We review the economics of superstars, originally developed for stars in traditional media, and discuss whether they are applicable for the (allegedly) novel phenomenon of stars in social media (influencer, micro-celebrities). Moreover, we analyse potentially new factors for creating social...

Platforms have emerged as a new kind of regulatory object over a short period of time. There is accelerating global regulatory competition to conceptualise and govern online platforms in response to social, economic and political discontent – articulated in terms such as ‘fake news’,...

This article analyzes the role that crowdfunding plays for artists who create small-scale projects. We find that artists struggle to reach new audiences and, thus, mainly use this funding tool to transform monetary gifts into reputation for their careers. Crowdfunding platforms are believed to...

For a few years crowdfunding has been successfully employed to finance independent artists. Usually artists ask for donations to finance release of an album or a tour. This paper concentrates on different use of crowdfunding: the idea that whole crowdfunding platform could operate as an...

The digitization of content has led to the emergence of platforms that draw information from multiple sources. Policymakers are concerned that these new platforms threaten incentives for the production of original content. As a result, policymakers are contemplating regulations that would force...

This paper measures the impact of vertically integrated and exclusive software on industry structure and welfare in the sixth-generation of the U.S. videogame industry (2000-2005). I specify and estimate a dynamic model of both consumer demand for hardware and software products, and software...

Strategic behaviour in digital markets is difficult to interpret as these industries compete via alternative business models, rather than competing via an accepted business format. Digital market strategies are also more sophisticated and dynamic along product positioning and pricing, alliance,...

Digital platforms and firms in the sharing economy routinely invest in service- quality improvements and still grapple with service quality inconsistency. The impact of service inconsistency on platform members’ rating behavior remains un-examined. I use unique data from an online medicine...

In light of recent trends in social networking services that encourage users of platforms to “share,” “recommend,” and “do activities” with others, this work analyzes platform competition in two-sided markets that exhibit direct (or within-) network effect in addition to conventional...

Platforms routinely deploy information notifications that influence consumer behavior. As an information design strategy, either the firm can be transparent and convey the true value of the notification to the user or the firm can obfuscate the notifications (especially for low value news item)....