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For two-sided platforms, the utility of users on one side of the platform depends in part on the number of users on the other side of the platform, a phenomenon called indirect network externalities. With the rapid development of two-sided platform and the popularity of platform membership, more and more two-sided platforms have launched joint membership through horizontal cooperation in order to take advantage of indirect network externalities to increase platform profits.

Our study explores the optimal bundling strategy for platform memberships under horizontal cooperation considering indirect network externalities. The main purpose of our study is to obtain the optimal pricing under different strategies (pure component, pure bundling, and mixed bundling) and contrast different strategies under different indirect network externalities.

Results suggest that the platform's optimal pricing for consumers and sellers depends on the indirect network externalities. Interestingly, the higher the indirect network externalities from consumers, the higher the price of the platform charges to sellers, and the platform might even subsidize sellers. Besides, when there are equal proportions of different types of consumers in the market, indirect network externalities that are too high, too low, or heavily lopsided may discourage the platforms from bundling their memberships. When the composition of consumers changes, the optimal strategy will also change. Our results can be employed in practical applications of bundling, which can help the platform increase profits.

Considering the network externalities of online selling, this paper builds three different online direct selling models: manufacturer direct selling (MN model), network platform direct selling (NN model) and retailer direct selling (RN model). The optimal advertising and pricing decision and corporate profits under each selling model are investigated.

Combining the characteristics of online direct selling, this paper formulates direct selling models that are dominated by different companies as Stackelberg game models. Numerical analyses are carried out, along with the comparison of the equilibrium solutions for each model.

The authors' research shows that increasing network externalities is conducive to the development of enterprises. The network platform's profit is the lowest in the RN model and the highest in the NN one. The comparison of manufacturers' profits between the MN model and the NN model primarily depends on consumers' sensitivities for sales price and advertising promotion level. The manufacturer does not benefit from the RN model due to the lowest efficiency.

Coupled with three different online direct selling models and detailed analyses of the optimal solutions, this study has enriched the theoretical foundation of online direct selling. Moreover, this study extends the research of network externalities to the field of e-commerce, revealing the network externalities' influence on the decision-making of the e-supply chain.

By building and examining an integral model, the principal objectives of this research are to systematically explore how indirect and direct network externalities lead to user loyalty toward WeChat through the mediating effect of perceived gratifications.

The data were collected through an online survey of 688 young people in Mainland China. To empirically assess the conceptual model, zero-order correlation analyses and structural equation modeling were carried out utilizing web-based data.

Path analysis results demonstrate that indirect network externalities and direct network externalities exert a significant impact on users' hedonic gratifications and utilitarian gratifications. Moreover, the study discovers the significant mediating influences of utilitarian gratifications on the association between indirect network externalities and user loyalty.

Theoretically, this article may extend the scope of diverse studies on the association between network externalities and perceived gratifications and offer fresh insights into how mobile social media could actually improve user loyalty through enhancing perceived values among younger generation. Practically, this research assists mobile social media practitioners in retaining users and gaining competitive advantages over rival applications.

Although the extraordinary growth of WeChat has successfully become the dominant media by which individuals develop interpersonal network and contact with others, the roles of perceived gratifications between network externalities and user loyalty toward WeChat have not yet been investigated in depth. These obtained outcomes not only enrich the existing literature regarding the relationship between network externalities and affective response, but also offer fresh insights to mobile social media designers, marketers and users.

Given a product or service, the number of its installed user base has a significant positive effect on the existing users’ loyalty and new users’ conversion. This effect is conceptualized as network externalities in economics. Network externalities are supposed to be particularly striking in nowadays online business-to-business (B2B) platforms, but yet the mystery behind their effects on user loyalty to online B2B platforms remains to be delicately unraveled. The purpose of this paper is to discover the factors driving users’ loyalty, especially buyers’ loyalty, to online B2B platforms, by highlighting the impacts of network externalities on loyalty and other mediating factors.

