Platform Economy Research Articles

The platform policy matrix: Promotion and regulation

AbstractThis study provides a comprehensive analysis of policy measures adopted by countries in response to the rapid growth of digital platforms, which significantly impact various sectors and national economies. It examines the delicate balance between regulation and innovation, offering nuanced policy recommendations. Central to this study is the introduction of the “Platform Policy Matrix,” a strategic framework that explores the relationship between innovation encouragement and regulatory stringency in platform economies. The matrix is divided into four quadrants: “Regulatory Innovation,” “Accelerated Innovation,” “Laissez‐Faire,” and “Stringent Regulation.” This framework aims to guide policymakers in achieving a balance that protects consumers while fostering a competitive and innovative environment. The study advocates for a multifaceted approach that recognizes the unique characteristics of digital platforms. It underscores the necessity for policies that simultaneously promote innovation and enforce necessary regulations in rapidly evolving platform ecosystems. This approach ensures that innovation thrives while maintaining essential regulatory oversight, adapting policy frameworks to the dynamic nature of digital platforms.

Channel power in platform businesses

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings The study examines how platform businesses exercise power in marketing channels, by exploring the role of intra-platform competition, AI and value co-creation capabilities. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Research on the Role of Platform Economy in Credit for Small and Micro Enterprises - A Case Study of Alibaba

In the financial market, the financing needs of the micro-economy are concentrated at the long tail, and its development has always been a focus of social attention. In recent years, China has made significant efforts to address the financing challenges faced by small and micro enterprises. Despite these efforts, the financial support allocated to these enterprises remains disproportionate to their economic contributions. Unlike large and medium-sized enterprises, small and micro enterprises (SMEs) still struggle to obtain adequate financial resources, highlighting the incomplete coverage of the current Chinese financial system. As a result, these enterprises continue to encounter difficulties in securing necessary funding. Fintech can help these enterprises choose financing platforms and methods that match their development, enrich their financing channels, improve the loan issuance efficiency of financial institutions, precisely support their development, and ensure that the interests of stakeholders are realized. The report from the 20th National Congress emphasized the importance of establishing a supportive environment for the advancement of technology-driven SMEs. It also advocated for fostering the growth of specialized and innovative companies. This initiative sends a clear signal encouraging SMEs to innovate independently, which will undoubtedly have an important and far-reaching positive impact. However, SMEs are financially fragile, with prominent contradictions between their financing needs and the financial supply side. The integration of finance and technology has changed the operational mechanism of the financial industry. Fintech companies, through the application of emerging technologies, have expanded their business scope to long-tail small and micro clients, bringing new platforms for financing to these enterprises. This paper studies the case of Alibaba’s “Digital Hybrid Trade Show” initiative to further explore how fintech can be more effectively applied to the financing of SMEs, thereby aiding their stable and healthy development.

Systems thinking for local food environments: a participatory approach identifying leverage points and actions for healthy and sustainable transformations

BackgroundCurrent local food environments encourage poor diets, posing a significant threat to public and planetary health. Acknowledging and addressing its inherent complexity is vital to making meaningful improvements to the food environment. Using a participatory approach with local stakeholders, this study aims to gain insight into the factors and mechanisms underlying the local food environment and to identify leverage points and system-based actions to foster healthy and sustainable local food environments.MethodsA systems-thinking approach was used in a Dutch municipality in 2022. Two group model building (GMB) workshops were held with community stakeholders (e.g. local policymakers, retailers and residents). During the first workshop (June 2022), factors and mechanisms influencing the local food environment were identified and visualized through a causal loop diagram (CLD). During the second workshop, leverage points and system-based actions to improve food environments were identified by the stakeholders. Four months after (October 2022), an action-implementation meeting was organized to stimulate the implementation of selected actions. Progress was monitored through brief telephone interviews 6 and 12 months after the second workshop.ResultsThe CLD visualises the factors and mechanisms influencing the local food environment from the point of view of the community stakeholders. The CLD consists of 46 factors shaping the local food environment, which were categorized into four identified subsystems: societal factors, individual, socio-economic factors, commercial factors and political factors. Eight leverage points were identified within the CLD, for example, ‘lobby from food industry’, ‘governmental food policies’ and ‘e-commerce and platform economy’. Stakeholders formulated 20 actions targeting the identified leverage points. During the action-implementation meeting, long-term plans were created for five actions. After 1 year, only one participant (policy advisory role) remained actively engaged in three of these actions.ConclusionsThis study yields insight into the numerous factors and mechanisms underlying the local food environment and identified system-based actions as perceived by local stakeholders to improve this food environment locally. The CLD offers stakeholders valuable insights on employing a systems approach when enhancing food environments. More research is necessary, especially into the long-term processes and effects of implementing system-oriented actions to improve local food environments.

