 Chinese third-party shipping internet platforms: Thriving and surviving in a two-sided market (2013–2016)Yang Chen, Qiang Zhang, Shun Chen and Zheng Wan Transport Policy, 2019, vol. 82, issue C, 117-126 Abstract: How can cargo owners be persuaded to switch their traditional offline business practices to a third-party online shipping platform? To address this question, we selected 10 representative third-party shipping Internet platforms in China and analyzed them based on grounded theory. In-depth interviews that lasted an average of 2.5 h were conducted with each company. After applying open coding and axial coding to interview transcripts that included more than 110,000 words (in Chinese), we propose three industrial characteristics that may hinder the development of Chinese third-party shipping Internet platforms. The two most popular initiating strategies adopted to address these issues are "disintermediation" and "service upgrading.” Our theoretical framework suggests that each initiating strategy should include three interconnected issues that can ensure a platform's success: value proposition, entry mode and competitive advantage. The final sections of our study describe our contributions to theoretical development and implications for practitioners. Keywords: Internet platform; Two-sided market; Initiating strategy; Grounded theory (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:117-126 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.10.003 Access Statistics for this article Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier |
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