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Alternative digital platforms: comparative analysis through the lens of Corporate Aikido
No full textAbstract
Competing with dominant players in the digital platform (DP) economy is an increasingly complex and expensive endeavor for alternative digital platform (ADP) providers trying to disrupt established platform ecosystems. Nevertheless, ADPs position themselves deliberately in the competitive space of large competitors, targeting customer groups whose values and mindsets differ from mainstream DPs. Although there are many examples to find in practice, the variety of ADPs across different DP ecosystems and industries, especially in regards of strategic objectives, directions and characteristics, has not been researched in-depth yet. Based on a systematic, practice-based artifact review, this paper analyses and compares 105 ADPs in the competitive space of dominant DP ecosystem players. The study utilizes the theory of Corporate Aikido as an analytical framework, mapping the strategic elements of overthrowing established value propositions and turning a competitors’ strengths into weaknesses. Our findings indicate that privacy- and security-awareness, empowerment and inclusivity, premium quality and curation, open source and free access, uncensored, transparent and decentralized platforms as well as ecological and climate-friendly offers shape the landscape of alternative approaches in today’s DP economy. The results are subsequently discussed, yielding managerial implications and future opportunities for DP research
Beyond choice architecture: toward understanding the role of the decoy effect in sustainable tourism recommender systems
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The increasing strain of overtourism on popular destinations calls for data-driven strategies that can subtly influence tourist behavior without limiting freedom of choice. This study investigates the use of digital nudges, particularly the decoy effect, within recommender systems to guide visitor flows spatially or temporally. Through a series of focus group-based experiments, this study examines how introducing asymmetrically dominated options can alter destination preferences. The results suggest that spatial steering benefits more consistently from decoy-based interventions than temporal steering. Furthermore, the findings reveal that while nudging has a measurable impact, individual factors and personal preferences play a substantial role in shaping decisions. The study underscores the value of behaviorally informed recommender systems as tools for promoting sustainable tourism by facilitating more balanced visitor flows. It concludes with a call for further development of adaptive, user-aware digital strategies to address the multifaceted nature of tourist decision-making
The Effects of Privacy Policy Presentation and Length on Trust in Recommender Systems: An Online Experiment
No full textRecommender systems play a crucial role in e-commerce by simplifying consumer searches, improving decision making, and increasing user satisfaction, ultimately boosting e-vendors’ revenues. Their effectiveness depends on the trust of the users and the availability of data to generate accurate recommendations. Using an online experiment, we examined the effect of privacy policies and the amount of requested information on trust in recommender systems and willingness to share data. The results showed that a long privacy policy reduced trust compared to a short or absent policy. The presentation of a privacy policy and the request for more data decreased participants’ willingness to share data with the system, but a long policy did not further decrease the sharing beyond the effect of a short policy. To maintain trust and encourage data sharing, e-vendors may benefit from offering privacy policies upon request, keeping them concise, and minimizing data requests
The Folk Ethics of Commodification: An Empirical Investigation into Moral Attitudes Against Market Transactions
No full textAbstract
Commodification is the process of transforming goods or services traditionally transferred without charge into commercially exchangeable commodities. Critics argue that this transformation often entails the loss of inherent value, rendering the resulting transactions morally problematic. In contrast, proponents of commodification contend that if it is morally acceptable to give something away for free, it should likewise be permissible to transfer it in exchange for money. Despite the extensive academic debate surrounding the moral implications of commodification, there remains a significant lack of empirical research on how laypeople perceive and evaluate this phenomenon. Given that policies supporting or opposing commodification are frequently influenced by public attitudes, addressing this gap is of critical importance. To this end, we conducted four online experiments to systematically examine the folk ethics of commodification. Our findings indicate a pronounced anti-commodification attitude across a range of specific contexts, an attitude that remains robust to several variations. Anti-commodification attitudes in specific contexts, however, erode when people are first asked to reflect on the general legitimacy of commodification. In contrast, their approval of this general legitimacy is weakened when they are first asked to evaluate specific cases. These latter results should sensitize educators that a case-based approach to the moral limits of markets might induce different normative conclusions than a principled approach
The Economics of an Import Tariff in the Keynesian Model: An Intermediate Macroeconomics Treatment
No full textThe standard textbook treatment of expansionary fiscal policy at intermediate macroeconomics level, e.g., Blanchard (2024), Burda and Wyplosz (2023), only consider taxes affecting the economy through the consumption function, by increasing the level of disposable income. Motivated by recent events - the import tariffs introduced in the US by Trump administration - in this paper we introduce such tariffs to explore how they work in the Keynesian cross framework. As expected, an increase in import tariffs stimulates aggregate demand, which is the ”import substitution effect” from the trade literature. There is also a multiplier effect, which we refer to the ”import tariff multiplier effect.” This possible stimulus effect on the domestic (US) economy from an increase in the import tariff rate is of interest to policy-makers, and in developing countries with a public finance model organized around trade taxation, or countries that follow an export-led growth model by discouraging import
