Platforms’ Cross-Border Competition and Innovation Are Driven by Data Elements: A Two-Stage Evolutionary Game Analysis

Driven by data, the cross-border expansion of head platforms (HPs) leveraging their data advantages increasingly impacts small and medium-sized platforms (SMPs) and the market innovation ecosystem. This paper constructs a two-stage evolutionary game model to depict the competitive dynamics between HPs and SMPs from the perspective of platforms’ behaviors and strategies. This study finds that, in the core market, HPs’ expansion and SMPs’ retention depend on three factors: HPs’ expansion costs and their impact on data resources, SMPs’ operational costs and their impact on data resources, and the gap in the data value between the platforms. In related markets, under a competitive environment, HPs with a greater innovation influence tend to choose cross-border innovation, while resource-limited SMPs may opt for non-innovation. However, if SMPs have a greater innovation influence but face high costs, the game will not converge to a specific equilibrium. In a monopolistic environment, stable strategies are driven by the scale of innovation and the innovation influence of each platform. Except in cases of minor innovation with a strong innovation influence from SMPs or major innovation with a strong influence from HPs, SMPs’ innovation influence and innovation costs are decisive in the game.