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Purpose: The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive model to better understand competitive dynamics between mobile payment providers in a multi-sided market featuring customers and merchants. This is undertaken by modeling customers performing financial transactions with merchants while two mobile payment systems (MPS) providers deploy different strategies to compete for market share. Design/methodology/approach: The authors developed an agent-based simulation model using the NetLogo environment. The simulation featured two competing platform providers, 1,000 customer agents and 50 merchant agents. Past research, interviews and surveys were conducted to accurately model the behavior of the agents. Each simulation run lasted for 50 time periods. A total of 1,024 experimental conditions were designed to model different competitive environments, and 50 replications were conducted for a total of 51,200 experiments. Findings: The simulation model provides insight into MPS platform providers' competitive strategies by simultaneously modelling socioeconomic interactions between customers, merchants and MPS. Research limitations/implications: From a methodological perspective, the paper contributes a comprehensive model that can be used to study competitive dynamics between competing platforms in a multi-sided market. From the perspective of competitive strategies, the results show that pricing alone is not sufficient to influence MPS diffusion. Interactions between pricing, customers' risk perception, perceived security and ease of use of the platform create unexpected same-side and cross-side network effects, which affect MPS diffusion. Practical implications: While pricing remains a crucial lever for MPS to compete for market share, they should focus on enhancing customers' and merchants' trust and reduce their risk perception. This can be done through the improvement of the user experience of their platform, development of educational materials and marketing campaigns that address concerns around security, data breaches and perceived risk. Originality/value: The paper is a direct response to a recent call for action on studying competition between MPS platforms by simultaneously modelling the socio-economic behavior of heterogeneous consumers and merchants. The proposed agent-based simulation model can be used to provide insights into competitive strategies and as a building block for subsequent research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-sided platforms must make decisions on both pricing and engineering investment and must continually adjust them as the platform scales over its lifecycle. Engineering investments can be allocated to features that improve a platform's standalone value, social features to take advantage of same-side network effects, or integration tools and boundary resources to facilitate third-party content creation. Guidance in the academic or practitioner literature is not granular. Moreover, relevant normative economic models that consider externalities are rarely dynamic. Hence, there is a gap in knowledge about how to best balance tradeoffs between different strategic decisions throughout the entire platform lifecycle. To begin to address this gap, we explore normative strategies for coordinating pricing and engineering investment decisions on a continuous basis under different ecosystem conditions. We build a simulation model informed by economics and marketing theory and perform extensive sensitivity analyses on key parameters in different ecosystem scenarios over a multi-period lifecycle. We find that pricing and investment strategies must continuously change to perform optimally. In particular, strategies that are most effective at launch often differ from those that are most effective during scaling as well as those most effective at maturity. We also find that the optimal strategy depends strongly on the monetization model and market aversion to price changes. Lastly, we specifically examine four different industry segments: mobile platforms, social media, the sharing economy, and business-to-business. The results provide evidence that the trajectory of platform pricing and investment strategies should greatly differ depending on industrial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms have replaced traditional markets in most industries and orchestrate socioeconomic aspects of our lives. We address the problem of negative direct side network effects that arise with an increased number of agents on one side of the platform. Negative effects, if unaddressed, lead to undesired long-term consequences for the platform by developing a positive vicious cycle. Addressing negative effects require dynamic solution mechanisms that adapt to the changing landscape of platforms. The recommender systems literature has proposed multi-sided recommender systems (MSR) as a dynamic solution to many problems on platforms. However, current state-of-the-art MSRs do not consider uncertainty in predicting agents' choices, resulting in limited efficacy. We present a robust multi-sided recommender system that considers estimation errors in agents' choice to address this concern. Extensive experiments with agent-based models—ride-pooling and education platform—provide support for the efficacy and generalizability of the robust MSR to address negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of technology ecosystems in shaping national economies and their impact on economic growth rates. It defines ecosystems as companies organizing multilateral markets across industries and investigates their association with economic growth using econometric analysis. Drawing from literature on multilateral markets and platform economics, the study finds a positive correlation between ecosystem presence and economic growth rates, highlighting their role in fostering innovation and increasing labor efficiency. However, challenges remain in measuring the full extent of ecosystem exports' cross-national effects. The findings emphasize the importance of ecosystem regulation and its potential to drive economic growth and national welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the main challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) in managing multi-sided platforms (MSP) in Brazil, as well as to understand the differences between this management model and traditional companies. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced professionals in the field, focusing on challenges, CSFs and difficulties in managing MSP businesses. The data were analyzed using a mixed-method approach, involving content analysis for qualitative data and grey relational analysis and sensitivity analysis for quantitative data. Findings: The experts identified eight CSFs, seven key differences between traditional businesses and MSPs, and five technology-related challenges in managing MSPs. They assessed the main difficulties reported in the literature and ranked them, with the most critical challenges being competition with companies adopting MSP models in the same sector (product/service niche) and the necessity for ongoing process adjustments to accommodate scalability. Originality/value: This study enhances understanding of CSF, disparities between traditional and MSPs and technology-related challenges in this management model. The results can assist managers in emerging nations in enhancing the performance of MSP operations and can be a resource for researchers studying various contexts and creating company guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is conducted in the backdrop of struggling economy of Pakistan where digital ecosystem faces peculiar governance challenges with respect to operations of Multi-sided platforms (MSPs). These platforms allow users to create transactions and behave like a regulator to implement governance rules for the interacting parties. A thematic analysis is conducted through semi-structured interviews based on a theoretical framework. Various dimensions used for thematic analysis comprise of decision rights between interacting parties, governance controls and agreement on commercial terms. Findings reveal that an economy like Pakistan poses governance challenges to the digital industry related to level of technological know-how, lack of payment options and weak system of conflict resolution. Strong interdependence of interacting parties is identified as pivotal in determining governance level of a MSP, therefore a support mechanism is recommended for service providers to play their role in close liaison with the platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today most insurance is sold by over a million brokers and independent agents acting as intermediaries between the insurance companies and their customers. Digitalization and changing customer behavior have fostered the development of insurtech businesses, and, more recently, multi-sided platforms are emerging as new market forms for insurance intermediation. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of how the emergence of the platform economy, with a market dominated by multi-sided platforms, will potentially impact insurance intermediation in the future. Using inductive content analysis on the results of a systematic literature review of the body of research on insurance intermediation, we identify the key functional roles fulfilled by insurance intermediaries. Applying these roles to a literature review on multi-sided platforms allows us to compare how different market forms and players embody the functional roles of intermediaries. Our findings suggest that multi-sided platforms are better able to perform certain roles in terms of agility, scale and scope, and we discuss the future role of platforms in insurance intermediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-sided platforms (MSPs) play the role as tech-enabled intermediaries that provide social networking sites to serve heterogeneous customer needs via complementary offerings, fostering direct and indirect connections between customers and third parties. However, the phenomenon of switching behavior in the post-adoption would likely destruct the success of platform business that depends on repeated customers and their continuance. Such a "use-to-goal-attainment gap" reveals the information about distinct driving forces of platform continuance. From the rational perspective, we take uses and gratifications (U&G) as the theoretical vehicle to examine the private information of personal experiences. We consider review-based learning as the adaptive approach to informational cascades. From the empirical surveys of 309 TripAdvisor (Taiwan) users, we found that the review-based learning approach plays a dual-role as the competing and supplemental driver of private information to foster platform continuance. Theoretical and managerial implications of platform continuance and business are discussed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of businesses have adopted a platform business model. Platform companies such as Airbnb, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Salesforce and Uber are amongst the world's most valuable companies and have revolutionized their respective industries. But what are platforms? Is there a unique definition? How do they innovate, and what is their place in the innovation literature? This editorial article considers those questions. First, it provides an overview of platform definitions, their evolution, and increasing relevance in today's economy. Then, it presents and contextualizes the six papers of this special section that lie at the intersection of platforms and innovation literature streams. In doing so, a framework contextualizing the emerging concept of 'Platform‐Driven Innovation' is proposed. It shows how platforms may have very different roles in the innovation processes acting as Simplifiers, Catalyst or Enablers. Finally, this paper contains some suggestions on how future research may explore the intersection between innovation and platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-sided platforms emerged as a more common business model, mainly due to the spread of digital technologies. Economic literature suggests a 'quantity'-driven strategy to enhance the cross-side network externalities at the basis of the system. Nevertheless, the widespread of this business model lets emerge different peculiarities worth exploring. This research aims to examine the role of a 'quality'-driven strategy in welcoming players on the platforms' sides in the value perceived by the other side. The research is