This study explores the impact of demand-side usage of digital platforms on operational decision-making by supply-side firms. The positive impact of digital platforms on product sales is established in the literature. However, this study focuses on the perspective of supply-side firms, examining the effect of increasing reliance on digital platforms on supply-side firms’ decisions. The study shows that greater demand-side usage of online-to-offline (O2O) digital platforms is associated with more efficient operational decisions of supply-side firms. Benefits of leveraging O2O platforms include information transparency and resource pooling. The study further examines the extent to which benefits from participating in O2O digital platforms are affected by inter-firm relationships in which a supply-side firm is embedded. The study uses a panel data model to test hypotheses with data on China's movie theaters that join O2O platforms. It found that movie theaters with greater demand-side usage of O2O digital platforms see better resource utilization and product concentration. Furthermore, it shows that more vertically integrated firms can better reap the benefits from demand-side usage of digital platforms. In contrast, more horizontally integrated firms can less strategically leverage the benefits from demand-side usage of O2O platforms.

Abstract We unpack the complexities of the crowdfunder community by identifying different archetypes of crowdfunders funding technology projects on Kickstarter.com. Drawing on the extant literature on innovation adoption and opinion leadership, we propose two dimensions of crowdfunders that capture the heterogeneity in crowdfundersʼ behavior: opinion leadership and interest specialization of crowdfunders. Using a set of variables representing these two dimensions, our analysis revealed five distinct archetypes of crowdfunders: the Vocal Actives, the Silent Actives, the Focused Enthusiasts, the Trend Followers, and the Star Seekers, who each adopted distinct crowdfunding strategies. We established external and criterion‐related validity of the cluster solutions in multiple ways. Our results suggest that the composition of crowdfunders is complex, even within a single platform.

We examine how opinion distributions (i.e., opinion polarization and convergence over time) differ across product salient platforms (product platforms) versus product non‐salient platforms (non‐product platforms). Drawing on the theory of impression management, we hypothesize and explain when and why consumers choose to post their comments on different platforms, and how their behavior will be affected when they choose to post on online platforms. To test the hypotheses, we collected and text‐mined online posts from product platforms such as review aggregator sites, discussion forums, and consumer rating websites, and non‐product platforms such as microblogs. The results showed that product platforms have more polarized opinions, and exhibit more convergence in opinion across time, compared with non‐product platforms. Our findings advise researchers and practitioners to pay attention to the characteristics of online platforms, and how users' perceptions of the purpose of the online platform may affect their online posting behavior.