Impact of digital multi-sided platforms on firm survival in retail
This paper explores firm survival in Russian retail industry in cases of digital multi-sided platforms penetration such as aggregator Yandex.Market, marketplace Wildberries, electronic store Ozon and classified-ad service Avito. The panel data set of 130 thousand firms was analyzed using two methods: non-parametric Kaplan—Meier estimator and semi-parametric Cox proportional hazards model with time dependent covariates. Kaplan—Meier estimator calculates the survival function for censored data. Cox proportional hazards model examines the effect of platform penetration on hazard rates of differently sized firms in various industry spheres. Platforms-aggregators Yandex.Market and Wildberries have a strong positive impact on firm survival while platformsdisruptors Ozon and Avito increase likelihood of firm failure. The main results of platform influence in various industry spheres are as follows: the aggregator of price offers has a more positive impact on segments with high information asymmetry; and firms specialized on Wildberries key product categories enjoy lower hazard ratios of bankruptcy or liquidation. These hypotheses are not supported for Ozon and Avito platforms.