Value-added services and e-commerce platform competitiveness: a game theoretic approach

Purpose In response to the intense competition in the platform economy, e-commerce platforms are actively introducing value-added services to maintain their competitiveness. However, how effective these value-added services are in fulfilling this purpose remains unclear. This paper explores how value-added services can enhance e-commerce platform competitiveness, measured by both user scale and reputation, considering the effect of network externalities. Design/methodology/approach A bilateral e-commerce platform with potential high-quality sellers and low-quality sellers on one side and potential buyers on the other side was chosen as research setting. Game theory models are constructed to simultaneously consider the behaviors of all actors (including sellers, buyers and the platform). Findings On the one hand, to increase the seller scale, basic services play a substituting role in determining the effect of value-added services. On the other hand, to increase the buyer scale and improve platform reputation, basic services play a fundamental role in determining the effect of value-added services. Furthermore, the higher the loss rate of the product value, the bigger the room for providing value-added services. With increasing loss rate of the product value, participating buyers who are attracted by value-added services are the fastest growing indicators; this indicates that the most significant effect of value-added services is its increase in the buyer scale. Practical implications Basic services determine the lower limit of platform competitiveness, while value-added services set the upper limit. The results of this paper can instruct different types of platforms to enhance their competitiveness in different ways. Originality/value (1) While previous studies on how to enhance platform competitiveness only considered scale or reputation separately, this paper applies a new perspective of platform competitiveness, namely the improvement of both the seller scale/buyer scale and platform reputation. (2) According to the characteristics of bilateral platforms, game theory models are constructed to explore how value-added services can enhance platform competitiveness considering both positive and negative network externalities. (3) The existing literature studies basic services and value-added services in a fragmented state; this paper contributes to research on value-added services by considering the mutual effect between basic and value-added services.