Establishing an efficient auto spare parts electronic marketplace in Malta

Abstract

Electronic commerce is growing all over the globe at very high speed. However, in some European countries its development is slower. The Maltese Communication Authority recently affirmed that most of the Maltese businesses’ supply chains are still lagging behind in the digital transformation. The present research focuses on the Maltese automotive sector and its development towards digitalization. Specifically, the status of the automotive supply chain is investigated. Furthermore, the potential introduction of an electronic marketplace in this sector is analyzed to understand if it could be a viable instrument to help the digital transformation. The critical success factors of electronic marketplaces are identified via an extensive literature review. Thus, used as the lenses through which the overall analysis is performed. This research is presented as an instrumental case study adopting a qualitative approach. Primary, secondary and grey sources were exploited in order to gather all the required information about the Maltese business sector. Following this phase, 31 semi-structured interviews, based on the critical success factors of electronic marketplaces, were performed. The sample interviewed included auto spare parts vendors, garage businesses, motorcycle workshops and car rentals. To validate the data collected a triangulation method was applied. The analysis of the responses highlighted the prevalence of ‘brick and mortar’ business models in the fragmented Maltese automotive supply chain along with lack of cooperation and integration as the main reasons of the inefficiencies registered. Thus, the perception of most of the businesses interviewed about the adoption of an electronic marketplace was positive. Furthermore, the analysis of its critical success factors provided a list of recommendation for an effective implementation.