Market Expansion Through B2B Business Model Transformation into Vendor-Owned Digital Marketplaces

Traditional business-to-business (B2B) vendor models rely on direct relationships, long-term contracts, and established distribution channels. These models provide stable transactions but limit market reach, increase dependence on a few buyers, and slow responses to changing demand. Prior studies explain why firms adopt digital platforms, but rarely how an established vendor redesigns its business model into its own marketplace, or how relationship-based channels can coexist with it. This study examines market expansion strategies through the transformation of traditional B2B vendor models into vendor-owned digital marketplaces, in which the vendor acts as platform owner rather than as a participant in a third-party marketplace. It uses a qualitative descriptive approach supported by a structured literature review and conceptual analysis. The review followed a structured procedure of identification, screening, eligibility assessment, and synthesis, and the selected studies were analyzed using thematic synthesis. The analysis shows that successful transformation requires more than adopting a digital platform. It depends on enabling capabilities, namely organizational readiness (including digital skills), digital infrastructure, process integration, customer data management, and digital marketing capability, and on channel governance that protects existing B2B relationships. The study proposes a staged hybrid framework of six constructs and six propositions, and identifies risks such as channel conflict, integration cost, and insufficient demand. Integrating traditional B2B strengths with digital marketplace capability creates a more flexible, scalable, and market-oriented business model. Market expansion emerges from capability-based transformation, not platform adoption alone. The propositions require empirical validation through survey-based or comparative case studies.