Business-to-business electronic markets have a profound influence on the manner in which organizational buyers and sellers interact. As a result, it is important to develop an understanding of the behaviors of firms that participate in these markets. The authors develop a typology for the nature of organizational participation to explain the behaviors of user firms in business-to-business electronic markets. The proposed model hypothesizes that the nature of participation depends on organizational motivation and ability. The authors conceptualize motivational factors in terms of efficiency and legitimacy motivations and theorize that ability results from the influence of organizational learning and information technology capabilities. They test the model using organizational-level survey data from jewelry traders that conduct business in an electronic market. The results indicate that both motivation and ability are important in determining the nature of participation; however, the level of influence of motivation and ability varies with the nature of participation.
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