Paper ID
2120
Paper Type
short
Description
Digital platforms that facilitate interactions among users underpin the business models of some of the world’s most successful ventures. What makes digital platform business models so successful is their potential for network effects. Existing research on digital platforms and network effects has largely focused on how platform operators can attract users to generate network effects and implicitly assumed that these users will remain active once attracted. However, as practice shows, it is not only important to attract users to benefit from network effects but also to manage and sustain their ongoing activity. Drawing on literature from behavioral economics, information systems, and management, we develop an integrative framework of four types of digital nudges—user-interface design elements that purposefully guide user behavior towards specific choices. Researchers can use the framework to analyze, explain, and predict and practitioners to understand, design, and orchestrate user activity and network effects on digital platforms.
Recommended Citation
von Briel, Frederik and Davidsson, Per, "Digital Platforms and Network Effects: Using Digital Nudges for Growth Hacking" (2019). ICIS 2019 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2019/innov_entre/innov_entre/8
Digital Platforms and Network Effects: Using Digital Nudges for Growth Hacking
Digital platforms that facilitate interactions among users underpin the business models of some of the world’s most successful ventures. What makes digital platform business models so successful is their potential for network effects. Existing research on digital platforms and network effects has largely focused on how platform operators can attract users to generate network effects and implicitly assumed that these users will remain active once attracted. However, as practice shows, it is not only important to attract users to benefit from network effects but also to manage and sustain their ongoing activity. Drawing on literature from behavioral economics, information systems, and management, we develop an integrative framework of four types of digital nudges—user-interface design elements that purposefully guide user behavior towards specific choices. Researchers can use the framework to analyze, explain, and predict and practitioners to understand, design, and orchestrate user activity and network effects on digital platforms.