How and When High-Status Complementors Attract Attention: Evidence from a Meta-Platform
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2025
Author(s)
Abstract
Hypercompetitive platform markets confound the distinction between low- and high-quality complements, moving price comparisons to the center of user attention and high-quality complements risking displacement. We examine the extent to which the targeted featuring of high-status complementors’ distinguishing quality attributes facilitates attention anchoring on high-quality offerings. Analyzing a unique panel data set from a leading meta-platform displaying fashion products, we find empirical support for a penalizing effect of high-price complements in grabbing user attention, an attention-grabbing effect for complements of high-status complementors, and an attention-shifting effect from price to quality for those high-status complementors facilitating a price-quality comparison. We even quantify the attention-shifting effect with premium-featured complementors attenuating the negative baseline effect between complement price and complement attention while luxury-featured complementors amplify it. We contribute to platform and strategic management research at the nexus of complementor heterogeneities, governance, and coopetition.
Keywords
platform ecosystem
inter-platform ecosystem
competition for attention
complementor heterogeneity
platform governance
featuring
coopetition
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Event Title
85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM)
Event Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Event Date
25-29 July, 2025
Subject(s)
Contact Email Address
dora.maric@unisg.ch
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