Events

Prof. Sijia (Catherine) Ma
Assistant Professor
Department of Management
Tilburg University

We examine the effects of spatial agglomeration on the performance of home-sharing listings. Although spatial agglomeration has the potential to agglomerate demand for co-located listings, it may also intensify localized competition. As such, the impact of spatial agglomeration on listings’ performance is unclear regarding how such effects evolve dynamically with the sequential entry of peer listings on the platform. Leveraging a natural experiment design, we investigate the impact of spatial agglomeration on listing performance using a unique panel dataset from a leading home-sharing platform in China. We find the peer listing entry in spatial agglomeration initially increases the focal listing’s demand, but it also intensifies localized competition over time, leading to an overall negative effect on listing performance. We further investigate the potential mechanisms of the spatial agglomeration impact. Specifically, variations in regional economic development explain the agglomeration demand effect, whereas comparative listing characteristics, particularly geographic distance and listing quality, drive the localized competition effect. This study contributes to both agglomeration economics and the sharing economy literature by unpacking the temporal dynamics of the impact of spatial agglomeration on home-sharing platforms. It also has practical implications for listing operations and platform management.