The Battle Against the Global Financial Crisis: The Case for the e-Reverse Auction

With the advent of the current financial crisis, the economy has been flooded with uncertainty, leaving business with a realistic threat to their existence. The globalization process, with its many benefits and opportunities for lower costs and more efficient sourcing, has enabled the crisis to spread worldwide, infecting markets and business, turning growth into recession, increasing job loss and unemployment. Organizations are looking for ways to reduce costs, trying to achieve cost savings by any means possible. Fortunately, the globalization process has been accompanied by rapid technological development, providing solutions that aim to answer the growing need of the logistical functions that are now struggling to succeed in the intense global competition. One of the most popular tools emerging is that of the e-reverse auction (e-RA), providing many benefits including huge cost savings - a highly desirable achievement today. However, as cooperation has been identified as a major factor in the battle against the global economic downturn, the influence of the e-RA on the supplier buyer relationship becomes an important question and a major concern. Recent studies have addressed this concern; however, this study will try to provide substantiation from a completely new perspective, i.e., that of demonstrating the existence of a common supplier buyer understanding in the eliminate cooperation and, With its many advantages, may serve as one of the most valuable tools to survive the current financial crisis.