Facilitating platform social responsibility development by understanding platform–complementor mutualism complexity: A tension perspective

Many digital platforms emphasize how they leverage algorithm management to help small businesses improve economic efficiency, thereby fostering platform social responsibility. However, a pressing societal concern relates to small businesses’ vulnerability under algorithm management, creating a tension between algorithm management–driven economic efficiency and the distrust that small businesses develop toward platforms. Despite this, there is limited understanding of how this tension manifests and how platforms address it. Drawing on an exploratory approach, we collected data from various sources, including two focus groups, 64 semi–structured interviews, and archival data. We first identify three tensions: algorithmic rewarding-based economic efficiency vs. perception of constrained benevolence, algorithmic recommending-based economic efficiency vs. decreased perception of integrity, and comprehensive information sharing-based economic efficiency vs. decreased perception of competence. We then explore how the platform adopts a loose coupling strategy to manage these multifaceted tensions and foster platform conscientiousness and warmth for social responsibility development. Specifically, coupling approaches facilitate mutual communication, understanding, and resource commitments, while looseness creates space for small businesses to create value in ways that may diverge from platform owners’ core value proposition paths. Consequently, we propose a research model of platform social responsibility. Our study contributes to the literature on platform social responsibility and platform–complementor relationship management. Practical implications for developing platform social responsibility and mutualistic platform–small business relationships are also provided.