Pricing Strategies of Registration System and Transaction System in Live Broadcast Platform

This paper investigates a supply chain consisting of the monopoly live broadcast platform, content producers, and consumers. Based on the two-sided market theory, the platform’s pricing strategies and their analysis are considered under the registration system and the transaction system. Firstly, it shows that platform users’ scale and profit are positively correlated with the intergroup network externality from both sides and the intragroup network externality inside the consumer group and negatively correlated with the intragroup network externality inside the content producer group. Secondly, the platform profit, registration fee charged to content producers, and transaction fee charged to consumers are negatively correlated to the content production cost and positively related to consumers’ content quality sensitivity coefficient. When consumers are more sensitive to content quality, they are positively correlated to content quality. Finally, the registration fee charged by the platform to consumers is positively correlated with the content production cost, negatively correlated with the content quality level, and positively associated with the consumer content quality sensitivity coefficient.

The Effect of Flow on Users’ Social Shopping Intention

The application of mobile technologies such as 4G has triggered social commerce development. However, due to the perceived uncertainty and risk, users may obtain a poor experience when conducting social shopping. Integrating both perspectives of social support and network externality, this research examined users’ flow experience associated with social shopping. The results indicated that both emotional support and network externality affect flow, which in turn affects identification and social shopping intention. The results imply that companies need to create a supportive climate and utilize network externality to improve users’ experience and facilitate their shopping behaviour.

Impact of Network Structure on New Service Pricing

We analyze a firm’s optimal pricing of a new service when consumers interact in a network and impose positive externality on one another. The firm initially provides its service for free, leveraging network externality to promote rapid service consumption growth. The firm raises the price and starts earning revenue only when a sufficient level of consumer interactions is established. Incorporating the local network effects in a nonstationary dynamic model, we study the impact of network structure on the firm’s revenue and optimal pricing decision. We find that the firm delays the timing of service monetization when it faces a more strongly connected network despite the fact that such a network allows the firm to monetize the service sooner by resulting in faster consumption growth. We also find that the firm benefits from network imbalance; that is, the firm prefers a network of consumers with varying degrees of connections to that with similar degrees of connections. We also study the value of knowing the network structure and discuss how such knowledge impacts the firm’s profitability. Our analyses rely on the techniques from algebraic graph theory, which enable us to solve the firm’s high-dimensional dynamic pricing problem by relating it to the network’s spectral characteristics.

Network Externality and Subsidy Structure in Two-Sided Markets: Evidence from Electric Vehicle Incentives

This paper uses new, large-scale vehicle registry data from Norway and a two-sided market framework to show nonneutrality of different subsidies and estimate their impact on electric vehicle adoption when network externalities are present. Estimates suggest a strong positive connection between electric vehicle purchases and both consumer price and charging station subsidies. Counterfactual analyses suggest that between 2010 and 2015, every dollar spent on station subsidies resulted in more than twice as many additional electric vehicle purchases than the same amount spent on price subsidies. However, this relation inverts with increased spending, as station subsidies’ impact tapers off faster. (JEL D12, D62, D85, H25, L62, Q54)

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Promoting Industrial Internet Platforms to Empower Manufacturing SMEs through Value Cocreation Cooperation

A good partnership is conducive to promoting the empowerment of manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via industrial Internet platforms. By analyzing the factors influencing the cooperation motives of both parties and individual behavior, this paper puts forward the design of a cost-sharing and scale revenue-sharing mechanism and establishes an evolutionary game model. Then, the evolutionary stability strategies (ESSs) of individuals and the evolutionary equilibrium state of the system are analyzed. The results show that the key factors affecting the strategic choices of industrial Internet platforms and manufacturing SMEs are different and will change with the number of platform customers and the level of digitalization of enterprises. By sharing the access cost of SMEs and the scale revenue of the platform, mutual trust between the two parties can be enhanced, and SMEs will be more motivated to access the platform. Moreover, the platform network externality, customer churn risk, and cost-sharing ratio have different influences on the process of reaching evolutionary equilibrium in the system. Collaborative revenue expectations are critical to the behavioral strategies of both parties. In comprehensive consideration of the results of this study, it is recommended that industrial Internet platforms be subsidized in the initial stage of cooperation.

