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How to improve the predictive accuracy of box office revenue with social media data is a big challenge and is particularly important for movie distributors and cinema operators. In this research, we find that microblogging UGC (MUGC) is a significant predictor of box office revenue and has stronger predictive power than UGC on Douban! Movies (DUGC) based on our examination of 60 movies released in China in 2012. To increase the attendance rate of movies, cinema operators can consider previous valence and volume of MUGC before scheduling the current film screenings because these messages can quickly predict the future box office revenue of a movie. Besides, we find that the volume of enterprise microblogs (i.e., MGC) can predict both box office revenue and MUGC, indicating that movie distributors should optimize their online media strategy by shifting more resources to utilizing enterprise microblogging. Although rebroadcasting volume from microblogging platforms does not predict box office revenue directly, it can indirectly predict it via MGC. Accordingly, compared with third-party platforms, rebroadcasting as one of the key distinct functions of microblogging platforms also shows its usefulness in box office revenue prediction. Overall, metrics from microblogging platforms are more effective in predicting box office revenue than those from third-party platforms. In this research, we build a prediction model of movie box office revenue by empirically exploring its intricate relationships with user-generated content (UGC) as well as marketer-generated content (MGC) on a microblogging platform and UGC on a third-party platform. Our analyses are based on a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model that is calibrated with a combination of data from Weibo (microblogging platform) and Douban! Movies (third party). Our empirical results show that microblogging UGC (MUGC) is a significant predictor of box office revenue and has stronger predictive power than UGC on Douban! Movies (DUGC). In addition, we find that the volume of enterprise microblogs (i.e., MGC) predicts box office revenue directly and also indirectly via MUGC, and MUGC thus exerts a partial mediating effect on the predictive relationship between the volume of enterprise microblogs and box office revenue. Finally, a prediction model of box office revenue using lagged box office revenue, MGC, MUGC, and DUGC is proposed, and its forecasting accuracy is found to outperform that of existing models. Managerial implications on utilizing social media for enterprises are provided. The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2018.0797 .

PurposeWith the rapid development of the sharing economy in manufacturing industries, manufacturers and the equipment suppliers frequently share capacity through the third-party platform. This paper aims to study influences of manufacturers sharing capacity on the supplier and to analyze whether the supplier shares capacity as well as its influences.Design/methodology/approachThis paper deals with conditions that the supplier and manufacturers share capacity through the third-party platform, and the third-party platform competes with the supplier in equipment sales. Considering the heterogeneity of the manufacturer's earning of unit capacity usage and the production efficiency of manufacturer's usage strategies, this paper constructs capacity sharing game models. Then, model equilibrium results under different sharing scenarios are compared.FindingsThe results show that when the production or maintenance cost is high, manufacturers sharing capacity simultaneously benefits the supplier, the third-party platform and manufacturers with high earnings of unit capacity usage. When both the rental efficiency and the production cost are low, or both the rental efficiency and the production cost are high, the supplier simultaneously sells equipment and shares capacity. The supplier only sells equipment in other cases. When both the rental efficiency and the production cost are low, the supplier’s sharing capacity realizes the win-win-win situation for the supplier, the third-party platform and manufacturers with moderate earnings of unit capacity usage.Originality/valueThis paper innovatively examines supplier's selling and sharing decisions considering manufacturers sharing capacity. It extends the research on capacity sharing and is important to supplier's operational decisions.

With the rapid development of information technology, third-party platforms have emerged and become the important channels to promote collaborations among manufacturing enterprises. Under this background, this paper focuses on a third-party platform whose multilateral users are manufacturers, suppliers, and logistics providers. There exist various cross-side network effects (i.e., CNEs) and same-side network effects (i.e., SNEs) among users (including manufacturers, suppliers, and logistics providers) at different development stages of the platform, which may affect the multi-value chain collaboration of users positively or negatively. By building a system dynamics model, this paper examines the interactions of the network effects and analyzes their impacts on the multi-value chain collaboration and platform’s revenues. Then, the key factors that affect the network effect interactions are explored. The results show that the network effect interactions are significant in the early development stage of the platform. The growth of the SNEs of suppliers and logistics providers has significant impacts on their own CNEs and profits. Interestingly, the increase of manufacturers’ SNEs can affect the CNEs of their own and suppliers simultaneously, which may decrease the profits of other participants but does not change their own profits. Affected by multiple network effects, the platform needs to implement a differentiated pricing strategy for its users. That is, the platform should charge suppliers and logistics providers access fee while giving manufacturers a certain subsidy. These findings can provide some valuable insights to the operation of the third-party platform.