A conceptual model of buyer loyalty under network externalities is elaborated. The reliability and validity of the instruments of the latent model constructs are assessed by confirmatory factor analysis, and the hypothesized causal relationships among the constructs are tested by structural equation modeling, on 710 valid buyer samples collected from a famous online B2B platform in China.

The analysis demonstrates that: perceived value, user satisfaction and switching costs are the major predictors of buyer loyalty to online B2B platforms characterized by network externalities; network externalities positively account for buyer loyalty by contributing to perceived value, user satisfaction and switching costs; and direct network externality (measured by perceived network size and perceived external prestige) has a significant effect on indirect network externality (measured by perceived compatibility and perceived complementarity).

The findings allow the authors to conclude meaningful managerial implications for online B2B service providers to build up loyal user bases through improving users’ perceptions of network externalities, switching costs and value.

This paper seeks to investigate and provide empirical evidence of the interrelationships among network externalities, e‐business adoption and information asymmetry.

A conceptual model was proposed and tested using 307 completed interview cases selected from a database of 2,075 Chinese international trading companies published by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce for this study.

The results indicated that network externalities significantly influenced e‐business adoption and information asymmetry, and e‐business adoption influenced information asymmetry through information sharing and collection. A split sample analysis showed that cultural contexts significantly moderated the interrelationships among network externalities, e‐business adoption, and information asymmetry.

Data for this study were collected only from mainland China, therefore, non‐Chinese companies (foreign‐owned) operating in China may have been influenced by Chinese cultures and some of them have been localizing their operations in China. The influences of network externalities on business performance and decision making remain unclear. In addition, data were collected from self‐reported questionnaires, and thus may be subject to self‐reporting bias. Future studies should use more objective measurements to reduce the potential for self‐reporting bias.

This study contributes significantly to the literature by providing empirical evidence on interrelationships among network externalities, e‐business adoption, and information asymmetry. The findings in this study also provide valuable insights for managers to better understand the influence of network externalities on e‐business adoption.

This study contributes significantly to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the interrelationships among network externalities, e‐business adoption, and information asymmetry. The findings also provide managers with valuable insight into better understanding of the nature of these interrelationships.

This paper aims to identify the effects of social learning and network externalities by conditioning on product quality and early sales momentum. This approach is demonstrated using film sales data.

This study used econometric modeling approach.

It was found that both social learning and network externalities have significant and comparable impacts on film choice. We show that the relative effects of network externalities and social learning in the film market are robust to different momentum and quality definitions and to alternative estimation methods.

Scholars have long argued that social learning plays a key role in new product diffusion. In some product categories, consumer choice may also be influenced by network externalities, meaning that purchasing popular products may provide the consumer utility above and beyond that derived from product usage directly. We propose a novel identification approach to help quantify the relative magnitude of these two effects on new product sales.

Considering the resource constraint, this paper aims to study how to make value-added service (VAS) investment strategy considering the negative intra-group network externality on the seller side from the perspective of a two-sided platform.

The authors use the dynamic game theory, optimization, sensitive analysis and numerical study in this research. The authors model their research question from the perspective of the dynamic game theory, and through optimizing the platform’s profit function, the equilibrium results in terms of VAS investing and pricing strategies are derived. To explore the characteristics of the optimal strategies, sensitive analysis is used, and numerical studies are conducted to further illustrate the analytical results.

It is found that the intra-group network externality is not necessarily the determinant for VAS investment strategy, and its overall negative impact can be overtaken by the investment in certain conditions. The optimal VAS investment level decreases in the negative intra-group network externality. Though the VAS investment is on the seller side, it has either positive or negative impact on the pricing for buyers. Moreover, for a stronger intra-group network externality among sellers, the two-sided prices could either increase or decrease.

The authors implicate how the intra-group network externality reduces the investment benefit and impacts the other side users. The limitation of considering the intra-group network externalities on only one side needs further extension.

The authors provide insights for platform operators in how to use recourse to improve users’ utility and how to price the two sides when competition exists on the seller side.

This study specifies the role of negative intra-group network externality in determining the investment and pricing strategy of a two-sided platform in addition to the positive inter-group network externality.

