IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v304y2023i3p952-963.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bilateral value-added service investment in platform competition with cross-side network effects under multihoming

Author

Listed:
  • Sui, Ronghua
  • Zhang, Xumei
  • Dan, Bin
  • Zhang, Haiyue
  • Liu, Yi

Abstract

To expand users’ scale and enhance competitiveness, many third-party platforms have focused on investing in value-added service (VAS). This study focuses on bilateral VAS and pricing decisions of two competing platforms with different investment costs. Platforms’ bilateral users, including manufacturers and suppliers, can access one or two platforms (i.e., bilateral users can be multihomed). By developing a Hotelling model, we study the differences in VAS investment and pricing between two platforms considering cross-side network effects (CNEs) and propose the strategies of bilateral VAS and pricing for platforms. Then, compared to the situation of no VAS, we analyze the influence of VAS investment on platform pricing. The results show that unlike the platform with high marginal investing cost, the platform with low marginal investing cost offers a higher VAS level to its bilateral users, but may charge them less. Under some conditions, the platform with low marginal investing cost should provide a high level of VAS for manufacturers but charge them a low fee, and simultaneously provide a low level of VAS for suppliers but charge them a high fee. While the platform with high marginal investing cost should provide a high level of VAS with subsidies for manufacturers but a low level of VAS with charges for suppliers. Moreover, we also find that regardless of platforms’ marginal investing costs being high or low, they always charge suppliers more after investing in VAS, but may charge manufacturers less, or subsidize them more.

