The impact of digital technology on relationships in a business network

Abstract This paper examines the impact of digitalization - the adoption of Internet-connected digital technologies and applications by companies - on B2B exchanges. While B2C exchanges are the subject of numerous studies on the transformations brought by the digital technologies, B2B exchanges are far less analyzed. Building on a conceptualization of exchanges between companies as made of activity links, resource ties, and actor bonds, this paper offers to identify three types of “digitalization” according to the nature of the most deeply impacted link. Five cases of digitization in different industrial sectors and five companies providing digital solutions for businesses illustrate these three types. This typology provides an alternative to analyses based on the nature of digital systems used by B2B companies.

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