Quantifying the Effects of Platform Coupons in Sharing Economy

摘要

Despite the growing literature on sharing economy,little attention has been paid to firms'marketing decisions in this new business setting.This paper contributes to the gap by studying the effectiveness of coupons offered by platforms in the sharing economy.Using a proprietary dataset from a food sharing platform in Asia,we examine the influence of platform coupons on users from both sides of the market.We find that platform coupons work as a double-edged sword for the business: while they help increase customers'spending per order by promoting mobility(i.e.encouraging customers to try unfamiliar and risky sellers/dishes),they also attract more price sensitive customers to the platform.In fact,the latter force dominates the former one such that sellers respond by charging lower prices for dishes and engaging in fewer dish innovations,which may have a negative impact on the platform in the long run.