When Design Shapes Access: Making Digital Marketplaces More Inclusive

Dhruven Zalai

doi:10.59571/mpi.v4i1.5

Article

When Design Shapes Access: Making Digital Marketplaces More Inclusive

VIEWS 6
PDF 3

Management Practice Insights

DOI: 10.59571/mpi.v4i1.5

Year: 2026, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-33

Original Article

When Design Shapes Access: Making Digital Marketplaces More Inclusive

Dhruven Zala^i*

ⁱS.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Received Date:14 September 2025, Accepted Date:19 March 2026, Published Date:31 March 2026

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Digital marketplaces have become crucial for micro entrepreneurs, providing them with access to customers and enabling business expansion. Yet benefits are uneven: minority or disadvantaged sellers often receive fewer orders or rank lower in search results, even when their quality matches or exceeds others. A recent study by Alyakoob and Rahman highlights these discriminations on digital platforms, focusing on the case of Black-origin hosts on Airbnb.¹ Their findings reveal how platform design choices, such as certification, can help mitigate discrimination. Extending their insights, this article examines why such disparities occur and persist. It outlines design solutions – certification systems, algorithmic adjustments, and capacity building initiatives – that leaders shaping the design, governance and growth of digital marketplace can use to build a more inclusive platform.

References

1 Mohammed Alyakoob and Mohammad Rahman, ‘Market Design Choices, Racial Discrimination, and Equitable Microentrepreneurship in Digital Marketplaces’, Management Science 72, no. 3 (2025): 1878–903, https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01717.

2 Michael Luca et al., ‘The Evolution of Discrimination in Online Markets: How the Rise in Anti-Asian Bias Affected Airbnb During the Pandemic’, Marketing Science 45, no. 1 (2024): 108–22, https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.0112.

3 Mayya, R., Ye, S., Viswanathan, S., & Agarwal, R. (2021). Who Forgoes Screening in Online Markets and Why? Evidence from Airbnb1. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 45(4), 1745–1776. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2021/15335

4 Dewan, S., Kim, J., & Nian, T. (2023). Economic Impacts of Platform-Endorsed Quality Certification: Evidence from Airbnb1. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 47(3), 1353–1368. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2022/16958

5 Suneera Tandon, ‘Online Marketplaces Influence 73% of Purchases: Deloitte-Ficci Report’, Industry, Mint, 20 August 2025, https://www.livemint.com/companies/digital-shopping-trendsindia-online-marketplaces-report-deloitte-ficci-indiaecommerce-11755686160657.html.

6 Luca et al., ‘The Evolution of Discrimination in Online Markets’.

7 Airbnb, ‘Airbnb Plus Overview’, 2018, https://news.airbnb.com/wpcontent/uploads/sites/4/2018/02/Airbnb-Plus-Overview--ENGLISH.pdf.

8 Mickey Toogood, ‘Amazon FBA vs FBM: Which Is Right for You?’, Amazon Selling Partner Blog, 18 October 2024, https://sell.amazon.com/blog/fba-vs-fbm.

9 Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, Annual Report 2023-24 (2024), https://msme.gov.in/sites/default/files/FINALMSMEANNUALRE PORT2023-24ENGLISH.pdf.

10 The UCI Paul Merage School of Business, Airbnb Plus Boosts Bookings and Earnings, Study Finds, 21 February 2023, https://merage.uci.edu/news/2023/02/Airbnb-Plus-BoostsBookings-and-Earnings%2C-Study-Finds.html.

11 Huizhong Guo et al., ‘FairRec: Fairness Testing for Deep Recommender Systems’, arXiv:2304.07030, preprint, arXiv, 14 April 2023, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.07030.

12 Nima Kordzadeha and Maryam Ghasemaghaei, ‘Algorithmic Bias: Review, Synthesis, and Future Research Directions’, European Journal of Information Systems 31, no. 3 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2021.1927212.

13 Catherine Tucker and Juanjuan Zhang, ‘How Does Popularity Information Affect Choices? A Field Experiment’, Management Science 57, no. 5 (2011), https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1110.1312.

14 Ata Jameei Osgouei et al., ‘Estimating Position and Social Influence Effects in Online Search’, Marketing Science 45, no. 1 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.0392.

15 Minsu Park et al., ‘Fighting Bias with Bias: How Same-Race Endorsements Reduce Racial Discrimination on Airbnb’, Science Advances 9, no. 6 (2023): eadd2315, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2315.

16 Benjamin Edelman and Michael Luca, ‘Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com’, Working Paper, no. No. 14-054 (January 2014), https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=46073.

17 ‘Airbnb Revenue and Usage Statistics’, Business of Apps, 2026, https://www.businessofapps.com/data/airbnb-statistics/.

18 Dave Clark, ‘Amazon Commits $150 Million to Empower Black-Owned Businesses’, Amazon News, 15 June 2021, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/small-business/amazoncommits-150-million-to-empower-black-entrepreneurs.

19 SIDBI, Understanding Indian MSME Sector: Progress and Challenges (2025), https://www.sidbi.in/uploads/Understanding_Indian_MSME_sector_Progress_and_Challenges_13_05_25_Final.pdf.

20 Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, Annual Report 2023-24.

21 ‘Small Businesses Share Their Experience with Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator’, Amazon News, 22 August 2022, https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/small-business/smallbusinesses-share-their-experience-with-amazons-blackbusiness-accelerator.

22 Fairwork, Fairwork India Ratings 2024: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy (Bangalore, India; Oxford, United Kingdom, 2024), https://fair.work/wpcontent/uploads/sites/17/2024/10/Fairwork_India_Report_2024.pdf

23 Di Jin et al., ‘A Survey on Fairness-Aware Recommender Systems’, Information Fusion 100 (December 2023), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2023.101906.