Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms as Regulators

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Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms as Regulators

Author Info

Kevin J. Boudreau () (HEC – Paris School of Management)
Andrei Hagiu () (Harvard Business School, Strategy Unit)

Abstract

This paper provides a basic conceptual framework for interpreting non-price instruments used by multi-sided platforms (MSPs) by analogizing MSPs as "private regulators" who regulate access to and interactions around the platform. We present evidence on Facebook, TopCoder, Roppongi Hills and Harvard Business School to document the "regulatory" role played by MSPs. We find MSPs use nuanced combinations of legal, technological, informational and other instruments (including price-setting) to implement desired outcomes. Non-price instruments were very much at the core of MSP strategies.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Harvard Business School in its series Harvard Business School Working Papers with number 09-061.

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Length: 30 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:09-061

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2008-10-28 (All new papers)
NEP-MIC-2008-10-28 (Microeconomics)
NEP-NET-2008-10-28 (Network Economics)

References listed on IDEAS
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Full references

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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Muge Ozman, 2008. "The Two Faces of Open Innovation: NetworkExternalities and Learning," Working Papers of BETA 2008-24, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, ULP, Strasbourg. [Downloadable!]

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