With the development of information technology, increasing retailers cooperate with third-party payment platforms (3PPs) to provide mobile payment service for consumers. The entry of 3PPs into supply chains, not only changes the cash flow, but also decreases consumer price sensitivity and stimulates demand by facilitating credit consumptions. Moreover, information sharing becomes more feasible with the help of 3PPs. To study the impacts of 3PP entry, we build game-theoretic models in a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, a retailer and a 3PP, and derive the equilibrium in both the non-information sharing and information sharing cases. We show that the 3PP should make a reasonable commission rate which can lure the retailer to introduce the 3PP as well as maintain the 3PP’s profitability. The 3PP entry allows the retailer to set a higher price without decreasing the demand. However, to seize all of the benefit of the 3PP entry, the first mover manufacturer increases the wholesale price to a large extent. As a result, the 3PP entry causes a win-lose situation for the manufacturer and the retailer. The supply chain can be better off from the 3PP entry if it can significantly decrease consumer price sensitivity or its fixed investment cost is low. Furthermore, we find that information sharing benefits the manufacturer and the 3PP but harms the retailer. While information sharing always decreases the expected profit for the supply chain without the 3PP, it may increase that for the supply chain with the 3PP. To improve the supply chain profitability, we suggest to provide incentives for retailer information sharing if the 3PP can significantly decrease consumer price sensitivity (i.e., the proportion of the 3PP users is higher, the grace period of credit consumption is lower, or the cash opportunity cost is lower).

Consumer rebates provided by third-party rebate platforms (3RPs) are prevalent in retailing. In this study, we consider the retailer’s decision to introduce a 3RP and whether to share information with the manufacturer by considering the consumers’ sensitivity to rebates, the cost of redeeming rebates, and the proportion of redeeming rebates. We developed a game-theoretic model consisting of a manufacturer, a retailer, and a 3RP. Our main results are summarized as follows: (1) The 3RP should generate reasonable unit sale commission and rebates that can stimulate the retailer to introduce the 3RP and thus maintain the 3RP’s profitability, (2) The entry of the 3RP decreases the wholesale price and retail price but increases the consumers’ demand, (3) The 3RP causes a “win-lose” situation for the retailer and the manufacturer in the non-information sharing case. However, in the information sharing case, the 3RP benefits the manufacturer but harms the retailer, (4) The information sharing benefits the manufacturer but harms the retailer in the supply chain with and without the 3RP. Moreover, information sharing benefits the 3RP. Our analysis provides insights for firms on whether to introduce the 3RP and conditions when the retailer and the 3RP are willing to share information with the manufacturer.

This study investigates the quality information disclosure and blockchain technology adoption strategies of suppliers on a third-party e-commerce platform. Based on a Stackelberg game model, the impacts of blockchain technology adoption on the quality information disclosure decision and profit of the third-party e-commerce platform and suppliers are explored. The results indicate that whether blockchain adoption benefits suppliers depends on the unit blockchain cost and the reliability of quality information. Counterintuitively, higher information reliability may disadvantage suppliers under certain conditions. With the increase in unit blockchain cost, the incentive of suppliers to adopt blockchain is weakened, and suppliers need to adjust their strategies of quality information disclosure according to the adoption situation and the cost of blockchain. Adopting blockchain technology may be unfavorable to the suppliers but beneficial to the third-party e-commerce platform; the platform can incentivize suppliers to adopt blockchain and achieve a win-win situation. These findings provide some valuable managerial implications for the quality information disclosure decision of suppliers and blockchain adoption in the e-commerce platform supply chain.

