The Effect of the Customer Offer on the Make-or-Buy Decision in E-Commerce -A TCE Perspective
Sammanfattning
Background
and
problem:
Studies
show
a
growth
of
outsourcing
in
recent
years
and
the
retailers
in
the
relatively
young
industry
of
e-‐commerce
have
great
possibilities
to
buy
services
from
external
companies,
without
it
being
noticed.
This
is
why
this
thesis
studies
the
make-‐or-‐buy
decision
for
these
companies.
Theory
of
transactional
cost
economics
(TCE)
and
trust
is
often
used
in
order
to
explain
the
decision
of
make
or
buy
and
choice
of
governance
structure
in
an
inter-‐organizational
relationship
(IOR).
In
this
thesis
the
desire
to
secure
the
customer
offer
is
added
as
a
factor
that
affects
the
make-‐or-‐buy
decision
through
the
dimensions
of
transactional
cost
economics.
Research
questions:
Does
the
customer
offer
affect
the
make-‐or-‐buy
decision?
And
if
the
choice
is
to
buy,
how
are
these
inter-‐organizational
relationships
(IORs)
structured
and
controlled?
Purpose:
The
purpose
of
this
thesis
is
to
explain
how
the
e-‐tailer’s
offer
to
the
end
consumer
may
influence
the
e-‐tailer’s
IOR
from
a
TCE
and
trust
perspective.
In
order
to
fulfill
this
purpose,
we
will
create
a
model
based
on
TCE
in
relation
to
the
customer
offer.
Methodology:
This
thesis
is
based
on
an
interview
survey
of
11
interviews
and
a
mini
case
study
of
4
interviews.
This
was
done
to
be
able
to
both
generalize
and
make
comparisons
to
some
extent,
and
at
the
same
time
gain
a
deeper
understanding
of
the
complex
problem.
Analysis
and
conclusion:
The
model
seems
to
work
to
some
extent.
It
appears
evident
that
the
offer
to
the
customer
influences
the
three
dimensions
of
TCE
and
thus
the
make-‐or-‐buy
decision.
There
are
also
indications
that
the
customer
offer
puts
pressure
on
the
dimension
of
uncertainty
and
increases
its
importance
more
than
what
is
argued
in
the
theory
of
TCE.
Moreover,
it
is
discussed
that
the
dimensions
of
TCE
may
not
alone
describe
the
make-‐or-‐buy
decision
and
choice
of
governance
structure
in
the
IORs
in
this
setting.
The
empirical
findings
showed
other
variables
that
had
an
impact,
which
were
hard
to
connect
to
frequency,
asset
specificity,
uncertainty
and
trust.
Examinationsnivå
Student essay
Fil(er)
Datum
2013-06-14Författare
Schottenius, André
Person, Patrick
Nyckelord
Transactional Cost Economics, Inter-organizational relationships, Trust, e-commerce, e-satisfaction
Serie/rapportnr.
Ekonomistyrning
12-13-64M
Språk
eng