Online Healthcare Platform Evolution: the Interplay of Bargaining and Network Effects
17 Nov 2023
11:30 -13:00
Times are shown in local time.
Open to: All
Castle Teaching Room (Cambridge Judge Business School)
Trumpington St
Cambridge
CB2 1AG
United Kingdom
Join our Marketing seminar
Speaker: Assistant Professor Xu Zhang, London Business School
About the seminar topic
Healthcare comprises a significant and growing proportion of most nations’ GDP. Online healthcare platforms, enabled by their ability to scale quickly, have emerged as a powerful model to increase efficiency and healthcare access. The speed of scaling depends on network effects, especially cross-network effects, across healthcare providers and consumers on the platform. These platforms typically use bargaining processes to induce healthcare providers to join in order to leverage their bigger cross-network effects. We develop a novel modelling approach that combines the estimation of heterogeneous cross-network effects and bargaining outcomes to examine the evolution of such platforms.
We apply our model to data from a major Chinese online healthcare platform that links hospitals and consumers for preventive health check-ups. Our results show that hospitals that provide a stronger (weaker) inducement to consumers to join the platform, i.e., exhibit higher (lower) cross-network effects, extract more (less) economic value from the platform. Additionally, we pinpoint the sources of bargaining power for both hospitals and the platform. Through a series of policy simulations, we provide insights for the platform in terms of managing its resource allocation across hospitals and markets to fulfil its objectives (growth and/or profitability). Consumers on the platform also see a monetary benefit equivalent to two hours of minimum wages.
Speaker bio
Xu Zhang is a marketing expert who specialises in developing effective marketing strategies for digital platform markets. She possesses extensive expertise in analysing how information design and pricing can impact market efficiency, business profits and consumer welfare. With a global reach, she collaborates with companies across various industries, including healthcare, freelance, e-commerce, and online travel. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science. She serves on the editorial board of Marketing Science.
Xu is currently teaching digital marketing courses within the Executive MBA, MBA, and other masters programmes at LBS. She has previously taught Empirical Marketing Models and Marketing core at LBS, and Applied Microeconomics at the University of Michigan. Her teaching skills were recognised by Poets & Quants as one of the Best 40-Under-40 MBA professors in 2023 and being a runner-up for LBS’s Best Teacher Award in MiM 2021. Additionally, Xu has been interviewed by leading media outlets such as BBC and the Economist.
Xu holds a PhD degree in Business Economics from the University of Michigan, an MS in Economics from UC Davis, a BS in Engineering from Tsinghua University, and dual BA in Economics from Peking University.
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