking prices, considering the quantities of both sides.
19) ________ is a marketplace in which an intermediary arranges barter transactions.
20) ________ is a blog with video content.
21) ________ is a nonhierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as
an Internet bookmark, digital image, video clip, or any computer document).
22) ________ is the practice and method of collaboratively creating, classifying, and managing
tags to annotate and categorize content.
23) ________ is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of
Web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.
24) A blog that allows everyone to participate as a peer; anyone may add, delete, or change
content defines ________.
25) ________ are animated computer characters that exhibit humanlike movements and
behaviors.
1) List the six major EC trading activity categories.
2) Discuss intermediation, disintermediation, and reintermediation.
3) Define Web portal. List and describe seven types of portals.
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4) Identify the types of online intermediaries.
5) Identify three mechanism aids for Web 2.0 tools.