Large-Scale Service Marketplaces: The Role of the Moderating Firm
研究了大规模在线服务市场中调节型企业如何促进信息收集、运营效率和代理间沟通，发现运营效率可能损害整体效率，需配合沟通机制才能发挥预期作用。
Recently, large-scale, Web-based service marketplaces, where many small service providers compete among themselves in catering to customers with diverse needs, have emerged. Customers who frequent these marketplaces seek quick resolutions and thus are usually willing to trade prices with waiting times. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the role of the moderating firm in facilitating information gathering, operational efficiency, and communication among agents in service marketplaces. Surprisingly, we show that operational efficiency may be detrimental to the overall efficiency of the marketplace. Furthermore, we establish that to reap the “expected” gains of operational efficiency, the moderating firm may need to complement the operational efficiency by enabling communication among its agents. The study emphasizes the scale of such marketplaces and the impact it has on the outcomes. This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management.