Menschengerechte Gestaltung in Zeiten der Digitalisierung – Vorwort zum Themenheft und Einordnung der Beiträge
Full text linkConditional gradients for total variation regularization with PDE constraints: a graph cuts approach
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Total variation regularization has proven to be a valuable tool in the context of optimal control of differential equations. This is particularly attributed to the observation that TV-penalties often favor piecewise constant minimizers with well-behaved jumpsets. On the downside, their intricate properties significantly complicate every aspect of their analysis, from the derivation of first-order optimality conditions to their discrete approximation and the choice of a suitable solution algorithm. In this paper, we investigate a general class of minimization problems with TV-regularization, comprising both continuous and discretized control spaces, from a convex geometry perspective. This leads to a variety of novel theoretical insights on minimization problems with total variation regularization as well as tools for their practical realization. First, by studying the extremal points of the respective total variation unit balls, we enable their efficient solution by geometry exploiting algorithms, e.g. fully-corrective generalized conditional gradient methods. We give a detailed account on the practical realization of such a method for piecewise constant finite element approximations of the control on triangulations of the spatial domain. Second, in the same setting and for suitable sequences of uniformly refined meshes, it is shown that minimizers to discretized PDE-constrained optimal control problems approximate solutions to a continuous limit problem involving an anisotropic total variation reflecting the fine-scale geometry of the mesh
From sharing to profiting: Exploring the interplay between value creation and strategic appropriation in data ecosystems
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This study explores the interdependency between collaborative value creation and value appropriation within data ecosystems, focusing on how organizations can effectively share and utilize data for mutual benefits. It examines the factors that influence the capacity to create value from shared data and the strategies for appropriating value from such data sharing. Through qualitative analysis of a healthcare data ecosystem, the research identifies key determinants of value creation capacity and outlines four central elements of value appropriation strategies (VAS): selective partnering, data tailoring, benefit safeguarding, and control enforcement. The findings reveal how shared data’s latent potential interacts with an actor’s potential to foster value creation capacity, while also highlighting the interdependencies between these concepts and VAS. This study contributes to understanding the conditions that facilitate mutual benefits in data ecosystems and the mechanisms that ensure organizations can appropriate a fair share of the value creation they contribute to.M10;O3
Nudging within political liberalism: A Two-Way justification for liberal democracies
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Over the years, the justification for nudging has been challenged on many levels, one of which regards ethical concerns. If nudges instrumentally exploit human biases, it might seem impossible to justify their implementation in liberal democracies. However, instead of disagreeing on nudging, some disagree on its moral premises. First, within the normative framework of political liberalism, the possibility of exploiting biases is conceivable based on the assumptions of compatibilism and Kantian constructivism: nudging would not infringe upon autonomy more than everyday external influences and a nudge can be overwritten by practical reason. Second, a two-way justification for exploiting biases at the public level in liberal democracies is proposed. Focusing on liberalism and the principle of avoiding harm to others, nudging could be a complementary intervention to coercive laws that are already justified from a public perspective to improve their efficiency. Focusing on democratic aspects and the majority’s will, nudging could be a per se type of intervention to reduce the gap between intentions and actions. These two strategies have never been presented as part of a unified view before, and this eschews the criticisms of violating people’s autonomy, technocratic turns, and slippery slopes, without requiring token transparency. Future research from various disciplines could benefit from this new categorization
Structuring Private Sustainability Governance: Combining Rule-Based and Goal-Based Mechanisms
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This study investigates the structuring of private sustainability governance as a critical mechanism for facilitating sustainability transitions. Drawing on 33 semi-structured interviews with manufacturing firms, regulatory bodies, policy associations, auditing firms, and management consultancies, the study examines how firms navigate increasing external governance pressures, including regulatory ambiguity, compliance demands, market expectations, and stakeholder accountability, while simultaneously managing internal governance through organizational restructuring, sustainable performance measurement, data management, human resources, and incentive structures. The findings highlight the importance of integrating rule-based and goal-based private sustainability governance through two key mechanisms: shaping external governance by aligning with and influencing regulatory standards, and adapting internal governance to embed sustainability into core business operations. This study develops a hybrid governance framework that demonstrates how firms leverage both mechanisms in parallel, revealing the tensions inherent in balancing regulatory compliance with strategic sustainability ambitions. We make a further contribution by underscoring the role of ethical change management in fostering transparency, accountability, and proactive sustainability commitments. By examining governance structures in combination with ethical considerations, the study advances the discourse on private sustainability governance, offering both theoretical insights and practical implications for firms navigating the transition toward sustainable systems