based on a qualitative study develop through eight case studies based on primary and secondary sources. Five of them let emerge a 'quantity'-driven strategy, while three of them a 'quality'-driven strategy, which is presented and discussed regarding the type of platforms. From a theoretical perspective, it distinguishes 'quantity'-driven from 'quality'-driven strategies in bringing players onboard on the platform, expanding the literature that considered quality as a main characteristic of the platform provider, rather than the players on it. Moreover, it suggests a strong link with the lifecycle phase. From a managerial perspective, it highlights operational tactics for both 'quantity'-driven and 'quality'-driven strategies and – more importantly – it suggests a possible integration of the two strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the dot-com revolution in the early 2000s, traditional, vertically integrated firms have attempted to innovate using multi-sided digital platforms, matching customer and supplier groups to resolve the needs of both. These firms' underlying logic has disrupted traditional business models, enabling them to introduce new and counterintuitive value creation, delivery, and capture configurations. Using Uber and Airbnb, two prominent cases of multi-sided platforms, we present an overview of the dynamics governing value mechanisms within a platform through the theoretical lens of the business model. Multi-sided business models undergo three evolutionary phases: they solve the market friction; they exploit the critical mass they develop; and they unveil and capture new value derived from cocreation based on data. Our study reveals how successful platform providers act as idle asset hunters that can identify and leverage untapped assets. We propose a framework that helps companies move from a two-sided to a multi-sided platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms have the ability to connect people, organizations and resources with the aim of facilitating the core interactions between businesses and consumers as well as assuring a greater efficiency for the business management. New business concepts, such as innovative start-ups, are therefore created based on innovation, scalability and the relationships within the community around them. The purpose of this work is to deeply understand the evolution of business models brought by innovative and dynamic companies operating through online platforms. In order to achieve the objectives set, an exploratory multiple-case study was designed based on in-depth structured interviews. The aim was to conduct a mixed analysis, in order to rely both on qualitative and quantitative data. The structured interview protocol was therefore designed to collect and then analyse data concerning the company profile and managers’ perspectives on the phenomenon of interest. The interview protocol was submitted in advance and then face-to-face interviews were carried out with the following professional figures: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), General Manager, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Marketing Manager and Developers. Collected data were analysed and processed through the Canvas Business Model in order to clearly outline similarities and differences among the sample. Results can be considered under two viewpoints. On the one hand, this work provides a detailed overview of the companies interviewed, according to the dimensions of: reference market dynamics, type and number of customers, scalability. On the other one, they allow to identify some success patterns regarding key activities, key resources, channel mix strategy, costs management, value proposition, customer segmentation, key partners and the way to obtain revenues. Results from the multiple-case study with 15 Italian start-ups provide interesting insights by comparing the innovative business models developed and highlighting key differences and similarities. Overall, the start-ups analyzed, operating in several sectors, showed great growth prospects and the possibility to create value for their customers through innovative products and services offered through digital platforms.

Major digital platforms (MDPs) such as App Store, Amazon e-commerce site, Google search engine, or Facebook have increasingly shown their significance in our daily lives. The convenience they bring, nonetheless, may distract us from noticing how they are capable of executing their powers to influence different markets or even politics on a global scale. While competition (antitrust) law struggles to deal with the advanced, cutting-edge nature of MDPs, some scholars and antitrust authorities have conceived of applying FRAND (or a quasi-FRAND model), which has proved considerably successful in the field of telecommunication standardization, as a regulatory measure to control unprecedented powers of MDPs. Having said that, to that end, certain complicated policy and technical issues must be analyzed and addressed thoroughly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to present quantitative tools to manage competition policy analysis in two‐sided platforms, based on a common framework for transaction and non‐transaction platforms. We explore tools for relevant market definition [Critical Loss Analysis and a small but significant non‐transitory increase in price (SSNIP) test], unilateral effects indicators [Upward Pricing Pressure (UPP) and Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index (GUPPI)] and tests for exclusionary practices. We review dispersed results in the literature and fill the gaps where appropriate. We highlight the required changes from the usual one‐sided market framework and tools. While discussions of antitrust tools can be found in specialized forums devoted to advances in competition policy analysis, we organize the material in an integrated framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the sharing economy, competitively important user data is often controlled by a single platform. This is due to concentration tendencies in the market as well as a platform's gatekeeper function regarding user groups and user data. Presently, a platform only has to grant access to its user data if the refusal to deal is considered an abuse of market power under competition law. The legal requirements in the EU for such a claim are, however, very narrow. Since EU competition law further follows a strict case-by-case approach, it is ill-suited to provide a systematic solution for data access issues. With data becoming increasingly important, particularly in view of Big Data and AI, the question thus arises whether regulators need to step in and provide for a statutory data access regime. In this context, the impact on innovation and competition of mandatory access to data should be carefully assessed. This paper argues that since user data is, in principle, collected by sharing platforms as a by-product without additional substantial investments, a sector-specific statutory data access regime could promote competition as well as innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the sharing economy, competitively important user data is often controlled by a single platform. This is due to concentration tendencies in the market as well as a platform's gatekeeper function regarding user groups and user data. Presently, a platform only has to grant access to its user data if the refusal to deal is considered an abuse of market power under competition law. The legal requirements in the EU for such a claim are, however, very narrow. Since EU competition law further follows a strict case-by-case approach, it is ill-suited to provide a systematic solution for data access issues. With data becoming increasingly important, particularly in view of Big Data and AI, the question thus arises whether regulators need to step in and provide for a statutory data access regime. In this context, the impact on innovation and competition of mandatory access to data should be carefully assessed. This paper argues that since user data is, in principle, collected by sharing platforms as a by-product without additional substantial investments, a sector-specific statutory data access regime could promote competition as well as innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sussan and Acs (Small Business Economics, 49(1), 55–73, 2017) proposed the "Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem" (DEE), a novel framework to guide our understanding of entrepreneurship in the digital age. By integrating literatures on digital ecosystem and entrepreneurial ecosystem, they brought to attention the importance of examining entrepreneurship as an outcome of interactions between biotic and abiotic entities represented by four concepts: Digital User Citizenship, Digital Entrepreneurship, Digital Infrastructure Governance, and Digital Marketplace. This paper revisits, critiques, and refines the framework through the following reconfigurations: (1) Digital User Citizenship is reintroduced as a heterogeneous group of users differentiated by their primary activity, as either consumers or producers. (2) Digital Technology Entrepreneurship encompasses all agents that build complementary products and services connecting to platforms. (3) Digital Multi-sided Platform is the intermediary for transaction of goods and services, and also a medium of knowledge exchanges that enables and facilitates experimentation, entrepreneurial innovation, and value creation. The main contribution of the paper is in the reconfigurations that clearly lay the ground for a more sustainable DEE—one in which user privacy is protected, platform efficiency enhanced, market competition encouraged, and digital infrastructure secured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of multi-sided platforms in the marketplace has spawned a vast amount of research to understand their implications for competition and welfare. This paper presents the scrutiny of one such academic work that classifies multi-sided platforms into "transaction" and "non-transaction" platforms for the purpose of relevant market definition. It has been posited that in the case of "transaction" platforms, there is one all-encompassing relevant market comprising of all sides of a platform. And such a "transaction" platform can compete only with another "transaction" platform. The U.S. Supreme Court in its Amex decision relied upon this classification and elevated the same into law. This paper identifies flaws in this concept by demonstrating that the relevant academic work defines "transaction" too narrowly. The paper takes the swift adoption of the "transaction" platform approach by the Supreme Court as an opportunity to also provide lessons for economics and law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-to-peer marketplaces have fueled the growth of the sharing economy. Despite their proliferation, little systematic evidence and theory exist on how nascent intermediaries build this particular two-sided market. I examine this process through a value creation lens, focusing on how nascent intermediaries govern producers' and consumers' participation. Emerging insights from a theory-building multi-case study suggest that nascent intermediaries' governance choices are associated with controlling supply-side heterogeneity and cross-side interactions, albeit to a different extent (low, high, or balanced). Shifts in intermediaries' intensity of control over time reveal two alternative value creation processes. Intermediaries creating value "from the outside in" transition from low to high control of both aspects of participation. They initially open participation to all willing producers, while they support producers' and consumers' autonomy in determining the terms of their transactions, but subsequently enforce strict control so as to encourage producers' and consumers' conformity to desirable behaviors. Alternatively, intermediaries creating value "from the inside out" continuously balance low and high control of at least one aspect of marketplace participation. They initially recruit a qualified core of producers, who they later leverage to recruit more qualified ones. At the same time, they transition from low to balanced control of cross-side interactions by leveraging producers' and consumers' resources and contributions. These findings highlight the unique value creation challenges in peer-to-peer marketplaces and the evolving role of intermediaries and customers in value creation. Implications for research on business models and value cocreation are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]