“…Second, our research speaks to the emerging stream of platform research that focuses on the seller/complementor side, which has shown that sellers' performance depends on not only platform conditions, but also seller-specific attributes such as reputation and experience (Cutolo & Kenney, 2020;Huang, Ceccagnoli, Forman, & Wu, 2013;Lanzolla & Frankort, 2016;O'Mahony & Karp, 2020;Rietveld et al, 2020;Rietveld & Eggers, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020). By showing that the effectiveness of platform governance is affected by the interactions between platforms and sellers, our results present a feedback loop in which a design change is followed by heterogeneous seller responses, which may support or detract from the platform's design goals.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…1 To manage these exchanges, platforms implement design rules to shape participants' behavior (Baldwin & Woodard, 2009). In particular, digital platforms undergo frequent design changes by altering the algorithms underlying the design rules (Cutolo & Kenney, 2020;Kapoor & Agarwal, 2017;Kretschmer & Claussen, 2016). For example, a platform can change how different types of sellers are ranked in buyers' search results or add a chat box for buyers to communicate with sellers.…”
Research Summary
Platform companies use design changes to govern their participants. The success of a design change depends on participants' responses, which are influenced by their local environments. Our study focuses on an important aspect of the local environment—rural versus urban. Using data from a leading e‐commerce platform, we find that relative to urban sellers, rural sellers were particularly poor at adjusting to a major design change, resulting in a persistent performance gap. We attribute these misaligned responses to rural sellers' lack of local access to rich information. This study shows that sellers' local heterogeneity generates equivocal responses and carries unintended consequences for platform governance. It also enriches our understanding of digital inequality and algorithmic design by highlighting the importance of the “offline interface.”
Managerial Summary
Digital platforms frequently change their design rules (e.g., ranking algorithms) to guide the behavior of participants. However, participants are inherently heterogeneous, and their abilities to understand and follow a design change also vary across populations. This study examines a major design change on a leading e‐commerce platform. We find that, compared to urban sellers, rural sellers developed responses that detracted from the platform's design goals and resulted in lower sales. This study highlights the need for digital platforms to understand how participants' offline environments affect their online behavior. This study also shapes the conversation on digital inequality: despite being connected online, entrepreneurs in traditionally disadvantaged regions may still suffer from a lack of accessible local information channels.
“…Second, our research speaks to the emerging stream of platform research that focuses on the seller/complementor side, which has shown that sellers' performance depends on not only platform conditions, but also seller-specific attributes such as reputation and experience (Cutolo & Kenney, 2020;Huang, Ceccagnoli, Forman, & Wu, 2013;Lanzolla & Frankort, 2016;O'Mahony & Karp, 2020;Rietveld et al, 2020;Rietveld & Eggers, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020). By showing that the effectiveness of platform governance is affected by the interactions between platforms and sellers, our results present a feedback loop in which a design change is followed by heterogeneous seller responses, which may support or detract from the platform's design goals.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…1 To manage these exchanges, platforms implement design rules to shape participants' behavior (Baldwin & Woodard, 2009). In particular, digital platforms undergo frequent design changes by altering the algorithms underlying the design rules (Cutolo & Kenney, 2020;Kapoor & Agarwal, 2017;Kretschmer & Claussen, 2016). For example, a platform can change how different types of sellers are ranked in buyers' search results or add a chat box for buyers to communicate with sellers.…”
Research Summary
Platform companies use design changes to govern their participants. The success of a design change depends on participants' responses, which are influenced by their local environments. Our study focuses on an important aspect of the local environment—rural versus urban. Using data from a leading e‐commerce platform, we find that relative to urban sellers, rural sellers were particularly poor at adjusting to a major design change, resulting in a persistent performance gap. We attribute these misaligned responses to rural sellers' lack of local access to rich information. This study shows that sellers' local heterogeneity generates equivocal responses and carries unintended consequences for platform governance. It also enriches our understanding of digital inequality and algorithmic design by highlighting the importance of the “offline interface.”
Managerial Summary
Digital platforms frequently change their design rules (e.g., ranking algorithms) to guide the behavior of participants. However, participants are inherently heterogeneous, and their abilities to understand and follow a design change also vary across populations. This study examines a major design change on a leading e‐commerce platform. We find that, compared to urban sellers, rural sellers developed responses that detracted from the platform's design goals and resulted in lower sales. This study highlights the need for digital platforms to understand how participants' offline environments affect their online behavior. This study also shapes the conversation on digital inequality: despite being connected online, entrepreneurs in traditionally disadvantaged regions may still suffer from a lack of accessible local information channels.