Suggested Citation

  • Sui, Ronghua & Zhang, Xumei & Dan, Bin & Zhang, Haiyue & Liu, Yi, 2023. "Bilateral value-added service investment in platform competition with cross-side network effects under multihoming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(3), pages 952-963.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:304:y:2023:i:3:p:952-963
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2022.04.041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221722003551
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.04.041?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Belleflamme & Eric Toulemonde, 2009. "Negative Intra-Group Externalities In Two-Sided Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(1), pages 245-272, February.
    2. Gérard P. Cachon & Kaitlin M. Daniels & Ruben Lobel, 2017. "The Role of Surge Pricing on a Service Platform with Self-Scheduling Capacity," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 368-384, July.
    3. Yannis Bakos & Hanna Halaburda, 2020. "Platform Competition with Multihoming on Both Sides: Subsidize or Not?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5599-5607, December.
    4. Bender, Mark & Gal-Or, Esther & Geylani, Tansev, 2021. "Attracting artists to music streaming platforms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(3), pages 1083-1097.
    5. Yuxin Chen & Jinhong Xie, 2007. "Cross-Market Network Effect with Asymmetric Customer Loyalty: Implications for Competitive Advantage," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 52-66, 01-02.
    6. Song Lin, 2020. "Two-Sided Price Discrimination by Media Platforms," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(2), pages 317-338, March.
    7. Jun Li & Serguei Netessine, 2020. "Higher Market Thickness Reduces Matching Rate in Online Platforms: Evidence from a Quasiexperiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 271-289, January.
    8. Junhong Chu & Puneet Manchanda, 2016. "Quantifying Cross and Direct Network Effects in Online Consumer-to-Consumer Platforms," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(6), pages 870-893, November.
    9. Dawoon Jung & Byung Cho Kim & Myungsub Park & Detmar W. Straub, 2019. "Innovation and Policy Support for Two-Sided Market Platforms: Can Government Policy Makers and Executives Optimize Both Societal Value and Profits?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 1037-1050, September.
    10. Harish Guda & Upender Subramanian, 2019. "Your Uber Is Arriving: Managing On-Demand Workers Through Surge Pricing, Forecast Communication, and Worker Incentives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 1995-2014, May.
    11. Mark Armstrong, 2006. "Competition in two‐sided markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, September.
    12. Ramnath K. Chellappa & Rajiv Mukherjee, 2021. "Platform Preannouncement Strategies: The Strategic Role of Information in Two-Sided Markets Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1527-1545, March.
    13. Guowei Dou & Ping He & Xiaoyan Xu, 2016. "One-side value-added service investment and pricing strategies for a two-sided platform," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(13), pages 3808-3821, July.
    14. Jean‐Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Two‐sided markets: a progress report," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 645-667, September.
    15. Jacob, Jagan & Roet-Green, Ricky, 2021. "Ride solo or pool: Designing price-service menus for a ride-sharing platform," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(3), pages 1008-1024.
    16. Sun, Luoyi & Teunter, Ruud H. & Babai, M. Zied & Hua, Guowei, 2019. "Optimal pricing for ride-sourcing platforms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 783-795.
    17. Didem Demirhan & Varghese S. Jacob & Srinivasan Raghunathan, 2007. "Strategic IT Investments: The Impact of Switching Cost and Declining IT Cost," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(2), pages 208-226, February.
    18. Jean-Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 990-1029, June.
    19. Jiang, Shangrong & Li, Yuze & Wang, Shouyang & Zhao, Lin, 2022. "Blockchain competition: The tradeoff between platform stability and efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(3), pages 1084-1097.
    20. Hagiu, Andrei & Hałaburda, Hanna, 2014. "Information and two-sided platform profits," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 25-35.
    21. Liu, Weihua & Yan, Xiaoyu & Wei, Wanying & Xie, Dong, 2019. "Pricing decisions for service platform with provider’s threshold participating quantity, value-added service and matching ability," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 410-432.
    22. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    23. Zhang, Xuefeng & Li, Guo & Liu, Mengqi & Sethi, Suresh P., 2021. "Online platform service investment: A bane or a boon for supplier encroachment," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    24. Hong, Ji Hyun & Kim, Byung Cho & Park, Kyung Sam, 2019. "Optimal risk management for the sharing economy with stranger danger and service quality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(3), pages 1024-1035.
    25. Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2013. "Piracy in a two-sided software market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 78-89.
    26. Amit Basu & Sreekumar Bhaskaran & Rajiv Mukherjee, 2019. "An Analysis of Search and Authentication Strategies for Online Matching Platforms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2412-2431, May.
    27. Andrei Hagiu, 2006. "Pricing and Commitment by Two-Sided Platforms," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 720-737, Autumn.
    28. Rodolphe Durand & Robert M. Grant & Tammy L. Madsen & David P. McIntyre & Arati Srinivasan, 2017. "Networks, platforms, and strategy: Emerging views and next steps," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 141-160, January.
    29. Yushan Hu & Ben G. Li, 2021. "The production economics of economics production," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 228-255, February.
    30. Jay Pil Choi, 2010. "Tying In Two‐Sided Markets With Multi‐Homing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 607-626, September.
    31. Burcu Tan & Edward G. Anderson, Jr. & Geoffrey G. Parker, 2020. "Platform Pricing and Investment to Drive Third-Party Value Creation in Two-Sided Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 217-239, March.
