Science AI Journal
Business, Management and Accounting · Research topic

Open research questions in Digital Platforms and Economics

139 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,930 Digital Platforms and Economics papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • While Enterprise Architecture (EA) and Big Data Lakehouse paradigms have been extensively explored in high-infrastructure environments, their architectural contextualization for high-latency, network-constrained emerging retail operations remains under-researched.

    Architecting Resilient Big Data Lakehouse Pipelines for Emerging Market Digital Retail: Mitigating Sizing Returns, Payment Drop-offs, and Logistics Volatility · 2026 · DOI

  • Claims remain limited by the small, non-probability sample and reliance on self-reported practices.

    Recipient Information and Horizontal Relational Trust in Platform-Mediated P2P Payments · 2026 · DOI

  • Purpose Although token economies have become a defining feature of many Web3 platforms, their ability to sustain participation over time remains uncertain.

    Trust and sustainability in Web3 token economies: a multi-level socio-technical perspective on complex digital systems · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite their growing influence, little is known about how DLGPs can manage their effectiveness or profitability.

    Digital lead generation platforms: Rightsizing the seller base · 2025 · DOI

  • One hopes that this article will help call attention to the videotex related consumer protection and public policy questions that remain to be answered.

    Home as an Electronic Marketplace: The Consumer Protection and Public Policy Issues · 1986 · DOI

  • What is currently lacking in policy toward consumer information in the US is leadership.

    LET THE IGNORANT CONSUMER BEWARE: CONSUMER INFORMATION AND EFFICIENCY OF CONSUMER DECISION MAKING IN THE USA · 1986 · DOI

  • Two other empirical tests of this notion, giving explicit focus to formalization, have provided mixed results.

    Output Sector Munificence Effects on the Internal Political Economy of Marketing Channels · 1987 · DOI

  • The challenge of rising concentration in product markets. The challenge of reducing the gap between large firms and SMEs. The challenge of promoting competition in the digital economy.

    Public data accessibility and the Matthew effect in corporate digital competition: evidence from China · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap between large firms and SMEs continues to widen as global economic growth slows. There is a lack of understanding of the impact of public data accessibility on the Matthew effect in corporate digital competition.

    Public data accessibility and the Matthew effect in corporate digital competition: evidence from China · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in understanding how network effects and multi-sided platform structures operate across distinct industry contexts. The gap matters because the conditions shaping platform economics vary considerably across sectors.

    How Digital Platforms Create and Capture Value: A Comparative Case Study of Spotify and Uber · 2026 · DOI

  • Information asymmetry between merchants and consumers. Incentive compatibility and the need to encode enforceable rules for behavioral stability. The challenge of identifying vulnerability dimensions that destabilize markets and distilling design principles that inform governance configuration.

    Architecting Micro-Market Resilience: A Signal–Belief–Decision Framework for E-Commerce Platforms · 2026 · DOI

  • The divide between diagnostic and engineering studies in e-commerce platform research. The lack of a middle-range theoretical architecture for proactive, consumer-centric design. The need to identify vulnerability dimensions that destabilize markets and distill design principles that inform governance configuration.

    Architecting Micro-Market Resilience: A Signal–Belief–Decision Framework for E-Commerce Platforms · 2026 · DOI

  • Ensuring the stability of the platform while allowing autonomy to prevent stifling innovation. Keeping reviews timely and aligned with current versions. Balancing the need for updates with the potential negative impact on demand.

    Updating at the expense of demand? The case of platform apps · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need to determine the effectiveness of cashless policy in improving business transactions in Nigeria. The study aims to investigate the relationship between cashless policy, electronic payment systems, and business transactions in the Nigerian business environment.

    The impact of cashless police on business transactions in Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

  • The study recommends that government and financial institutions should improve and expand electronic payment infrastructure to support effective implementation of cashless policy. Businesses and stakeholders should also promote the use of electronic payment platforms through awareness and improved access. In addition, regulatory bodies should ensure the security and stability of digital financial systems to build public confidence and encourage wider adoption.

    The impact of cashless police on business transactions in Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

  • The incorporation of digital tools is not always correlated with increased satisfaction. Little is known about how digital health insurance platforms affect overall policyholder retention and loyalty.

    IMPACT OF HEALTH INSURANCE PLATFORM ON POLICY HOLDER SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO COIMBATORE CITY · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper's argument remains theoretical and does not claim that AI directly creates social capital or performance.

    Expanding Social Capital with AI: Mitigating Digital Noise for Synergistic Cross-Functional Alignment in Global B2B Platform Ecosystems · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can test the proposed framework empirically. Future research can explore the application of AI in mitigating digital noise.

