The emergence of e-commerce in Indonesia resulted in a drastic transformation in business, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, inspired a Doctoral candidate from SBM ITB, Anna Amalyah Agus. She researched the phenomenon for her dissertation that she defended in a Closed Doctoral Promotion Examination on Monday (17/1/2022).
Entitled “E-commerce Platform Ecosystem with Strategic Management Point of View: Case Study of e-commerce in Indonesia,” the promovendus’ dissertation examines the dynamics of interaction between e-commerce platforms, retailers, and consumers, especially in the supply chain context and digital marketing capabilities. This study also examines how supply chain capabilities, digital promotion strategies, and consumer experience (review ratings) affect the relative performance of e-commerce platforms. In addition, it investigates how seasonal pricing and logistics outsourcing can interfere with e-commerce platform performance models.
To make this research impactful for academics and other stakeholders, Anna used a pragmatic psychological approach with a strategic management perspective and applied a research method using purposive sampling and structural equation modeling driven by social science statistics.
This research resulted in two publications with different research focuses. The first publication evaluates consumer responses on various e-commerce platforms and their priorities. The second publication tries to see how the e-commerce model changes before and after COVID-19 for consumers and sellers.
“The study concluded that before the pandemic, customer experience (review rating) had a significant positive effect on the relative performance of e-commerce platforms. However, the pandemic has changed customer behavior; thus, consumers now tend to focus on buying what they need under certain conditions,” said Anna.
In addition, before the pandemic, logistics outsourcing intervened in the relationship between supply chain capabilities and the relative performance of e-commerce, but not after the outbreak as companies implemented demand-sensing and flexible manufacturing strategies close to the customer. Anna also proposed ideas for further research, namely how government regulations can interfere with e-commerce, how advancement in e-commerce platforms such as gamification live-selling sessions can create more transactions, and how integration/mergers/acquisitions between digital business players affect e-commerce performance.
The presentation was followed by a question session from the examiner team consisting of Prof. Reza Ashari Nasution, Dr. Liane Okdinawati, and Dr. Dwi Purnomo, as well as promoter Ir. Gatot Yudoko, M.A.Sc., Ph.D and co-promoter Dr. eng. Nur Budi Mulyono, ST. MT. Anna successfully defended her dissertation and was honored Cum Laude.