When choice matters: Assortment and participation for performance on digital platforms

Abstract

Digital platforms are conveniently connecting multiple service providers with their consumers. How does assortment and participation influence the performance of service providers on digital platforms? In particular, food delivery platforms are providing consumers with a high level of home delivery convenience. Food delivery platforms are also unique as they provide a hybrid set of services to their consumers (both home delivery convenience and enable restaurant dining experience). The population of 95,735 restaurants on a pan India food discovery and delivery platform, serving a total of 135 different cuisines, located in 37 cities of India serves as our dataset. Ours is the first study to integrate induction and abduction to examine performance of service providers (restaurants) operating on a digital platform in a hybrid mode (providing both home delivery convenience and enabling restaurant dining experience). We find assortment matters and derive strong business implications for service science.