Theme of Workshop：Digital Economics and Digital Platform
Session Chair：Youwei Wang, Professor, Fudan University
♦ SPEECH1：Can Offline Friends Tigger Affective Commitment? The Impact of Network Overlap on User Engagement on Social Media Platforms
Nan Zhang
Professor
Harbin Institute of Technology
Nan Zhang is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and department head of the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology. He holds a PhD in Information Systems from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; a Master of Electronic Communications from University College London, and a Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology from Dalian University of Technology. He is mainly engaged in research on information systems and information privacy and security in social media contexts. His research results have been published in top international journals such as MISQ and other journals. He has been invited to serve as an editorial board member and reviewer for more than ten domestic and international mainstream academic journals such as MISQ, ISR, JAIS, I&M, and conferences such as ICIS and PACIS. He is a member of the Chinese Society of Management Science and Engineering, the Chinese Society of Information Economics, and CNAIS. His research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has also participated in many major and key national research projects.
Abstract: A widely pursued platform strategy to improve the retention and engagement of users is to encourage users to connect with existing social contacts, especially their offline contacts, on the focal online plat-form. Ubiquitous implementation of this strategy results in a substantial overlap of networks on social media platforms. Practitioners treat online connections to offline friends as an effective way to induce psychological commitment, as it leads to deeper and longer user engagement. However, the psychological mechanism triggered by network overlap has received little attention. In this paper, the impact of network overlap on users’ affective commitment and engagement is examined. Drawing on social identity theory, the effect of network overlap on affective commitment is proposed to be partially mediated by network blurring. An empirical study of TikTok users confirms this partial mediation effect. After con-trolling for network blurring, the direct impact of network overlap on affective commitment is negative, highlighting its critical role in determining the cumulative impact of network overlap on user engagement. This study also shows that user commitment has distinctive impacts on different engagement behaviors on social media platforms.
♦ SPEECH2：Untangling the performance impact of e-marketplace sellers’ deployment of platform-based functions: A configurational perspective
Youwei Wang
Professor
Fudan University
Youwei Wang is a professor and doctoral supervisor of School of Management, Fudan University. He holds the PhD in System Engineering from the Northeastern University, China. He was a visiting professor of McMaster University (Canada), University of Western Ontario (Canada), and University of Washington in Seattle. His research areas include empirical studies in fields such as platform e-commerce, big data, and artificial intelligence. He has published 7 papers in UT Dallas 24 academic journals such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Marketing Science, and Production and Operations Management, and authored three textbooks and monographs. He led five projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including general and youth projects, and one sub-project of a major project. He was selected for the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program and the Ministry of Education’s New Century Excellent Talents Program. He received the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award, the China Information Economics Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Fudan University School of Management Distinguished Professor Contribution Award. He serves as the senior editor of the academic journal Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Secretary-General of the Information Systems and Digital Innovation Division of the Chinese Society of Management Science and Engineering, and Chairman of the Platform Management Committee of the China Information Economics Society.
Abstract：Previous studies have shown great interest in examining the performance impact of platform-based functions (PBFs) used by e-marketplace sellers and the contingent role of salient variables, such as seller reputation, in the e-marketplace. Their findings, however, are fragmented and inconsistent, as they generally focus on the net, separate effect of a single PBF with debatable findings. The theorization of how sellers should configure multiple types of PBFs as a whole to achieve high sales performance lags far behind the booming competition practice. To identify an effective PBF combination, this study takes a configurational perspective to identify appropriate PBF configurations that can achieve high sales performance for sellers with different product positions and reputations. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of a longitudinal data set of over 3,300 apparel sellers in a large e-marketplace yields interesting findings. The configuration results reveal recipes for PBF combinations for achieving high sales performance that vary across different levels of seller reputation and product positioning strategies. Our configuration findings suggest that sellers should configure PBFs according to distinctive product strategies accompanied by seller reputation conditions, where the resulting PBF configurations play an essential and multifaceted role in achieving high sales performances. Interestingly, our configuration analysis uncovers that for reputable sellers offering high-priced products, the utilization of pricing and marketing functions is counterproductive. Additionally, we observe complex interplays between after-sales functions and online reputation, characterized by complementary, substitutive, and independent relationships. Furthermore, our results demonstrate an asymmetry relationship between high and low sales configurations. It contributes to the emergent investigation of causal complexity in competitive strategy studies of e-marketplace sellers and provides specific causal recipes and holistic guidelines for sellers and platform operators.
♦ SPEECH3：Channel conflicts, coordination and resilience in cross-border e-commerce
Baozhuang Niu
Professor
South China University of Technology
Prof. Baozhuang Niu obtained his PhD degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include global supply chain management and channel co-opetition. He is selected as the “NSFC Distinguished Young Scholar” and“Cheung Kong Scholar” by the Ministry of Education, China. Three of his papers are highlighted by POM as the “TOP Cited Paper”or”TOP Downloaded Paper”. His works have appeared at journals such as MSOM, POM, TRB, EJOR, Risk Analysis et al. He serves as POMS Journal’s Senior Editor, and the Best Paper Competition Committee Chair.
Abstract：Profits are becoming more and more “convenience-driven” in the digital economy era, so cross-border e-commerce has continued to thrive rapidly in recent years, despite facing multiple shocks. To address the channel conflicts and coordination challenges between cross-border e-commerce and traditional global trade, this presentation takes the resilience management perspective to seek the Pareto improvement interval and boundary conditions for cross-border e-commerce firms to jointly optimize economic returns and resilience performance. Through four studies we examine the effectiveness of four typical coordination methods: 1. Physical inventory and procurement transshipment methods; 2. Financial payment coordination methods; 3. AI-driven promotion methods; 4. Intelligent logistics coordination methods.