The paper aims to investigate the optimal service quality and pricing for a mobile application (App) service supply chain (SSC) and analyze the impact of network externality on App SSC members' utilities. After that, the corresponding management inspirations and suggestions are put forward.

The paper developed a SSC consisted of an App service supplier and an App service operator. Our models aim to maximize the SSC members' utilities. By utilizing the game theory, equilibrium solutions are obtained. Numerical examples are used to manifest the impact of parameters on decisions by Matlab. Some management enlightenment could be obtained by comparison analysis.

Cooperating with an App service operator that asks for a lower revenue sharing ratio will enable the App service supplier to have sufficient funds to provide high-quality update service. With the increase of network externality, adopting a high-quality service strategy can bring higher utility to the App service operator and users. Pouring attention into consumer welfare moderately will improve the App service supplier's utility. Scenario CRS can achieve a win–win goal for App SSC members and consumers.

The innovations of this paper are as follows: Firstly, the authors investigate the optimal service quality and pricing for the App SSC, which has been discussed little in previous literature. Secondly, the authors discuss how network externality and enterprises' attention to consumer welfare affect the optimal decisions and utilities of App service supply chain members. Thirdly, this paper considers four different circumstances and determines the optimal operation scenario for App SSC through comparative analysis.

This work aims to examine the quality disclosure strategy of sharing economy platforms with network externality, considering consumer risk aversion.

The game theory, sensitive analysis and numerical study are used herein. The equilibria are derived from the game theory. The quality disclosure strategy is analyzed by profit comparison. To further understand the characteristics of the optimal disclosure strategy, sensitive analysis and numerical studies are conducted to detail the analytical results.

Regardless of market structure, the quality disclosure decision problem is a trade-off between information effect and cost effect. Consumer risk aversion is a factor that can incentivize low-quality platforms to disclose quality. Both consumer risk aversion and network externality influence the quality disclosure strategy through information effect. Interestingly, for different competition intensities, consumer risk aversion and network externality could lead to positive or negative information effects of removing uncertainty. The authors show that under certain conditions, consumer risk aversion and network externality could induce more quality concealment.

The quality is set exogenous herein, and the integrated process of quality investment and information disclosure is an interesting direction for future research.

This work provides managerial insights for sharing economy platforms regarding how to wisely consider consumer risk aversion and network externality when sharing quality information.

This work identifies two effects that determine quality disclosure strategy and specifies the role of each factor on quality disclosure.

Promoting electric vehicles (EVs) is an effective way to achieve carbon neutrality. If EVs are widely adopted, this will undoubtedly be good for the environment. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of network externalities and subsidy on the strategies of manufacturer under a carbon neutrality constraint.

In this paper, the authors propose a game-theoretic framework in an EVs supply chain consisting of a government, a manufacturer and a group of consumers. The authors examine two subsidy options and explain the choice of optimal strategies for government and manufacturer.

First, the authors find that the both network externalities of charging stations and government subsidy can promote the EV market. Second, under a relaxed carbon neutrality constraint, even if the government’s purchase subsidy investment is larger than the carbon emission reduction technology subsidy investment, the purchase subsidy policy is still optimal. Third, under a strict carbon neutrality constraint, when the cost coefficient of carbon emission reduction and the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction technology are larger, social welfare will instead decrease with the increase of the effectiveness of emission reduction technology and then, the manufacturer’s investment in carbon emission reduction technology is lower. In the extended model, the authors find the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction technology can also promote the EV market and social welfare (or consumer surplus) is the same whatever the subsidy strategy.

The network externalities of charging stations and the subsidy effect of the government have a superimposition effect on the promotion of EVs. When the network effect of charging stations is relatively strong, government can withdraw from the subsidized market. When the network effect of charging stations is relatively weak, government can intervene appropriately.

Comparing previous studies, this study reveals the impact of government intervention, network effects and carbon neutrality constraints on the EV supply chain. From a sustainability perspective, these insights are compelling for both EV manufacturers and policymakers.