Moderating Effects of Online Platform Business Ecosystems between Customer Participation and Psychological Ownership: A Comparison of Kakao and Facebook Ecosystems
Purpose The business ecosystem perspective offers a new lens in which to view customers. Customers as the member of business ecosystems influence firms by participating in both the firm level activities and the business ecosystem level activities. For example, customers participate in the business ecosystems by forming interest groups, allowing their voice to be heard the within business ecosystems. Customers can also, turn public opinion around and foster the business ecosystems favorable to firms. On the other hand, as an extreme case of customer participation, customers can engage in community activities to boycott the purchase of products or services from certain firms or business ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach This study views content creation and feedback activities as customer participation in the firm level. On the other hand, word of mouth (WOM) and boycott activities are considered as customer participation in the business ecosystem level. This study presents a research model regarding the relationships among customer socialization, customer participation, and psychological ownership. The proposed model is validated through an empirical analysis on online platform business ecosystems. Findings When the two business ecosystems are compared, different results were drawn. In the Facebook ecosystem, boycott and psychological ownership did not have a significant relationship. However, in the Kakao ecosystem, the two had a significant positive relationship. The mediating effect of the business ecosystem type sheds a light on the mission, purpose, vision, and other values associated with the theory of the business on the customer firm relationship. Further implications for theory and practice were discussed in this study.