文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Modeling the Pricing Strategy of Platform Regarding Customers' Outside Options

作者：Kong, Lingcheng[1];Wang, Ao[1];Liu, Shuang[1]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Res Inst Digital Econ, Sch Business, Dept Econ, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China

年份：2025

卷号：13

起止页码：209072

外文期刊名：IEEE ACCESS

收录：;EI(收录号：20255119720196);WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:001641531500022)】；

基金：This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 72073044, in part by the Key Project of National Funds of Social Science of China under Grant 20AJY008, and in part by the Major Project of National Funds of Social Science of China under Grant 20&ZD060 and Grant 24ZDA026.

语种：英文

外文关键词：Costs; Pricing; Numerical models; Analytical models; Social sciences; Shape; Investment; Switches; Software; Numerical simulation; Outside option; partial coverage; platform competition; platform compatibility

摘要：We introduce a novel platform framework in which consumers have an outside option, resulting in an uncovered market on the consumer side, while the seller side operates as a covered market. Consumers compare platforms with the external alternative and opt for single-homing; similarly, sellers also choose to operate on only one platform, shaping a competitive two-sided market environment. This paper considers three distinct scenarios-(i) platform incompatibility, (ii) full platform compatibility, and (iii) partial platform compatibility, respectively-with single-homing choice for both sides in these scenarios. Both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation reveal that the level of two-sided user pricing, platform profits and consumer surplus in the fully incompatible scenario (i) are all lower than in the fully compatible scenario (ii), whereas producer surplus is higher. We further test the robustness of this conclusion under the scenario (iii) and the results remain consistent across varying degrees of compatibility. As extensions, this paper also examines the impacts of misfit costs on platform profit and social surplus. The paper highlights two key features of platform research: the flexibility of customers to choose the competitive platforms or other opportunities (i.e., 'outside options'); and the optimal pricing strategy of platforms and compatibility incentives considering the users participation.