Input control and its signalling effects for complementors' intention to join digital platforms
Authors: Adam, Martin; Croitor, Evgheni; Werner, Dominick; Benlian, Alexander; Wiener, Martin
Journal: Information Systems Journal (2023)
DOI: 10.1111/isj.12408
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Existing information systems (IS) research on platform control has largely focused on examining how input control (i.e., the mechanisms used to control platform access) affects complementors' intentions and behaviours <jats:italic>after</jats:italic> their decision to join a digital platform. Yet, our understanding of how input control is perceived <jats:italic>before</jats:italic> this decision and how such perceptions influence prospective complementors' intention to join a platform is still nascent. In this regard, our study views input control as a salient signal that shapes prospective complementors' expected benefits and costs (i.e., their performance and effort expectancy), and ultimately their decision to join a digital platform. Drawing on signalling theory and the antecedent‐benefit‐cost (ABC) framework, we conducted a randomized online experiment in the context of donation‐based crowdfunding. The experiment results offer empirical support for this view by showing that input control has distinct and complex signalling effects for prospective complementors. In particular, our findings reveal curvilinear and competing signalling eff…