{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,1]],"date-time":"2026-03-01T05:42:24Z","timestamp":1772343744006,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,31]],"date-time":"2025-12-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767139200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["72072125"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["72072125"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JTAER"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Exemplified by EcoStruxure from Schneider and CASICloud, production-capacity-sharing platforms typically operate as two-sided platforms. These platforms contribute to carbon emission reductions while generating revenue through uniform membership fees, fixed service charges, or commission fees applied to one or both sides of the platform. As B2B platforms, however, they must determine whether to offer online payment options to participants on both sides of the market. We employ the theory of two-sided markets and the method of comparative analysis, developing a two-sided market model to investigate: (1) the platform\u2019s optimal payment method selection strategies and (2) how same-side network externalities and user online search costs affect platform performance. We examine two payment modes: M mode (offline payments only) and F mode (combined offline\/online payments). The F mode comprises two sub-modes\u2014FF (two-sided users choose to pay offline) and FN (two-sided users choose to pay online)\u2014determined by users\u2019 payment preferences on each side. We conduct pairwise comparisons of the platform\u2019s membership fee, fixed service fee, and online service level between: (i) FF and M modes and (ii) FN and M modes. Our results indicate that the optimal payment method selection varies across market conditions, with each mode demonstrating superior performance under specific market characteristics. The FF mode consistently yields higher profits compared to the M mode. When suppliers\u2019 expected revenues fall below a certain threshold, the FN mode outperforms the M mode in terms of profit generation. Conversely, the M mode becomes preferable above this threshold. Furthermore, the effects of same-side network externalities and search costs vary significantly across different payment modes. Under the M mode and the FF1 mode, the effects of the same-side network externality on the platform\u2019s membership fee are associated with two-sided users\u2019 online search costs, which are more monotonous. Under the FN1 and FN2 modes, both the same-side network externality and two-sided users\u2019 online search costs impact the platform\u2019s optimal strategies monotonously, but they are not always the same in these two modes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jtaer21010005","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,31]],"date-time":"2025-12-31T16:08:00Z","timestamp":1767197280000},"page":"5","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Payment Method Strategy Selection for Production-Capacity-Sharing Platform: Whether to Provide Online Payment Methods for Two-Sided Users"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Daozhi","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Weijin Road No. 92, Tianjin 300072, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-4176-160X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shuang","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Weijin Road No. 92, Tianjin 300072, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ziwei","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business Administration, Henan University of Economics and Law, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiaqin","family":"Hao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Mathematics and Statistics, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, T., Leng, J., Zhu, S., and Fu, R. 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