How Different Types of Platforms Should Strategically Share Information With Manufacturers
Kai Liu and Haiyan Wang
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 29, Number 3, 2025, pp. 431-459.
Abstract:
This paper considers demand information sharing strategies for different types of platforms, where a platform offers two primary modes of transactional engagement: resale and commission. Therefore, three types of platforms exist: a pure resale platform, a pure commission platform, and a hybrid platform. We find that the resale-based platform has no incentive to share demand information with manufacturers, that the commission-based platform shares demand information with both manufacturers, and that the information sharing strategy of the hybrid-based platform is related to the accuracy of the demand signal. Specifically, when the accuracy of the demand signal is high the platform shares demand information only with the manufacturer in the commission channel, otherwise the platform shares demand information with both manufacturers. Interestingly, manufacturers prefer the platform to share demand information with both manufacturers. Furthermore, we propose two contractual mechanisms under the resale model and the hybrid model, respectively, to facilitate the sharing of demand information from the platform to both manufacturers as a way to obtain a win-win-win situation in the supply chain.