“…In a lot of researches that focus on platform ecology and value cocreation [12][13][14], "empowerment" has received widespread attention as an essential source of cocreation value [15]. However, as a new research proposition, the discussion of platform empowerment is currently mainly about phenomenon description, concept definition, and effect verification [16].…”
In the digital economy era, knowledge platforms have both the functions of knowledge collaboration and social media. At the same time, how to promote knowledge collaboration through platform empowerment is getting more and more attention. Since there are few types of research on how to realize the micromechanism of platform empowerment, the purpose of this paper is to take knowledge platforms as an example to study the conceptual system of platform affordances based on the social-technical perspective. Through the theoretical integration of technological empowerment and authorization empowerment, this paper provides new perspectives and future themes for explaining the platform empowerment mechanism of knowledge collaboration. As for the method, the deductive research approach is adopted in this paper. First, through the critical literature review, the gaps in platform empowerment research have been identified. Second, from the analysis of the characteristics of knowledge platforms such as Wukong Q&A and Zhihu, the relationship between platform affordances, platform organizational characteristics, and customer needs has been explored. In the final, according to knowledge platform characteristics, the conceptual system of platform affordances has been deduced. The result shows that through integrating organizational theory, knowledge management theory, and platform ecological viewpoints, the main components of the affordances of knowledge platforms have been summarized. In addition, the relevance of those components to the functions, interfaces and rules of the platform system has been illustrated, and the corresponding relationship between the affordances of the platform and the main components of authorization empowerment has been established. With regard to the implication of this study, it establishes the theoretical connection between technological empowerment and authorization empowerment and provides a more intuitive and operable method for platform empowerment of knowledge collaboration through the perspective of social-technical interaction. This paper emphasizes that starting from the mission of the platform, the stickiness of the platform can be enhanced by building platform affordances. In addition, extensive development ideas that purely pursue Internet traffic and capital need to be avoided, which is conducive to the high-quality development of knowledge platforms and the digital economy. Furthermore, this paper calls for more research on the affordances and empowerment mechanism of the platform to provide theoretical guidance for the highly unified practice of platform organizational characteristics, platform system characteristics, and target customer needs, so as to develop a more active and meaningful platform knowledge management field.
“…Interviews reveal that digital platforms already count as infrastructure providers: ‘You can't get around them (digital platforms), you simply can't’ (Interview IV). Cutolo and Kenney (2019) reason that certain vendors should, ‘in fact, be understood as “platform‐dependent entrepreneurs”, as Amazon controls nearly every facet of their online business operations.’ Kenney and Zysman (2020a, p. 69) argue ‘Amazon's business model is a powerful engine for increasing spatial inequality.’ This is acknowledged by an interviewee with strong business ties to Amazon:At the end of the day, Amazon has the most important gateway for product searches in Germany, and if I'm not visible there, I'm foregoing the majority of e‐commerce customers. That's why it's also a question of do I want to afford it, can I afford it.…”
Section: Analysis and Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…(Interview XIII) More than infrastructure providers -Implications for local geographies -Interviews reveal that digital platforms already count as infrastructure providers: 'You can't get around them (digital platforms), you simply can't' (Interview IV). Cutolo and Kenney (2019) reason that certain vendors should, 'in fact, be understood as "platform-dependent entrepreneurs", as Amazon controls nearly every facet of their online business operations.' Kenney and Zysman (2020a, p. 69) argue 'Amazon's business model is a powerful engine for increasing spatial inequality.'…”
Section: The Hde Representative Emphasises This Problemmentioning
Digital platforms, such as Amazon, represent the major beneficiaries of the Covid-19 crisis. This study examines the role of digital platforms and their engagement in digitalisation initiatives targeting (small) brick-and-mortar retailers in Germany, thereby contributing to a better understanding of how digital platforms augment, substitute or reorganise physical retail spaces. This study applies a mixed-method approach based on qualitative interviews, participant observation as well as media analysis. First, the study illustrates the controversial role of digital platforms by positioning themselves as supporting partners of the (offline) retailers, while simultaneously shifting power towards the platforms themselves. Second, digital platforms have established themselves not only as infrastructure providers but also as actors within these infrastructures, framing digital as well as physical retail spaces, inter alia due to their role as publicly legitimised retail advisers. Third, while institutions want to help retailers to survive, they simultaneously enhance retailers' dependency on digital platforms.
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