Higher availability of alcohol is associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption and harm. Alcohol is increasingly accessible online, with rapid delivery often offered by a third-party driver. Remote delivery and online availability are important from a public health perspective, but to date, relatively little research has explored the availability of alcohol offered by online platforms. This cross-sectional exploratory study describes the availability of alcohol on the third-party platform Deliveroo within London, England. We extracted the number of outlets offering alcohol on Deliveroo for each London borough and converted these into crude rates per 1000 population (18-64 years). Outlets were grouped as outlets exclusively selling alcohol, off-licenses, and premium. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients to explore the association between borough's crude rate of outlets per 1000 population and average Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2019 scores. We extracted the number of outlets also selling tobacco or e-cigarettes and used non-Deliveroo drivers. We searched addresses of the top 20 outlets delivering to the most boroughs by outlet type (60 total) to determine their associated premise. We identified 4277 total Deliveroo-based outlets offering alcohol across London, including outlets delivering in multiple boroughs. The crude rate of outlets per 1000 population aged 18-64 years was 0.73 and ranged from 0.22 to 2.29 per borough. Most outlets exclusively sold alcohol (3086/4277, 72.2%), followed by off-licenses (770/4277, 18.0%) and premium (421/4277, 9.8%). The majority of outlets exclusively selling alcohol sold tobacco or e-cigarettes (2951/3086, 95.6%) as did off-licenses to a lesser extent (588/770, 76.4%). Most outlets exclusively offering alcohol used drivers not employed by Deliveroo (2887/3086, 93.6%), and the inverse was true for premium outlets (50/421, 11.9%) and off-licenses (73/770, 9.5%). There were 1049 unique outlets, of which 396 (37.8%) were exclusively offering alcohol-these outlets tended to deliver across multiple boroughs unlike off-licenses and premium outlets. Of outlets with confirmed addresses, self-storage units were listed as the associated premise for 85% (17/20) of outlets exclusively offering alcohol, 11% (2/19) of off-licenses, and 12% (2/17) of premium outlets. We found no significant relationship between borough IMD scores and crude rate of outlets per 1000 population overall (P=.87) or by any outlet type: exclusively alcohol (P=.41), off-license (P=.58), and premium (P=.18). London-based Deliveroo outlets offering alcohol are common and are sometimes operating from self-storage units that have policies prohibiting alcohol storage. This and the potential for increased alcohol accessibility online have implications for public health given the relationship between alcohol's availability and consumption or harm. There is a need to ensure that regulations for delivery are adequate for protecting children and vulnerable adults. The Licensing Act 2003 may require modernization in the digital age. Future research must explore a relationship between online alcohol availability and deprivation.

From 2011, the growth rate of China's car market has begun to gradually slow down. The competition in the market has become increasingly competitive and the industry is not limited to the entity, the marketing battle has spread the Internet. A practical significance for competitive advantage was that reasonable car online marketing strategies. In this paper, we analysis the connotation of a joint marketing and production of automotive background, thus put forward specific recommendations for the automotive enterprise networks and joint marketing strategy and management of third-party platform.

Service-oriented third-party e-commerce platforms have emerged as a new trend in the manufacturing industry. This paper aims to investigate the platforms’ value-added service (VAS) and charging strategies with a dynamic evolution analysis. Considering the change in the user numbers and characteristics of the e-commerce industry, this paper proposes a system dynamics model composed of multi-value chains and a third-party e-commerce platform. The simulation results indicate that the platform should reduce VAS investment and appropriately increase the VAS fee in the early development period. After the number of users stabilizes, the platform should appropriately increase its VAS investment and reduce the VAS fee. When the VAS fee is low, the platform profit first increases and then decreases as the VAS level increases. Differently, the platform profit will first decrease, then increase, and finally decrease as the VAS level improves when the VAS fee is low. This paper further finds that the strong cross-network effect of manufacturers is not always beneficial to the platform.

Introduction The rapid growth in the food delivery industry, driven by changing consumer habits and technology, has created job opportunities for gig riders, including food delivery riders. However, concerns about their working conditions, which impact their health, safety, and labour rights, have emerged. Objectives The main objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of pain, discomfort, and injuries among app-based food delivery riders in Tamil Nadu and identify its associated factors. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 425 app-based male food delivery riders among the four major cities in Tamil Nadu, namely; Chennai, Coimbatore, Villupuram, and Cuddalore. The data was collected from June to July 2023 using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire to assess physical pain, discomfort, and injuries. Results Among 425 food delivery riders chronic pain persisting over 12 months is prevalent among food delivery riders, notably affecting the lower back (49.18%), upper back (39.53%), neck (28.71%), and shoulders (26.12%). Short-term pain was reported by 56% of the respondents in the lower back in the last week. Substance use, dehydration, and work location are significantly associated with long- and short-term pains. The knees, Ankles and wrists are the most common body sites of injuries and skipping meals during duty hours is significantly associated with injuries. Conclusions Research in assessing the pain and injuries among food delivery riders is minimal. The present study, notably, extends the understanding of the health impact of full-time food delivery work by revealing a high prevalence of physical pain, particularly in the lower back.