Product Decisions by Sellers on a Platform: Publishers’ e-Book Offerings on Amazon Kindle

Platform operators are concerned not only with sellers’ participation but also the way sellers participate. We examine three questions on sellers’ product decisions that are salient to platform performance: Do sellers offer in demand products, their most competitive products, and their top-selling products? Using data on Amazon Kindle e-books, we document that publishers offer titles from their popular and strong categories, which help Kindle attract buyers. However, publishers withhold titles that constitute a high percentage of their sales, which suggests that publishers guard their top-selling products against Amazon’s control. We also find that large publishers offer products that are less conducive to Kindle’s success, which is consistent with sellers’ exercising bargaining power. Our empirical findings inform platform strategy theory development.