Empirical Study on the Factors Affecting User Switching Behavior of Online Learning Platform Based on Push-Pull-Mooring Theory

Online learning is gaining popularity, but users can easily find alternatives and switch between learning platforms. Reducing users switching behavior is a critical condition for the sustainable development of an online learning platform; therefore, it is necessary to investigate the influence factors of users switching behavior between different platforms to retain users and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) theory is adopted to construct a structural equation model of customer switching behavior on online learning platforms and to explore the mechanism of user switching behavior between learning platforms. The model is tested with data collected from 313 online learning users. The results show that information overload and dissatisfaction, as push factors, significantly affect user switching behavior. Functional value and network externality as pull factors positively affect user switching behavior, switching cost, and affective commitment as mooring factors negatively correlate with switching behavior. Further, this study also revealed that there are obvious different influencing factors for different online learning platforms. Overall, this study provides some practical strategies for the online learning platform and can help them to gain a competitive advantage.

Examining Protection Motivation and Network Externality Perspective Regarding the Continued Intention to Use M-Health Apps

M-health apps have developed rapidly and are widely accepted, but users’ continued intention to use m-health apps has not been fully explored. This study was designed to obtain a better understanding of users’ continued intention to use m-health apps. We developed a theoretical model by incorporating the protection motivation theory and network externalities and conducted an empirical study of a 368-respondent sample. The results showed that: (1) perceived vulnerability has a direct impact on users’ self-efficacy and response efficacy; (2) self-efficacy and response efficacy have a direct impact on users’ attitudes and continued intention; (3) network externalities affect users’ attitudes and continued intention, among which direct network externalities have an indirect impact on users’ continued intention through attitude; and (4) the impacts of self-efficacy, response efficacy, and indirect network externalities on continued intention are partially meditated by attitudes.

Hedonic and utilitarian perspective of mobile phones purchase intention

PurposeThis study sought to examine the differential effect of brand quality and brand prestige on brand purchase intentions of mobile phones by students in Ghana. The study also examined the moderating role of network effect, system quality and self-efficacy on the relationship between brand quality and prestige on purchase intentions.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative research approach was adopted with data collection executed through the application of a questionnaire that was self-administered. A total of 518 completed questionnaires received from the respondents were used for the analysis. Statistical analysis was pursued using a sequential analytical procedure concentrating on purchasing intentions or actual purchases with respect to the choice of mobile phone brands.FindingsThe findings indicate that the network externality, system quality and self-efficacy can stimulate the choice of mobile phone brands. The moderating effect of network externality, self-efficacy and system quality were found to be mixed.Practical implicationsMobile phone companies should skew their investments toward improving the quality of the brand whiles developing effective marketing and differentiation strategies to enhance the brand image and create prestigious brands.Originality/valueThis paper provides researchers with a contemporary perspective toward understanding the key factors that guide students to have informed purchase intentions and enable mobile phone companies to evaluate their strategies

Optimal Software Feature-Limited Freemium Model Design: A New Consumer Learning Theoretical Framework

The software industry is increasingly adopting a feature-limited freemium business model that combines “free” and “premium” contents in one product, to sell its products. How to determine the optimal product quality differences between the free and premium versions of software is a central business problem facing many software vendors. In this paper, we study the optimal feature-limited freemium software strategy design, as well as the associated pricing strategies based on consumer learning and network externality effects. We propose a new consumer learning framework induced by cross-module synergies that contains both direct and indirect learning processes. By employing a two-stage mathematical theoretical model and a numerical analysis method, we gained some insights regarding the feature-limited free trial strategy design and associated pricing strategies while considering the associated trade-off between the benefits and costs of the free trial strategy. In our modeling and numerical results, consumers’ prior beliefs about the quality of premium content before the free trial, network effect intensity, and indirect learning intensity were found to be three conditions that need to be studied to examine software vendors’ management decisions. For the software industry, the quality difference between free and premium functionality or the service and price strategy for a feature-limited free trial model can be designed while considering these factors, which will provide some useful guidelines for the industry.