Abstract
How do hosts of digital markets exercise control over sellers? Our three-case study, set in India, reveals that seller control portfolios used by large digital market hosts differ from control portfolios in other contexts (reported in prior research). The platform host neither preselects nor hires most sellers; this limits hosts’ control options. The platform supports many short-duration transactions, yet some related processes take place offline – again limiting hosts’ control options. In this context of many-sellers, many-buyers, digital market hosts (similar to other controllers) attempt to balance formal and informal controls. By identifying specific control mechanisms that hosts utilize, our study findings provide a useful foundation to support further research on control challenges in digital markets and other digital platforms.
Recommended Citation
Danani, Shraddha and Gogan, Janis L., "How Digital Market Hosts Control Sellers" (2021). BLED 2021 Proceedings. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/bled2021/3