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Choosing how easy to make it for buyers to discover new sellers is a key design decision for platforms. On one hand, enabling more discoverability generates more transactions and can be more attractive for sellers because they anticipate being discovered by new buyers. On the other hand, discoverability can make sellers more reluctant to participate because they anticipate their existing buyers will discover and purchase from other sellers. We model this fundamental trade-off and study how a platform's optimal level of discoverability depends on various factors: the degree of substitutability between the sellers' products; the standalone value of the platform's tools; the size of the platform's installed base of buyers; the nature of the platform's fees, including its ability to charge differential fees depending on whether a transaction is with a seller's existing buyers or not; the number of sellers; and asymmetries between sellers' sizes. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.02362. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Transforming Products into Platforms: Unearthing New Avenues for Business Innovation" discusses the power and challenges of platform businesses, emphasizing the benefits of network effects and scalability. It explores methods for brands to add platform elements to their products, such as inviting third-party sellers or connecting customers. The article also highlights the importance of careful governance and clear rules when implementing platform strategies to ensure a positive customer experience. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of leveraging platform opportunities in today's digital economy and offers insights on building and utilizing platforms effectively. [Extracted from the article]

A key issue for the design of online marketplaces is addressing leakage. Buyers may use the marketplace to discover a seller or to obtain certain conveniences, but the seller may then want to take transactions off the marketplace to avoid transaction fees. Assuming buyers are heterogenous in their switching cost or inconvenience cost of purchasing directly, we provide a model in which there is partial leakage in equilibrium. We use the model to analyze the trade-offs associated with different strategies the marketplace can use to attenuate the effects of leakage: investing in transaction benefits, limiting communication, charging referral fees, using price-parity clauses, introducing seller competition on the marketplace, and hiding sellers that try to induce too much leakage. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4757. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model dynamic competition between firms which improve their products through learning from customer data, either by pooling different customers' data (across‐user learning) or by learning from repeated usage of the same customers (within‐user learning). We show how a firm's competitive advantage is affected by the shape of firms' learning functions, asymmetries between their learning functions, the extent of data accumulation, and customer beliefs. We also explore how public policies toward data sharing, user privacy, and killer data acquisitions affect competitive dynamics and efficiency. Finally, we show conditions under which a consumer coordination problem arises endogenously from data‐enabled learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial in the NIM Marketing Intelligence Review discusses the significant impact of platform businesses like Amazon, Apple, Alibaba, and Uber on the global economy. These companies have achieved impressive profits and market capitalizations while employing fewer workers compared to traditional firms. While platforms offer convenience and opportunities, they also raise concerns about privacy, fairness, and societal influence. Scholars in the issue explore challenges and opportunities in regulating and maximizing the social value of platform businesses, emphasizing responsible practices and innovation in the evolving digital landscape. [Extracted from the article]