Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Big fish or big pond? Seller's dilemma in intermediary selection

2016; Academy of Management; Volume: 2016; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5465/ambpp.2016.10208abstract

2376-7197

Henning Piezunka, Riitta Katila, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,

Open Source Software Innovations

As is widely observed in many market settings, sellers collaborate with intermediaries to commercialize products and to reach buyers. Sellers typically prefer intermediaries that have great market access-that is, intermediaries that can reach many buyers. But sellers also prefer a high relative standing in an intermediary's portfolio, so that they (rather than other portfolio sellers) receive most of the intermediary's attention and resources. These two preferences often conflict: Intermediaries with great market access also tend to represent more and stronger sellers, making a high relative standing more difficult for a seller to achieve. Thus, sellers often need to choose either a high standing and few buyers (big fish, small pond) or a low standing and opportunity to reach many buyers (small fish, big pond). We term this the "big fish, big pond" dilemma. We examine how sellers resolve this dilemma through a study of intermediary selections of 377 video game developers and 175 video game publishers over a 10-year period. We find that the seller's choice tips towards many buyers when the seller has more experience, and towards a high relative standing when the competitive overlap with other sellers in the intermediary's portfolio is high. We contribute to the literatures on seller- intermediary collaboration, the nature of competition and cooperation, and broadly, network evolution including how the decisions of seemingly minor actors can influence this evolution.