Digital Platforms for the Common Good: Social Innovation for Active Citizenship and ESG

Responsible users and platform competition: A computational model

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important topic in business, especially in the context of digital platforms where consumers and policymakers care about the social responsibility of platforms. This paper introduces the concept of responsible users, defined as users who make decisions considering their CSR preferences in platform settings. However, how responsible users may affect platform strategic behavior and competition is unclear. Therefore, we propose a computational model of platform price competition that considers the presence of responsible users. We find that CSR preferences have pro-competitive effects that reduce prices and profits in equilibrium. However, this effect depends on how large CSR preferences can be. We also explore several market asymmetries and clarify their implication for platform price structures and profits. Furthermore, we find that it only matters that users express their CSR preferences, regardless of how those preferences are generated. By integrating the responsible user concept into platform competition, our work contributes to both platform competition and CSR literature. We discuss practical implications for platform users and managers and future research opportunities.

A Sustainable Model for Healthcare Systems: The Innovative Approach of ESG and Digital Transformation

In recent years, the globe has faced a series of topics of growing concern, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the international financial crisis, rising socio-economic inequalities, the negative outcomes of greenhouse gas emissions, which resulted in climate change, and many others. Organizations worldwide have confronted these new challenges of sustainable finance by incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors and digital transformation (DT) in their innovation business strategies. The healthcare sector represents a large share of the global economy (about 10% of global economic output), employs a large number of workers, and needs to rely more on an open innovation model where interested parties, especially patients, are going to have a say in their own well-being. Thus, it is imperative that healthcare providers be efficient, effective, resilient, and sustainable in the face of significant challenges and risks. At the same time, they must offer sustainable development goals and digital transformation to healthcare users through limited governmental resources. This study investigates the role, importance, and correlation of ESG factors and digital transformation to the sustainable finance of healthcare systems through an innovative model. The main purpose of the paper is to present the already implemented ESG and DT factors in the healthcare sector and to propose a mutual and combined implementation strategy based on common evaluation tools, methods, and actions. A set of proposed actions and strategies are presented for the sustainability and resilience of the healthcare sector.

Using network analysis to identify leverage points based on causal loop diagrams leads to false inference

Network analysis is gaining momentum as an accepted practice to identify which factors in causal loop diagrams (CLDs)-mental models that graphically represent causal relationships between a system's factors-are most likely to shift system-level behaviour, known as leverage points. This application of network analysis, employed to quantitatively identify leverage points without having to use computational modelling approaches that translate CLDs into sets of mathematical equations, has however not been duly reflected upon. We evaluate whether using commonly applied network analysis metrics to identify leverage points is justified, focusing on betweenness- and closeness centrality. First, we assess whether the metrics identify the same leverage points based on CLDs that represent the same system but differ in inferred causal structure-finding that they provide unreliable results. Second, we consider conflicts between assumptions underlying the metrics and CLDs. We recognise six conflicts suggesting that the metrics are not equipped to take key information captured in CLDs into account. In conclusion, using betweenness- and closeness centrality to identify leverage points based on CLDs is at best premature and at worst incorrect-possibly causing erroneous identification of leverage points. This is problematic as, in current practice, the results can inform policy recommendations. Other quantitative or qualitative approaches that better correspond with the system dynamics perspective must be explored.

A computational model of the competitive effects of ESG

Environmental and social initiatives within firms, commonly grouped under the ESG term, have attracted significant business interest. However, the mechanism that links ESG investment to firm performance is unclear. We develop a computational model that helps clarify the competitive effects of ESG. In our model, ESG investment attracts consumers, but it can have additional effects on companies, such as reducing production costs, increasing product value, or both. Computational experiments show that ESG intensifies competition when it has such additional effects in addition to attracting consumers. However, ESG can lead to a winner-take-all dynamic in which a firm with an initial advantage dominates the market. Moreover, firms can use strategic disclosure of information to reduce their ESG investments, softening competition. This research contributes to the ESG literature by explaining the strategic impact of firms' ESG investments and the conditions under which firms can do well by doing good in a competitive setting.

The Implications of Socially Responsible Retailing Platform on Channel Structure Choice and Product Quality Decisions

At present, corporate social responsibility has been widely mentioned by the international society, especially platform enterprises. For a platform that assumes social responsibilities, consumer surplus is a rather critical aspect, and product quality is one of the most important factors directly related to consumers. This paper studies a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailing platform, in which the retailing platform procures products from the manufacturer. The manufacturer produces the products and decides the product quality. We consider two channel structures of the manufacturer and the retailing platform in the reseller mode and marketplace mode. Based on the model analysis and discussions, we obtain some managerial insights that are helpful in commercial practice. For the retailing platform, it has to suffer a loss in economic profit to care more about consumer surplus and become a social responsibility platform. In addition, its social responsibility plays different roles in different channel structures. In the marketplace mode, a social responsibility retailing platform helps to improve product quality. In the reseller mode, the retailing platform’s social responsibility does not make a change in product quality. Furthermore, the product quality in the reseller mode is always higher than that in the marketplace mode. From the perspective of economic profits, the manufacturer obtains higher profits in the reseller mode than the marketplace mode. The retailing platform obtains higher profits in the marketplace mode than the reseller mode.