Exploring Impacts of Gojek Application as a Sharing Economy Tool on Indonesian Economics and Society: Systematic Literature Review Approach

Digitisation has changed many industries, including the sharing economy. Indonesian multi-service platform Gojek has transformed logistics, finance, and transport. Job creation, economic growth, and social dynamics are examined in this study of Gojek's effects on Indonesia's economy and society. Society, business leaders, and policymakers must understand Gojek's influence. The positive and negative effects of Gojek's expansion on Indonesia's economy and society must be assessed. This study sheds light on digital platforms in developing economies and informs regulatory and development strategies. Gojek has boosted Indonesia's GDP and job creation, according to the study. The platform has helped drivers, micro-entrepreneurs, and small businesses earn flexible income. Gojek has changed consumer behaviour by making many services easier to use. Future viability, regulation compliance, and competition are gig economy concerns. Indonesia's digital economy relies on Gojek, which changed social norms. Theory enhances understanding of developing market digital platform economies and their socioeconomic effects. This study advises policymakers and businesses on promoting innovation with regulatory constraints and inclusive growth with digital platforms. This study emphasises the need to continuously evaluate digital platforms like Gojek to ensure their positive impact on economic growth and social welfare. Future research should examine long-term effects and compare digital platforms in similar economic contexts.

ISLAMIC DONATIONS-BASED CROWDFUNDING PLATFORMS IN MALAYSIA: AN EVALUATION OF REGULATORY AND SHARIAH ISSUES

The emergence of innovative digital financial technologies has made donation-crowdfunding viable as a method that can supplement traditional fundraising mechanisms. Crowdfunding has recently gained worldwide attention as an alternative financing mechanism to the traditional fundraising methods for business ventures or social projects. While donation-crowdfunding which utilise platforms has demonstrated promising growth, there is no established legal framework available to accommodate its operation, especially for Islamic ones. Therefore, this study provides intuitive information pertaining to legal and Shariah issues in governing Islamic donation-based crowdfunding in Malaysia. Drawing from the conceptual framework of Islamic economics and qualitative data collection through semi-structured with six representatives of the Islamic donation-crowdfunding platforms, this study concludes that the issues associated with Malaysian regulations regimes and Shariah issues revolve around the donation- based crowdfunding platforms business model should be considered when devising a Shariah framework for donation-crowdfunding schemes. The findings will help policymakers to formulate and put in place the appropriate regulatory framework to facilitate Islamic donation-based crowdfunding practice.

Filling the theoretical gap: Analyzing the nature of platform profits by integrating the rent perspective and Marxian circulation theory

The significant increase in profits generated by platforms has sparked considerable debate regarding the nature of this income. These discussions center on two perspectives: the value-creating perspective suggests that their profits result from new forms of exploitation in the platform economy, while the rent perspective argues that the platforms extract and transfer value from other value-creating activities. While the latter perspective acknowledges that platforms do not directly engage in value creation, it fails to analyze their functions from the standpoint of Marxian circulation theory. Viewed from this standpoint, platforms represent a new form of commercial capital that propels circulation. Through their capacity to collect and process user behavior data, they attain a higher level of centralization than traditional commercial organizations, and extract value created by productive activities.