    Expanding Social Capital with AI: Mitigating Digital Noise for Synergistic Cross-Functional Alignment in Global B2B Platform Ecosystems · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of understanding of the impact of information sharing strategies on supply chain management in multi-platform e-commerce markets. The need for effective information sharing strategies that enhance decision-making efficiency and supply chain responsiveness.

    Information sharing strategies and the optimization of supply chain management in multi-platform e-commerce markets · 2026 · DOI

  • The conflict of interest between different stakeholders on digital platforms. The lack of transparency and accountability in the design and operation of recommender systems. The need for more nuanced and diverse content on digital platforms.

    The moral in the machine: Rentier mechanisms in content recommender system on digital platforms · 2026 · DOI

  • The application of the moral economy framework to other areas of digital platform research. The development of more nuanced and transparent recommender systems that prioritize user preferences. The study of the impact of regulatory interventions on the promotion of diverse and original content on digital platforms.

    The moral in the machine: Rentier mechanisms in content recommender system on digital platforms · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the literature on the effects of removing switching costs on competition. The US wireless industry is used as a case study to fill this gap.

    Reducing Switching Costs to Promote Competition: The Case of Mobile Number Portability · 2026 · DOI

  • Smith’s Framework: Natural vs. Monopoly Prices Adam Smith’s analysis in The Wealth of Nations provides a powerful lens for understanding how switching costs distort competitive outcomes. In Chapter VII of Book I, Smith distinguishes between a commodity’s “natural price”—determined by the ordinary rates of wages, profit, and rent in competitive markets—and its “market price,” which may deviate from this natural level due to temporary imbalances or artificial restrictions on competition. Most relevant for our analysis is Smith’s discussion of monopolistic barriers, which he argues allow firms to charge prices persistently above their natural levels. As Smith observes: “A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufactures. The monopolists, by keeping the market constantly under-stocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commodities much above the natural price.” Crucially, Smith emphasizes that such price distortions persist only when artificial barriers prevent the normal competitive process. He contrasts monopoly pricing with competitive pricing, noting that “The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the highest which can be got. The natural price, or the price of free competition, on the 4 h t t p s: / / m a i n i c h i. j p / e n g l i s h / a r t i c l e s / 2 0 1 9 0 6 1 0 / p 2 a / 0 0 m / 0 b u / 0 1 2 0 0 0 c. J. Chen et al.1 3 contrary, is the lowest which can be taken, not upon every occasion, indeed, but for any considerable time together.” 2.2 Switching Costs as Artificial Barriers to Competition Consumer switching costs represent a modern manifestation of the monopolistic barriers that Smith identified. Like the “exclusive privileges of corporations” and “statutes of apprenticeship” that Smith criticized, switching costs create artificial segmentation that prevents markets from operating according to competitive principles. In Smith’s framework, effective competition requires that consumers can readily shift their purchases toward suppliers that offer better value. When switching costs are high, this reallocation mechanism breaks down. Firms can exploit “locked-in” customers by charging prices above competitive levels, since the firms are secure in the knowledge that the cost of switching deters customer defection even when superior alternatives exist. This creates a parallel to Smith’s monopolists: Firms with captive customers can keep their local markets “constantly under-stocked” in the sense that they need not fully satisfy consumer demand for value, since high switching costs protect them from competitive pressure. The switching cost effectively grants each firm a degree of monopoly power over its existing customer base.

    Reducing Switching Costs to Promote Competition: The Case of Mobile Number Portability · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can explore the application of the study's findings to other industries and contexts. Further research can investigate the impact of other factors on the interaction between personalized pricing and big data analytics capability.

    Profiting from Selling at a Loss: Customer Big Data Analysis and Personalized Pricing in a Supply Chain · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the existing literature on the interaction between personalized pricing and big data analytics capability in supply chains. The gap is related to the lack of understanding of how manufacturers and online platforms strategically determine optimal pricing and big data investment.

    Profiting from Selling at a Loss: Customer Big Data Analysis and Personalized Pricing in a Supply Chain · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Digital Platforms and Economics

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Digital Platforms and Economics sub-topic

This page shows what the Digital Platforms and Economics literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, run the guided finder — it searches the gap library on demand and checks candidates against 250M+ OpenAlex works.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Business, Management and Accounting

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
1,548 open questions
Management and Organizational Studies
874 open questions
Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences
863 open questions
Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting
738 open questions
Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
736 open questions
Environmental Sustainability in Business
612 open questions
Management and Marketing Education
602 open questions
International Business and FDI
584 open questions
139 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,930 Digital Platforms and Economics papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 120,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? A Tier 1–5 acceptance probability in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck prior-publication & salami-slicing risk across 8 sources.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.