Search

In a previous study, we explored successful e-commerce small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to formulate an e-commerce (electronic commerce) process model. We adopted a qualitative research method to obtain a rich description of the e-commerce process. We then interviewed 15 entrepreneurs from established SME operations. From deep analysis of this data, we were able to devise an emergent model. This study extends the original model by conducting subsequent interviews with the 15 SME entrepreneurs. Our goal was to better understand the model by exploring omitted, missing, or incomplete elements. Hence, subsequent interviews asked respondents to identify key elements of the model that may have been omitted, and if so, where do they fit in the model? Deep analysis of the subsequent data allowed us to expand the original model.

In over-the-counter markets for assets, such as bonds and securitizations, large volumes can be split into smaller pieces and gradually sold to several final investors with the intermediation of multiple dealers. This paper proposes a model to study this process, called asset dissemination. A dealer buys several units of an asset from a customer and then sells some units to the dealer’s customers and to a second dealer, who sells to the second dealer’s customers and to a third dealer, and so on. The extent of dissemination is measured by the number of dealers involved and the total customer demand served. We show that asymmetric information on customer demand hinders both dimensions of dissemination. We also study how the quantity to disseminate and the dealers’ funding costs impact dissemination and the prices and quantities in interdealer transactions. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.

We propose a new model of interdealer trading. Dealers trade together to reduce their inventory holding costs. Core dealers share these costs efficiently and provide liquidity to peripheral dealers, who have heterogeneous access to core dealers. We derive predictions about the effects of peripheral dealers' connectedness to core dealers and the allocation of aggregate inventories between core and peripheral dealers on the distribution of interdealer prices, the efficiency of interdealer trades, and trading costs for the dealers' clients. For instance, the dispersion of interdealer prices is higher when fewer peripheral dealers are connected to core dealers or when their aggregate inventory is higher.