E-commerce Platform-based Research Gathering Mechanism

As the conception of e-commerce introduced to China in1995, the e-commerce in China has developed rapidly and has become an important force of the social economy along with the continuous development of the Internet infrastructure. In the process of development of e-commerce, the online retail presents distinct characteristic of cluster. However, there are few researches using the theory of cluster in the field of e-commerce. Is the traditional cluster theory still applicable? What factors will affect the cluster? How to promote the healthy development of platform-type e-commerce? These problems are not only concerned by scholars and the enterprise of platform-type e-commerce websites, but also influenced the development of the Chinese network economy.In this research, the main object is the cluster of Chinese platform-type e-commerce. First, concerning the different subjects of the platform-type e-commerce, we build up the theoretical models by the methods of grounded data analysis and theoretical analysis. Then we searched for the factors which could affect the clustered willing of different subjects who participating the platform-type e-commerce with the method of empirical analysis. Secondly, according to the affecting factors of those different subjects, this research analyzed the interaction mechanism of the subjects and the mechanism of cluster. Thirdly, from the business ecosystem approach, this research built up the tendency model of the platform-type e-commerce basing on the clustering features of the platform-type e-commerce, and analyzed the different evolution pattern of it with different conditions. Finally, this research designed the proper coordination mechanisms to resolve the problems of the platform-type e-commerce cluster.The research found that:(1) search costs reduction, the value of the goods, the quality of service, the reputation of the platform website and the business combination that were perceived by the online consumers, had positive impact on their cluster willingness. However, the factors such as the expected the customer service quality, the influence caused by website design quality, reliability and safety of the website are not significant at all. While the two dimensions of the goods value, the goods value personal perceived have a significant positive impact to the cluster willingness, but the positive effect of the dimension of social value of goods was not significant.(2) the scale of cluster of online consumers, the reduction of the cost, service quality perceived by the online retailers, had positive impact on their cluster willingness. The overcrowded market perceived by online retailers had negative effect on their cluster willingness. In additional, among the three dimensions of service quality, both decision support quality and task support quality had positive effects on the cluster willingness of online retailers, but the effects caused by the interface quality of the platform-type website which online retailers perceived was not significant.(3) Trading volume on the platform-type website, the knowledge spillover and the reduction in transaction costs that were perceived by third-party logistics service providers, had positive impact on their cluster willingness. The overcrowded market perceived by third-party logistics service providers had negative effect on their cluster willingness.(4) This study analyzed the cluster growth model of the different subjects participating in the platform-type e-commerce by the perspective of business ecosystem. The results show that the growth model of the online consumers group is exponential growth model which is density-independent, like ’J’. The growth model of the online retailers group is’ Logistic1growth model which is density-dependent, like’S’. All factors that affected the cluster willingness of online consumers would impact the growth curve shaped by the instantaneous growth rate of the online consumers’growth model. The reduction of the cost, decision support quality and tasks support quality perceived by online retailers, would impact the growth curve shaped by the instantaneous growth rate of the online retailers and the scale of cluster of online consumers would impact the maximum environmental capacity of this model. The knowledge spillover and the reduction in transaction costs that were perceived by third-party logistics service providers would impact the growth curve shaped by the instantaneous growth rate of third-party logistics service providers. The environmental capacity of this model is limited by the scale of both online consumers and online retailers.(5) There are four possible trends of the cluster of platform-type e-commerce. First, when the instantaneous growth rate of the online consumers group is zero, the curve of the growth model of platform-type e-commerce cluster is the same as the’Logistic’ model like’S’. Second, when the instantaneous growth rate of the online consumers group is less than zero, the cluster would present a short-term decrease and then ascend rapidly till it disintegrate. Third, when the instantaneous growth rate of the online consumers group is positive and higher than online retailers’the curve of the growth model of platform-type, the e-commerce cluster is the same as the density-independent, like’J’.Fourth, when the instantaneous growth rate of the online consumers group is positive and lower than online retailers’the curve of the growth model, the platform-type e-commerce cluster would be a unbounded growth curve and appeared in the "S" type evolution trend.(6) The platform-type e-commerce required the collaboration of different subjects. Each subject would concern its own benefit. So the speculation and the moral risk would be problems. In addition, due to the virtual characteristics of network, the failure of selling without subjective intention is also a problem. We could design the proper coordination mechanisms by the third-party strong symbiotic within the ecosystem of platform-type e-commerce to play its rule-making role. We could also introduce a new species in ecosystems of platform-type e-commerce, which would gain profit from compensating the damage of infringement to achieve a new equilibrium, and built up a mutually beneficial symbiosis between the infringement species and the new species. That would promote the healthy and coordinated development of the platform-type e-commerce cluster.