Societal Impact of IS

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Paper Type

Complete

Paper Number

1846

Description

Online digital platforms have fundamentally transformed many economic activities that were traditionally managed offline. As "platformization" becomes more commonplace, highly institutionalized contexts are moving online, raising questions about whether the institutional norms prevalent in the offline setting will transfer to online context seamlessly. In this paper, we study the transition of one such heavily institutionalized context - arranged marriages in India. Using data provided by a leading online matrimonial platform, we investigate if the traditional markers - involvement of parents in the search process, social norms related to endogamy, and norms associated with gender, remain influential. We observe that norms on the online platform appear to be guided by a more liberal ethos, with implications for the platform and users. Our work thus extends the platforms literature in evaluating contexts where highly institutional settings move online, showing that such movements are associated with significant changes in social and institutional norms.

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Dec 14th, 12:00 AM

Status (dis)Advantage: Stakeholder Diversity and Deviation in Group Norms in Online Matrimonial Platforms

Online digital platforms have fundamentally transformed many economic activities that were traditionally managed offline. As "platformization" becomes more commonplace, highly institutionalized contexts are moving online, raising questions about whether the institutional norms prevalent in the offline setting will transfer to online context seamlessly. In this paper, we study the transition of one such heavily institutionalized context - arranged marriages in India. Using data provided by a leading online matrimonial platform, we investigate if the traditional markers - involvement of parents in the search process, social norms related to endogamy, and norms associated with gender, remain influential. We observe that norms on the online platform appear to be guided by a more liberal ethos, with implications for the platform and users. Our work thus extends the platforms literature in evaluating contexts where highly institutional settings move online, showing that such movements are associated with significant changes in social and institutional norms.

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