Entrepreneurial Transition on a Digital Platform: Relationships and Consumption

41 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2020

See all articles by Morten Holm Jacobsen Fenger

Morten Holm Jacobsen Fenger

Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences

Lars Frederiksen

Aarhus University, Department of Management; Aarhus University, Department of Management

Hans Juhl

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Joachim Scholderer

Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Date Written: May 28, 2019

Abstract

Third-party complementors as entrepreneurs boost digital platforms. We explore how platform organizations may identify which individuals on platforms that are likely to transition from product users into user entrepreneurs. We theorize and demonstrate that social influence explains transition into entrepreneurship, while we observe no significant effects from information access or social network status. Specifically, we find that both network exposure to other entrepreneurs and the content of social relationship connections, namely encouragement from other platform participants, propel transitions towards user entrepreneurship. Second, we show that consumption volumen of digital platform products is a novel demand-side explanation for entrepreneurial transition into supply-side activities. Our study is based on automatically recorded online behavioral data in a setting that facilitates new insights into entrepreneurial transition in digital platform organizations.

Keywords: Platform organization, app markets, user entrepreneurship, social influence, consumption

Suggested Citation

Fenger, Morten Holm Jacobsen and Frederiksen, Lars and Juhl, Hans and Scholderer, Joachim, Entrepreneurial Transition on a Digital Platform: Relationships and Consumption (May 28, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3503359 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3503359

Morten Holm Jacobsen Fenger (Contact Author)

Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences ( email )

Nordre Ringgade 1
DK-8000 Aarhus C, 8000
Denmark

Lars Frederiksen

Aarhus University, Department of Management ( email )

Fuglesangs Alle 4
Aarhus V, 8210
Denmark

Aarhus University, Department of Management ( email )

Fuglesangs Alle 4
Aarhus V, 8210
Denmark

Hans Juhl

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Joachim Scholderer

Norwegian University of Life Sciences ( email )

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