Living my Latin American influencer dream: How racism and nationality shape Latin American influencers within the US

This paper investigates the intersection of racism, nationality, and the global Latin American influencer dream. It examines the experiences of Latin American influencers in the United States, where pursuing commercial success intersects with cultural and economic aspirations. Additionally, it explores the role of content service organizations in shaping creator culture and the working experiences of Latin American influencers. Despite the global imagination, influencer economies largely remain national, constrained by socio-cultural, linguistic, and regional norms. Drawing from literature on influencer cultures, platform economies, and imaginaries, the study analyzes data from interviews with content service organization executives and influencers, alongside platform analytics and advertising campaigns. The findings elucidate how racial discourses shape and challenge creator cultures, highlighting barriers for Latin American influencers in the US. This research contributes to understanding the social dimensions of creator culture, revealing impediments faced by diasporic influencers.

The Hidden Costs of the Platform Economy: Tax Dishonesty by Airbnb Hosts

The Hidden Costs of the Platform Economy: Tax Dishonesty by Airbnb Hosts

Creating a digital platform for the agricultural cooperative system through interorganizational collaboration

In the era of Agriculture 4.0, agricultural cooperatives are struggling to understand the challenges and threats the digital platforms of large agribusiness corporations represent for the competitiveness of cooperative systems. An opportunity in this context is for agricultural cooperatives to enter the platform economy and collaboratively develop their digital platform. This study aims to analyze the process of creating a digital platform through the collaboration of agribusiness cooperatives. The action research method, which involved four interconnected cycles, was followed. The first cycle aimed to generate strategic alignment among thirty cooperatives to promote digital innovation. The second cycle referred to conceptualizing and establishing the project's governance structure and developing three minimum viable products. The third cycle involved the construction of the digital platform. The fourth and final cycle focused on instantiating the platform through diffusion and utilization by the cooperatives. A digital platform was developed, considering the potential for building relationships and adopting cooperative concepts. The platform gives participants access to a digital business ecosystem and direct access to the community of users, the infrastructure and the data. This means the cooperatives can manage them without subordination to large multinational companies that may threaten their long-term survival. The study contributes to theory by proposing a systematic method to create digital platforms following a cooperative approach. It also contributes to the managerial practice by revealing the steps and challenges managers may face when implementing digital platforms in the context of cooperatives. The platform attracted over 13,000 active users in three years and represented more than 1,700,000 ha of land for food production in Brazil.

Innovation of the Platform Economy: Key Stakeholders and Starting Points for Sustainable Careers

Innovation of the Platform Economy: Key Stakeholders and Starting Points for Sustainable Careers

Palm as Decentralized Identifiers: Mitigate scrounging of platform economy

AbstractThis study investigates a novel challenge within the digital economy: scrounging, which entails the exploitation of false identities to capitalize on benefits offered by digital platforms, such as sales promotions and new user incentives. As a form of fraud, scrounging can substantially affect platform efficiency and has emerged as a critical issue in the contemporary digital economy and Web 3.0 sector. This underscores the necessity to model scrounging behavior and implement strategies to mitigate it. In this study, we develop a model that characterizes scrounging behavior in digital platform promotions and provides a theoretical explanation. We also introduce Palm as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), offering Proof‐of‐Human (PoH) to reduce fake identity prevalence. Unlike traditional blockchain technology, Palm as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) utilizes the Human Chain approach, ensuring equitable treatment of all users within the system. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system in mitigating scrounging and explore its prospective applications in tackling real‐world challenges in the digital and Web 3.0 economies.

From expansion to exclusion: recalibrating rural e-commerce in the New Era political economy in western China

This study examines the recalibration of local-level rural e-commerce in China’s New Era political economy. Drawing on fieldwork in three Yunnan counties, this study explores the effects of recalibration on China’s platform giants. We find that the dysfunctional local developmental state—shown as a shift in a diminished developmental drive mainly focused on noneconomic goals, the preferential treatment of local state-backed firms over private platform giants in industrial policy, the digital literacy-poor local bureaucracy, and the alienation of e-commerce firms of all sizes—leads to the misalignment between China’s increasingly security-centric state capitalism and profit-driven platform giants. This misalignment partly contributes to the deceleration of China’s platform economy.