    32. Andrei Hagiu, 2006. "Pricing and commitment by two‐sided platforms," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 720-737, September.
    33. Liu, He & Qiao, Han & Wang, Shouyang & Li, Yuze, 2019. "Platform Competition in Peer-to-Peer Lending Considering Risk Control Ability," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 280-290.
    34. Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Schwerdfeger, Stefan, 2019. "Matching supply and demand in a sharing economy: Classification, computational complexity, and application," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(2), pages 578-595.
    35. Guo, Yuhan & Zhang, Yu & Boulaksil, Youssef, 2021. "Real-time ride-sharing framework with dynamic timeframe and anticipation-based migration," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(3), pages 810-828.
    36. Edward G. Anderson & Geoffrey G. Parker & Burcu Tan, 2014. "Platform Performance Investment in the Presence of Network Externalities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 152-172, March.
    37. Evans David S., 2003. "Some Empirical Aspects of Multi-sided Platform Industries," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-19, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jie Zhang & Lingfeng Dong & Ting Ji, 2023. "The Diffusion of Competitive Platform-Based Products with Network Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Huixin Liu & Feng Du, 2023. "Research on E-Commerce Platforms’ Return Policies Considering Consumers Abusing Return Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Tang, Hua & Chen, Jing & Ai, Xingzheng & Li, Xiaojing & He, Haojia, 2023. "First-party content decision under competitive hardware/software platforms: Free vs. charge," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 1068-1083.
    4. Gu, Wei & Heese, H. Sebastian & Kemahlıoğlu-Ziya, Eda & Ziya, Serhan, 2024. "Pricing for services with cross-segment externalities, capacity constraints, and competition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 313(2), pages 801-813.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhu, Weijun & Xie, Jiaping & Xia, Yu & Wei, Lihong & Liang, Ling, 2023. "Getting more third-party participants on board: Optimal pricing and investment decisions in competitive platform ecosystems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 177-192.
    2. Jan Frederic Nerbel & Markus Kreutzer, 2023. "Digital platform ecosystems in flux: From proprietary digital platforms to wide-spanning ecosystems," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Sui, Ronghua & Liu, Molin & Liu, Yi & Zha, Xiaoyu, 2024. "Two-sided dynamic pricing and value-added service investment strategies of competitive platforms considering indirect network effects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    4. Pavan, Alessandro & Jullien, Bruno & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," CEPR Discussion Papers 16480, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Xie, Jiaping & Zhu, Weijun & Wei, Lihong & Liang, Ling, 2021. "Platform competition with partial multi-homing: When both same-side and cross-side network effects exist," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    6. Xiaoxi Zhu & Changhui Yang & Kai Liu & Rui Zhang & Qingquan Jiang, 2022. "Cooperation and decision making in a two-sided market motivated by the externality of a third-party social media platform," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(1), pages 117-142, September.
    7. Yongwook Paik & Christos A. Makridis, 2023. "The social value of a ridesharing platform: a hedonic pricing approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2125-2150, May.
    8. Jingtao Yi & Jinqiu He & Lihong Yang, 2019. "Platform heterogeneity, platform governance and complementors’ product performance: an empirical study of the mobile application industry," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Huixin Liu & Feng Du, 2023. "Research on E-Commerce Platforms’ Return Policies Considering Consumers Abusing Return Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Chen, Mingyang & Zhao, Daozhi & Gong, Yeming & Rekik, Yacine, 2022. "An on-demand service platform with self-scheduling capacity: Uniform versus multiplier-based pricing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    11. Jørgen Veisdal, 2020. "The dynamics of entry for digital platforms in two-sided markets: a multi-case study," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 30(3), pages 539-556, September.
    12. Veile, Johannes W. & Schmidt, Marie-Christin & Voigt, Kai-Ingo, 2022. "Toward a new era of cooperation: How industrial digital platforms transform business models in Industry 4.0," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 387-405.
    13. Jacobides, Michael G. & Cennamo, Carmelo & Gawer, Annabelle, 2024. "Externalities and complementarities in platforms and ecosystems: From structural solutions to endogenous failures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    14. Christian Stummer & Dennis Kundisch & Reinhold Decker, 2018. "Platform Launch Strategies," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 60(2), pages 167-173, April.
    15. Tang, Hua & Chen, Jing & Ai, Xingzheng & Li, Xiaojing & He, Haojia, 2023. "First-party content decision under competitive hardware/software platforms: Free vs. charge," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 1068-1083.
    16. Yingxiu Zhao & Sitong Zhou, 2023. "The Impact of Two-Sided Market Platforms on Participants’ Trading Strategies: An Evolutionary Game Analysis," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, April.
    17. Adachi, Takanori & Tremblay, Mark J., 2020. "Business-to-business bargaining in two-sided markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    18. Wei, Wanying & Liu, Weihua & Tang, Ou & Dong, Chuanwen & Liang, Yanjie, 2023. "CSR investment for a two-sided platform: Network externality and risk aversion," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(2), pages 694-712.
    19. Martin Poniatowski & Hedda Lüttenberg & Daniel Beverungen & Dennis Kundisch, 2022. "Three layers of abstraction: a conceptual framework for theorizing digital multi-sided platforms," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 257-283, June.
    20. Carrillo, Juan D. & Tan, Guofu, 2021. "Platform competition with complementary products," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:304:y:2023:i:3:p:952-963. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.