This paper investigates service functionality in the domain of B2B platform assimilation from the buyer’s perspective. Using a customer service life cycle framework, we identified five dimensions of service functionality, namely, information search, negotiation, acquisition, ownership, and retirement. We theorize that the importance of these dimensions is contingent upon current level of B2B platform assimilation. Furthermore, building on an enabler-inhibitor perspective, we theorize that the benefits and top management support are the enablers, whereas assimilation costs, managerial complexity, and demand uncertainty are the inhibitors of a firm’s future decision to assimilate a B2B platform. Using a two-staged field survey, we tested our theory on a sample of 191 professionals. The results indicate that the importance of service functionality dimensions varies depending on the current level of service assimilation, namely, the importance of information search functionalities decreases while the importance of ownership and retirement functionalities increases as the firms move from the awareness stage to the general deployment stage. Furthermore, our results indicate that benefits and top management support enable future platform assimilation irrespective of the assimilation stage a firm is in currently. Assimilation costs were found to have negative impact on future platform assimilation among the companies who had a low level of current assimilation. However, the effect became non-significant for the companies with a higher level of current assimilation. Our paper contributes to the theory development by (i) showing that the importance of different IT mediated services is contingent upon current level of assimilation; and (ii) showing which factors retain their importance throughout the assimilation stages. We describe management implications for B2B platform owners and buyer organizations.

本文从买方的角度研究了B2B平台同化领域的服务功能。使用客户服务生命周期框架，我们确定了服务功能的五个维度，即信息搜索，协商，获取，所有权和报废。我们认为这些维度的重要性取决于B2B平台同化的当前水平。此外，基于促成因素-抑制者的观点，我们认为收益和高层管理支持是促成因素，而同化成本，管理复杂性和需求不确定性则是企业未来同化B2B平台的决定的抑制因素。通过两阶段的现场调查，我们在191名专业人员的样本中测试了我们的理论。结果表明，服务功能维度的重要性随当前服务同化程度而变化，即，随着公司从认识阶段转移到总体部署，信息搜索功能的重要性降低，而所有权和退休功能的重要性则增加阶段。此外，我们的结果表明，无论公司目前处于同化阶段，收益和高层管理人员支持都可以实现未来的平台同化。发现同化成本对当前同化水平较低的公司之间的未来平台同化有负面影响。但是，对于同化程度较高的公司而言，其影响变得不明显。本文通过以下方式为理论发展做出了贡献：（i）表明不同的IT中介服务的重要性取决于当前的同化水平；（ii）显示在整个吸收阶段中哪些因素仍然重要。我们描述了B2B平台所有者和买方组织的管理意义。