Digital Platform Participation, Value Co-Creation, and SME Performance: Evidence from the Travel Agency Sector

Digital platforms offer cost-effective, accessible tools for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the mechanisms through which resource-constrained SMEs should participate in these platforms remain underexplored. By distinguishing participation breadth from participation depth and introducing value co-creation and external resource abundance as the mediating mechanism and boundary condition, respectively, this study offers an integrated account of how digital platform participation (DPP) relates to SME performance. Drawing on the theory of resource bricolage, this study conducted an online survey of 321 owners or managers, using small and medium-sized travel agencies in China as the empirical setting. This study develops an integrated mediation and moderation model and tests the hypotheses using confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression, and bootstrapping analysis. The results show that both breadth and depth are positively associated with performance, with depth showing a significantly stronger association than breadth. Participation that combines transaction-oriented platforms with information-oriented platforms is associated with the largest performance gains. Value co-creation mediates the effect of depth on performance, whereas the mediation via breadth is not significant. External resource abundance weakens the performance returns to DPP. These findings inform resource-constrained SMEs’ platform strategies, particularly how to allocate scarce attention and resources between deepening and broadening participation and how to configure platform portfolios in relation to performance outcomes.