Sustainability, Vol. 15, Pages 5313: When Do You Enter? Entrepreneurial Firms’ Entry Timing and Product Performance in the Digital Platform Market

Sustainability, Vol. 15, Pages 5313: When Do You Enter? Entrepreneurial Firms’ Entry Timing and Product Performance in the Digital Platform Market

Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su15065313

Authors: Xuelin Chen Dongmei Zhou Ziying Zhan Ruoyu Lu

The digital platform market has evolved into a critical location for firms to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship. However, there is no clear answer to the question of when entrepreneurial firms should enter the digital platform market in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. A balanced panel and an individual fixed effect model were built using monthly product data from game developers on the Steam platform. Furthermore, in accordance with first-mover advantage theory, this study empirically investigated the impact of entry timing on product performance of entrepreneurial firms in the digital platform market, as well as the moderating effect of product updates. The results show that the impact of entrepreneurial firms’ entry timing on product performance in the digital platform market has a U-shaped relationship, which is moderated by product updates. These findings not only have implications for entrepreneurs looking to compete in the digital platform market, but also contribute to the sustainable development of the digital platform ecosystem.