Unwind the clock? Temporal distance and user interactions on a digital platform

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Koo, Wesley W.; Zhang, Miaomiao; Choudhury, Prithwiraj
• 署名单位: Johns Hopkins University; Harvard University; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.70105
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: VALUE CREATION; performance; COMPETITION; networks; COMPLEMENTORS; integration; developers; ecosystems; patterns; strategy

摘要

Research Summary Digital platforms provide arenas for global knowledge diffusion, but their underlying architecture often relies on synchronous exchange, inadvertently siloing users into distinct time pockets based on time zones. Using proprietary data from StackOverflow, we implement a regression discontinuity design to causally estimate that a 1-h increase (decrease) in the temporal distance between two regions leads to a 13.6% decrease (9.5% increase) in views and a 20.9% decrease (21.0% increase) in votes between those regions. These temporal frictions disproportionately penalize interactions in niche knowledge communities (e.g., sudo, slack-api) over those in popular ones (e.g., Python, JavaScript). Importantly, we show that a platform can mitigate temporal barriers by shuffling content representation. This paper contributes to our understanding of platform strategy, temporal distance, and global knowledge diffusion.Managerial Summary While digital platforms deliver global connectivity, time zone differences create invisible barriers that stifle user interactions and knowledge exchange. Our research shows that temporal distance between regions on StackOverflow, a global knowledge community for computer programming, significantly reduces cross-region views and votes. These temporal silos disproportionately harm niche communities, where valuable content is less likely to be shared among users who are not online simultaneously. Popular communities, however, remain largely unaffected. For platform designers, relying solely on chronological feeds inadvertently fragments their global user base. To unlock cross-border exchange and support specialized communities, managers could adjust algorithms to shuffle content representation based on dynamic triggers rather than just the posting time. Doing so bridges temporal gaps and connects out-of-sync users.