Technological innovation assessment of business-to-business electronic marketplaces

Business opportunities created by the Internet economy and new business methods have triggered the development of the electronic or e-marketplace, and vice versa. To generate competitive new products/services, Internet firms need to have access to detailed technological innovations to compete. Despite the wealth of literature on e-marketplaces, research on patent analyses in e-marketplaces is scarce. The patent is a crucial indicator of the technological competitiveness of a company or a nation. This study provides a preliminary step in depicting a holistic picture of technological innovations associated with e-marketplace patents. This study analyzes patents issued during the period of 1990-2002 from major databases; hence, it provides the first empirical study on e-marketplaces and related innovations holistically. A comprehensive set of statistical patent analyses and a discussion on e-marketplaces' technology by means of a patent map analysis are presented.