Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms as Regulators

By Kevin J. Boudreau, Andrei Hagiu. 2008

466 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper provides a basic conceptual framework for interpreting non-price instruments used by multi-sided platforms (MSPs) by analogizing MSPs as "private regulators" who regulate access to and interactions around the platform. We present evidence on Facebook, TopCoder, Roppongi Hills and Harvard Business School to document the "regulatory" role played by MSPs. We find MSPs use nuanced combinations of legal, technological, informational and other instruments (including price-setting) to implement desired outcomes. Non-price instruments were very much at the core of MSP strategies.

Subfields: Management Science and Operations Research, Media Technology, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ef1dedaa44c4517c5fc61175e566ba3ccaf0a9fc

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In Management Science and Operations Research

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Citations in the corpus

A holistic market conceptualization (2015, background): “Multi-sided platform markets have different groups that businesses have to secure in order to succeed (Boudreau and Hagiu 2009; Evans 2003).”
Industry Platforms and Ecosystem Innovation (2013, background): “In a welcome development, however, Evans (2009) focuses on start-up platform strategies, while Hagiu (2007b), Eisenmann et al. (2009), and Boudreau and Hagiu (2009) focus on the importance of non-price mechanisms for the governance of platform ecosystems.”
Lean government and platform-based governance - Doing more with less (2013, background): “Access and information sharing can be guided by technical, legislative, procedural or financial provisioning (Boudreau & Hagiu, 2010).”
Digital transformation by SME entrepreneurs: A capability perspective (2018, methodology): “Finally, a digital platform can facilitate SMEs' digital transformation through rule ‐ making (Boudreau & Hagiu, 2009; Eisenmann, Parker, & Van Alstyne, 2011).”
Incentives and Problem Uncertainty in Innovation Contests: An Empirical Analysis (2011, background): “However, it should be noted that contests are increasingly seen as a regular and ongoing platform for innovation (Boudreau and Hagiu 2009) rather than just an innovation approach reserved for special and sporadic ad hoc events, as was perhaps historically the case.”
Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers (2014, background): “Finally, we estimate that Craigslist’s entry results in $7.7 billion in savings to classified-ad buyers during 2000-2007.”
Technology Ecosystem Governance (2014, unknown): “…2008) govern the relationships between the core and complements, creating bottlenecks where platform operators can, via property and other legal rights of exclusion, grant or deny actors access to the system (Boudreau & Hagiu, 2009; Jacobides, Knudsen, & Augier, 2006; Rochet & Tirole, 2003).”
The business model: Theoretical roots, recent developments, and future research (2010, background): “…Harvard Business Review Adner & Kapoor, 2010, Strategic Management Journal Boudreau, 2009, Paper presented at research seminar, IESE Business School Boudreau & Hagiu, 2008, Working Paper 0-061, Harvard Business School Iansiti & Levien, 2004, Harvard Business School Press Moore, 1996, Harper…”
Introduction - Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age (2018, background): “To reduce these costs, platforms might engage in centralized, “quality certiﬁ-cation” via developer pre-screening (Boudreau and Hagiu 2009, Evans and Schmalensee 2007).”
Unpaid Crowd Complementors: The Platform Network Effect Mirage (2015, unknown): “For example, the noise and dissonance generated by the glut of game makers for Atari’s video console platform caused confusion and ultimately the infamous crash of that platform in the 1980s (Boudreau and Hagiu, 2009).”
The Role of IS Capabilities in the Development of Multi-Sided Platforms: The Digital Ecosystem Strategy of Alibaba.com (2015, background): “…that is responsible for providing the infrastructure and services to enable interactions and triangular exchanges between the different groups of entities (Eisenmann et al., 2009) and for establishing the rules that govern transactions and coordinate network activities (Boudreau & Hagiu, 2009).”
Open Platform Strategies and Innovation: Granting Access vs. Devolving Control (2010, background): “Partial openness retains the concept of owners, parties with the ability to modify rights, freedoms and obligations via contracts or other rule-setting instruments (Boudreau and Hagiu 2009).”
A business case for Smart Grid technologies: A systemic perspective (2011, methodology): “In some cases, however, platform owners might need to exert regulatory control of the platform to ensure, through rules and constraints, ‘‘the health of the platform ecosystem’’ (Boudreau and Hagiu, 2008).”