We investigate the way service providers who operate on an online peer-to-peer (P2P) platform readapted their marketing choices to face the Covid-19 pandemic. Through an empirical investigation on a large dataset of Airbnb properties in Rome, observed from January 2018 to December 2020, we provide a threefold contribution by investigating how Airbnb hosts reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic shock, in terms of marketing choices, such as price adjustments and flexible cancellation policies; the direct effects of these choices on their economic returns; and how service providers on Airbnb reacted to address the new needs of their customers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings provide useful insights for researchers and practitioners and show that the adoption of combined marketing choices led to more than proportional effects on performances as it allowed Airbnb hosts to exploit profitable market segmentation mechanisms.

This article describes how in their search for value creation, companies are investing considerable resources in so-called “Big Data” initiatives. A peculiar aspect of these initiatives is the increasing availability of real-time streams of data. Successfully leveraging these streams to extract value is emerging as a critical competence for the modern firm. Despite the significant attention received, scholarly research on Digital Data Stream (DDS) remains insufficient. More importantly, there are no specialized definitions and measurement instruments that can move the field forward by initiating a cumulative research tradition. This article can provide clarification on key definitions, differentiating DDS from Big Data. Drawing on the organizational readiness concept, the DDS readiness index develops as a measure of organizational readiness to exploit real-time digital data. This article will conceptualize, define, operationalize and validate the index. By identifying the four dimensions of mindset, skillset, dataset and toolset as the elements of the DDS readiness index and discussing its managerial and research implications