ALIGNING EMARKETPLACE BUSINESS MODELS WITH SUPPLY CHAIN CONFIGURATIONS Valentina Ndou, Virginia Cisternino, Nezha Sadguy eBusiness Management School- ISUFI University of Salento Centro Congressi Ecotekne via per Monteroni s.n., 73100 Lecce, IT ABSTRACT Supply chains differ in the modalities of coordination and collaboration, the intensity and density of interaction, the way the supply is organized, the technological structure and more in general the eReadiness state of firms. These differentiated features influence the feasibility and the performance of eBusiness models. In this paper we argue that a successful implementation of eBusiness models, in this case a digital marketplace, should be aligned to supply chain configurations. This mean that before starting an emarketplace initiative, it is necessary to afford a context assessment, to firstly establish the level of collaboration among supply chain firms, the intensity and density of interaction, the social climate, the technological structure and coordination modalities. After that it is possible to find and put in place the proper digital marketplace able to enhance the supply chain performance and increase the opportunities of growth in organizations. KEYWORDS Business model, supply chain, digital marketplace 1. INTRODUCTION New technological and economic changes have paved the gateway for organizations to reconsider their structures, business models and boundaries and create new organizational forms. Internet in particular releases new perspectives for firms to provide wider, deeper and customized offerings to a greater number of customers, all with a greater level of interactivity. Inevitably, food industry is highly affected by these undergoing changes, even though the diffusion of ICT solutions and e-commerce in the sector is less pervasive than in other sectors. Anyway, in the last years, the food industry is experiencing an important change in terms of technology adoption. In this perspective, an important trend in the industry is the creation of digital marketplaces as a key enabler that allows SMEs to expand the potential benefits originating from linking electronically with suppliers, customers, and other business partners, to engage in the wide array of domestic linkages between users and producers and with the knowledge producing sector (universities and R&D institutes) (Meyer-Stamer, 1998; Nadvi & Schmitz, 1994). The main reason behind this trend is closely related to the intrinsic characteristics of the food industry, that is fragmented and characterised by a bipolar structure. This implies that, on the one hand there is a relatively small group of multinational companies that lead the industry and operate globally, and on the other there are a large number of small and medium-sized firms producing for local and regional markets. While small firms find it difficult to fully utilise ICT, large technologically advanced multinational companies have been able to exploit new technologies and tools, and the result has been the creation of big industrial groups operating interconnected networks (Gallacci, 2005). Digital marketplaces, thanks to the use of the open Internet, defines new perspectives in bridging this divide and offer new opportunities also for SMEs to conquer new markets and to find better and cheaper suppliers (Wichmann, 2005). However, despite the progresses and advances done, there are still some limitations and problems which often have lead toward the failure of many digital marketplace. IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2007 93