Balancing Variety and Quality: Examining the Impact of Benefit‐Linked Cross‐Subsidization on Multisided Platforms
研究了多边平台在增加互补者多样性与维持其质量之间的权衡，发现将补贴与互补者收入挂钩的定价策略能缓解这一矛盾，并以航空业数据验证了该策略对平台财务绩效和客流结构的积极影响。
Abstract Multisided platforms face a fundamental trade‐off: should they ease entry for a larger number of providers of complementary products or services (complementors) to join the platform and benefit from cross‐side network externalities, or should they limit entry to maintain complementors’ incentives to provide high‐quality offerings? We contend that a specific cross‐subsidizing pricing strategy – where the amount of subsidy to complementors is explicitly linked to the overall revenue they generate on the other side of the platform – may mitigate this trade‐off. Using data from the airport industry, we demonstrate that following a reduction of airlines’ entry barriers, airports that subsidize airlines, based on the aforementioned scheme, can boost their financial performance and maintain traffic composition in favour of legacy airlines, which bring passengers who spend more in airport shops. Our findings shed light on how cross‐subsidization may balance the variety and quality of complementors and their offerings on multisided platforms.