A Study Of Driving Factors And Conduction Mechanism Of Value Creation For E-Commerce Platform Enterprises

In recent years, e-commerce, under the influence of internet technologies, has obtained a rapid development. Simultaneously, the market competition, which follows the rule of selecting the superior and eliminating the inferior, is extremely fierce, presenting an ever changing market pattern. E-commerce platform enterprises can survive in such fierce competition only by maintaining their competitiveness. However, the basic form of competitiveness maintenance is the realization of increase in value which, to a large extent, depends on whether managers and relevant parties of these enterprises have taken effective measures to create values or not. Based on this, this study explores the driving factors and conduction mechanism of value creation for e-commerce platform enterprises in order to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for enterprises’ managers to perform operation and management. Meanwhile, it also enriches the enterprise value theory system.The grounded theory method, as the research method of this study, has been widely recognized by the academic circle. Compared with quantitative research methods, it is more suitable for answering questions like " what is it" and "why is it".In addition, the grounded theory method focuses on quality rather than quantity of the cases. Accordingly, this study selects a representative C2C platform enterprise-Taobao, a representative B2B platform enterprise-1688 and a representative B2C platform enterprise-Jingdong mall as samples. Though comprehensive data collection of these cases, this study aims to discuss the driving factors of value creation and conduction mechanism of value creation for e-commerce platform enterprises by using the grounded theory method.This study conducts theoretical research in accordance with steps of procedural grounded theory method. Firstly, it gathers literal data of Taobao, 1688 and Jingdong mall through book reading, literature review, etc. Then, it extracts main categories by open coding, axial coding and selective coding, including "user-centered", "human resource", "complementary resource", "brand", "innovation", and "social responsibility". And then the core category "driving factors of value creation for e-commerce platform enterprises" is obtained, followed by the construction of the dynamic model of value creation for e-commerce platform enterprises. Finally, this study elaborates the six driving factors’connotations respectively in detail, makes an in-depth analysis of the causal relationship among all driving factors, and establishes the theoretical model of conduction mechanism of value creation for e-commerce platform enterprises. The model is actually a theoretical model which determines value proposition at first, then implements value creation, and eventually realizes value distribution and achieves value maintenance during the whole process of value conduction.