Employee Loyalty in the Platform Economy: Does it Exist?

Employee Loyalty in the Platform Economy: Does it Exist?

Platform economy and missing entrepreneurship: Evidence from E‐commerce development policy in China

AbstractThis paper utilises the staggered county‐level rollout of China's E‐commerce entering villages policy to examine the effect of policy‐driven platform economy development on local entrepreneurship. Exploiting county‐level variations in yearly new business registration with a difference‐in‐differences strategy, we find that policy‐driven platform economy development decreased the number of new business registrations and business entry rates by approximately 4.6% and 0.6%, respectively. The reduction effect is more prominent in business registration in micro‐small scale, tertiary industries, eastern regions, and rural areas. Microfinance plays a positive role in this association. Mechanism analysis shows that the platform‐driven supply chain transformation could rule out entrepreneurial opportunities, and the platform‐enabled gig work opportunities could weaken entrepreneurial motivation. Loss of entrepreneurial opportunities and motivation leads to less entrepreneurship.

Managing Rapport on TripAdvisor: Correlation of Negative Reviews and Response Voices on Online Business Platforms

This study explores the impact of negative reviews and responses on rapport management, synthesizing current research on this topic. Employing formulated research questions and statistical methods like chi-square tests, this study systematically analyzed collected data both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicate significant differences in response voices—accommodative, formalistic, and defensive—among various interpersonal relationship management styles when addressing negative reviews. These findings emphasize the complexity of managing interpersonal relationships amidst criticism, offering theoretical insights and practical guidance for improving customer rapport management in industries like hospitality. By examining how different management voices respond to negative reviews, this study contributes a fresh perspective to enhancing customer relationship practices in service sectors.

Navigating the Challenges of Commodity Traps and Platform Economies: An Assessment in the Context of the Northern Black Forest Region and Future Directions

Navigating the Challenges of Commodity Traps and Platform Economies: An Assessment in the Context of the Northern Black Forest Region and Future Directions

Overlooking digital collusion risks in the EU's agenda for a single European data space(s)

ABSTRACT The EU aims to drive the data and platform economy by establishing a single European Data Space(s) vision, envisioning it as a catalyst for innovation, novel services, enhanced competition and consumer welfare. It involves implementing existing and forthcoming horizontal and sectorial data-sharing laws to overcome technical, legal, and ethical barriers to (personal and non-personal) data access and achieve specific data-driven policy targets. The initial spaces will cover nine economic sectors, few established and others in development. The study assesses the possible oversight of competition law collusion concerns in these initiatives, using the example of the EU Mobility Data Space (EMDS). By employing competition law qualitative doctrinal methods, it emphasizes the risks of digital collusion within these EU-wide open data frameworks, and it indicates that they could severely harm one or several parameters of competition. It concludes by offering policy recommendations to prevent or minimize collusion risks for the EMDS and suggests further research in other sectors.

Competition policy in a general‐equilibrium platform economy

AbstractThis paper examines the wage and welfare effects of the competition policy in a platform economy. An increase in downstream platform providers widens the skilled‐unskilled wage gap in the short run. Moreover, competition brings about a beneficial price pass‐through effect but a detrimental cost‐pushing effect on upstream manufacturers. This leads to business dynamism in manufacturing firms. By numerical simulations, the number of manufacturing firms increases, thus further widening wage inequality in the long run. The optimal number of platform providers is smaller when the business‐stealing effect is larger, whereas it is larger when the price pass‐through effect is greater.

Research on the Challenges and Improvement Strategies of Relevant Market Definition in Platform Economy

Research on the Challenges and Improvement Strategies of Relevant Market Definition in Platform Economy