The Evolution Game Analysis of Platform Ecological Collaborative Governance Considering Collaborative Cultural Context

Abstract

Designing a successful and efficient collaborative governance mechanism to promote the value co-creation of complementors has become critical to platform owners. Therefore, using an evolutionary game theory approach, we first constructed a conceptual model of collaborative governance, analyzing the conditions of collaborative governance of multiple subjects. This was based on the belief that the design of a collaborative governance mechanism needs to nurture collaborative culture and internalize it into the practice of platform governance. Secondly, this paper built a tripartite evolutionary game model of platform enterprises, complementary enterprises, and users, systematically illustrating the strategy evolution process of the three parties under incentive and penalty mechanisms, and simulated the influence of parameters, such as cost, culture, and cooperative willingness, on the evolutionary results. The results showed that: (1) A culture of trust and encouragement of innovation was more conducive to collaborative innovation; (2) Platform enterprises are more sensitive to joint cost investment, work culture environment, and benefit distribution; (3) Complementary enterprises and users have a solid ambition to respond to the impulses of digital technology. In particular, when the initial desire to collaborate is low, the evolutionary process of platform enterprises presents an asymmetric ‘U’ shape. To enable stakeholders of the platform to formally, prudently, and deeply participate in the ecological governance process, platform enterprises should fully use network resources and digital technology to build a platform for high-intensity interaction and communication between complementary enterprises and users, and improve their identification with the innovation culture.