THE IMPACT OF IT ON INTERMEDIARIES: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA

Inter-organizational Information Systems (Barret & Konsynski, 1982) create electronic marketplaces by serving as an intermediary between buyers and sellers in a vertical market. This reduces the cost (Coase, 1937) buyers need to incur to acquire information about seller prices, reputation of the seller as well as product information. Although disintermediation was theoretically likely to occur within electronic markets, research has revealed that intermediaries have readapted and re-entered electronic markets or have provided wholly new services on electronic markets. Research on the relevance and impact of the disintermediation hypothesis on content markets has not been widely researched. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of electronic markets on traditional intermediaries in the content industry in Sri Lanka. Keywords: electronic marketplace, disintermediation, reintermediation, content industry, electronic markets For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk